Holbrook, William George (Oral history)

British private served with 4th Bn Royal Fusiliers in GB, on Western Front and in Germany, 1909-1919

REEL 1: Recollections of background in Hornchurch,1892-1911: family circumstances; education; dispersal of family on death of father, 1902; period living with uncle; parish relief; work on farm, as greengrocer's delivery boy and as household servant. Background to recruitment underage with Royal Fusiliers at Recruiting Office in East Ham, 9/1908: influence of stories of old regular; interview with recruiting sergeant; medical; mother's reaction; question of status of army. Recollections of Special Reserve training with 6th Bn Royal Fusiliers at Hounslow Heath Camp, 9/1908-2/1909: hut accommodation; kitting out and uniform; cleaning white canvas uniforms to supplement pay; rush of soldiers at mealtimes and food rations; story of guard duty during Jack Johnson boxing match; arrest of recruit for robbery; story of drunken recruits fighting. REEL 2 Continues: relationship with recruits including question of drinking habits, innocence over sex and swearing; passing educational certificates; story of stealing food from kitchen on guard duty; story of refusing legacy from grandfather; status of Special Reserve; training including bayonet and cross country running; lack of personal possessions on recruitment; relationship with NCOs; story of being caught avoiding fatigue; varied ages of Special Reserve; pay parade; sporting activities and recreations; contact with Lieutenant A P Birchall and his subsequent service with Canadian Expeditionary Force; relationship with sergeant major; reactions to army lifestyle; problem with lack of means of support on ending Special Reserve service prior to becoming regular and story of stealing from café. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine with Royal Fusiliers Depot, Hounslow Barracks, 2/1909-8/1909: duties as mess orderly including emptying urine tub and cleaning barrack room. REEL 3 Continues: duties as mess orderly including coal fatigue and flushing of latrines supervised by NCO; food rations; story of ruse to steal sergeant major's tea; uniforms; organisation of unit; stories of kit inspections and 'borrowing kit'; shaving; gymnastics; rifle proficiency pay and rapid fire practice; route marches; case of desertion; church parade. Recollections of period with F Coy, 4th Bn Royal Fusiliers in Ireland, 1909: journey out with draft to Mullingar Barracks; relationship with Irish civilians, practical jokes on NCO; barrack fire and casualties. REEL 4 Continues: story of clock damaged by cricket ball; movements. Periods at Aldershot and Parkhurst Barracks, 1909-1914: stories of assisting Colonel Samuel Cody in his flying activities on Laffins Plain; leave including financial help provided to mother and close nature of local community; obstacle course team; duties and daily routine on appointment as officer's servant to Colonel McMahon including caring for colonel's VIP guests, story of ruse to get new bearskin; burst pipes in house, story of visit by veteran officer from Boer War and nature of relationship with McMahon; leave; duties guarding collieries during coal strikes in Leigh and Lichfield. REEL 5 Continues: ticket collecting during rail strike at Liverpool Street Station, London; relationship with strikers; movements during coal strike in Lancashire; role lining streets during parades and privileges as London unit; question of boredom; stocking hats worn on fatigues; stories of various ruses and practical jokes; move to Parkhurst Barracks, Newport, 1912; classification as rifle marksman and consequent proficiency pay; relationship with McMahon; nature of annual manoeuvres; reading in library; question of relationship with older soldiers; pride in London origins and history of regiment; contacts with Quartermaster Sergeant Gee and story of meeting him after his commission, 1916. REEL 6 Continues: contacts with Captain Robert Gee, circumstances of his Victoria Cross award and his subsequent career; stories of waiting in officers' mess; story of stealing McMahon's whisky; deposit arrangements for personal kit during war; extraction of teeth; story of breaking teeth in accident during war and absence of dental treatment until demobilisation; question of homosexuality in army; story of 'cork club'. Mobilisation on outbreak of war, 4/8/1914: story of reading official notice of British naval plans; preconceptions of war; overcoming initial medical diagnosis as unfit for active services; call up and assimilation of reservists; change in company organisation and posting to C Coy; officers; question of age of reservists; deposit arrangements for personal kit; issue of active service kit including iron rations, jack-knife, medical field dressing and advice booklet. REEL 7 Journey from Cowes to Mons, France, 14/89/1914: impact of 'John Bull' advertising hoarding; landing at Le Havre; composition of 9th Bde; leading march into Mons; reception from French civilians. Recollections of Battle of Mons, 23/8/1914: acting as runner to Major Barnes Smith; taking up positions on canal bank at Nimy; first signs of German approach, 22/8/1914; casualties and amongst machine gun team on bridge and actions of Lieutenant M J Dease and Private S F Godley for which they were awarded VCs; presence of Belgian children; opinion of Godley and Dease; stories of pre-war kit inspection by Bounds Smith; view of German mass attacks in waves; personal morale; taking messages back to battalion headquarters; discovery of retirement of unit and view of German troops crossing canal bridge; separation from unit and retreat through Mons; situation; rapid rate of rifle fire. Recollections of retreat to Le Cateau sector, 23/8/1914-26/8/1914: formation of party of stragglers under officer; problems with French refugees; story of repulsing attack by party of Uhlans; increasing size of party with soldiers who had fallen out of march; officer's use of toy drum to raise morale. REEL 8 Continues: view of burning villages; rejoining unit. Aspects of retreat to River Marne, 26/8/1914-3/9/1914: problems with food supply; scavenging for food; shallow trenches dug by French civilians; German attack on positions in churchyard; march through forest; fatigue; nature of German attacks; unit morale; story of assisting French parson in burying church silver; absence of looting; crossing Marne; view of failed German cavalry attack on 1st Bn Lincolnshire Regt; German retreat. Advance to Aisne River, 3/9/1914-12/9/1914: German shellfire; story of looting 'wine' from abandoned lorry; burning of German corpses by French farmers. Recollections of operations in Aisne area, 13/9/1914-28/9/1914: difficulty in crossing plank bridge across Aisne at Vailly, 13/9/1914; approach to German defensive positions on Chemin des Dames; digging shallow trenches; German attack preceded by bugle; German shellfire; failed attacks; nature of shrapnel shell fire. REEL 9 Continues: casualties from German shell fire; warning from aerial reconnaissance of imminent German attack; role as McMahon's servant including view of lenient treatment by McMahon of deserter and preparing meal; state of morale; relief by French troops. Move to Ypres area, 10/1914-11/1914: strategic situation; route on night march from Aisne area and clash with German troops in Bethune area; story of destruction of Laventie church by German shell; speech from Field Marshall Sir John French at Bailleul; opinion of French and General Horace Smith-Dorrien; reports of conditions at Ypres; state of unit. Recollections of initial period at Gheluvelt, Ypres area, 10-11/11/1914: taking up defensive positions on Menin Road; food rations and story of using snow to make coffee for McMahon and Major General Hubert Hamilton; scavenging for food; arrival of inexperienced reinforcements draft; Account of German night attack and aftermath in Gheluvelt sector, 11-13/11/1914: problems caused by limited field of fire; falling back; retreat of French Zouave troops; reactions to death of McMahon; scale of casualties; isolated situation and taking cover in bushes; German shellfire. REEL 10 Continues: story of giving medical treatment to British and German wounded soldiers; rejoining remnants of unit out of line, 13/11/1914. Recollections of period in Ypres area, 11/1914: story of being soaked by rum; billet; fatal accidental shooting; problems in guiding supply transport in winter weather conditions; state of new recruit. Rest period at Westoutre, 11/1914: reception from Canadian troops; parcels and letter contact with GB; arrival of reinforcement draft; appointment as company runner with Captain Pippen; state of morale. Period at Neuve Eglise, Bethune area, 11-12/11/1914: story of front line inspection by colonel; role as company runner; officer's unsympathetic attitude to malingerers reporting sick; nature of trenches; scavenging from local houses; story of using brazier. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine mainly in Ypres area, 1914-1916: nature of trenches; role as runner and route from Kemmel up to front line in Mont Kemmel sector. REEL 11 Continues: catching pigeons for officer to eat and story of falling in shell hole; discovering French corpses in dugout; nature of trenches; question of dugouts and sleeping arrangements; effects of cold and wet conditions; tours of duty; latrines; rat problem; acclimatisation to conditions; lice problem; state of health and officer's unsympathetic attitude to malingerers reporting sick; ration parties; food rations, water supply and rum ration; story of melting snow for tea; story of being caught in open by German star shell whilst on ration party. REEL 12 Continues: story of being caught in open by German star shell whilst on ration party; introduction of communication trenches, 1915; ration parties; question of dugouts and sleeping arrangements; stand to; repairing trenches; letter contacts with GB; conversational topics; sentry duty; night patrols in Man's Land and story of court martial of soldier for losing rifle with subsequent unpopularity of officer responsible; sentry duty; repairing trenches; wiring and covering parties; story of giving medical treatment to wounded soldier and subsequent meeting with his family; trench raid and capture of German prisoner. REEL 13 Continues: trench raids and capture of German prisoner; story of ruse using wooden dummies to ambush German patrol; listening posts; German shellfire; story of close escape from German shell and subsequent clearing of corpses, 5/1916; story of rescuing wounded officer during attack and wristwatch reward; types of German shell; German small arms fire; sniping activities including question of German use of 'dum dum' bullets and use of sniping plates in firing at German snipers; cases of loss of nerve and shell shock; story of soldier evacuated in error as wounded when hit by stone, his subsequent training as officer, role in arrest of German spy and self inflicted wound on being returned to unit, 1916. REEL 14 Continues: story of repeated desertion of Private Robert's and view of his execution by firing squad at Renninghelst, ca 1916; question of desertions; question of 'Blighty wounds'; personal morale; opinion of officers; story of fight with regular over bullying of conscript, 1917; special friends; opinion of NCOs and officers and question of their superior conditions of service; status as 'old soldier' and reasons for rejection of promotion; absence of Christmas truce or celebrations, 25/12/1914; opinion of German troops including reaction to British propaganda and story of shooting of German soldiers attempting to surrender; lack of training and inaccurate rifle shooting of new drafts. REEL 15 Continues: rest periods at West Hoose including tours of duty, Belgian girlfriend, food rations and visits to estaminets; periods in support and reserve trenches including ration and working parties; movements in Ypres area; presence of French Colonial troops; nature of trenches and use of duckboards; story illustrating effects of minenwerfer fire; Stokes mortar fire and German retaliatory shell fire; corpses; story of difficulty in evacuating soldier with frost bitten feet from Hooge Crater sector; rat problem in rest billets. REEL 16 Continues: reactions to issue of steel helmets, 1916; opinion of sheepskin coats and leather jerkins; introduction of hand grenades; story of meeting Edmund Ashton and illustrations of his physical strength; hand grenade accidents in trenches; German hand grenades; throwing tins of urine into German lines; width of No Man's Land; question of latrines and use of polluted water from shell holes; dugouts and sleeping arrangements; issue of groundsheets; aspects of German cloud gas attack, 22/4/1918, including reserve role, signs of gas and contact with Colonel A P Birchall and of Canadian Expeditionary Force; introduction of German pillboxes; stories of officers; introduction and testing of gas masks; wet conditions and use of sandbags; relieving troops; story of breaking teeth in accident and lack of dental treatment. REEL 17 Continues: involvement in minor attacks, 11/1915; graze head wound and story of giving medical treatment given to soldier's shoulder wound during German trench raids. Recollections of operations in Somme area, 7/1916-10/1916: prior practice attacks on model of battlefield; story of French paper boy; move into reserve lines; preliminary bombardment; personal morale; successful attack on Bazentin-le-Grand, 14/7/1916; fear of being blinded; shell shock cases; move to Delville Wood, 22/7/1916, including role acting as runner to Captain Sparks, prior briefing of situation, casualties from German machine gun and shell fire after accidental firing of Verey lights; nature of front line; making cocoa; death of Sparks; German shellfire, German counter-attacks; story of going on water party back to Longueval well; story of acting as runner taking message to Carnoy Valley. REEL 18 Continues: story of discovery of mass of British corpses whilst acting as runner taking message to Carnoy Valley; move to hold line in High Wood sector; view of failed attempt to use cavalry; move to Ancre sector, 10/1917; story of getting extra food from cooks; story of close escape from German rifle and German sniper fire; casualties, consequent reinforcements and question of unit morale. Various aspects of service on Western Front, 1916-1918: movements; capture of Havrincourt church; muddy conditions during operations in Ypres area, 1917; attack and German counter-attack at Cambrai, 11/1917; German machine gun posts; opinion of tanks; use of prefabricated bridge to cross canal; story of soldier rescuing wounded caught in German barbed wire during operations at Arras, 4/1917; personal morale; story of close escape from German shell and subsequent clearing of corpses at Sanctuary Wood, 5/1916; personal morale, 1918; story of attack on Solesmes, 1918; reaction to open warfare conditions. REEL 19 Continues: story of story of shooting of German soldiers attempting to surrender; story of calming soldier who had lost his nerve; question of giving advice to inexperienced soldiers; treatment and condition of German POWs; British propaganda leaflets dropped behind German lines; news of Armistice Day at Maubeuge, 11/11/1918. Recollections of period in Cologne area, Germany, 11/1918-2/1919: background to decision to leave army; prior celebration lunch for veterans of Battle of Mons at Mons, 11/1918; duties as officers' mess caterer and consequent contacts with German civilian contractors; billets and stories illustrating relationship with German civilians; story of success in winning race during British Army on Rhine sports day; journey back to GB, 2/1919. REEL 20 Continues: Demobilisation and issue of civilian clothing , 2/1919. Post-war career: work unloading barges as dockyard worker and in various factory jobs; purchase of newsagent business; question of effects of war service; enduring pride in unit.