Collins, William John (Oral history)

British NCO served as stretcher bearer with Royal Army Medical Corps attached to 7th Bde, Royal Horse Artillery in GB and on Western Front, 1913-1915; served with No 1 Cavalry Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, attached to 1st Cavalry Bde on Western Front and in Germany, 1915-1919; served aboard HMT Kursk during voyage to Novorossisk, 1919-1920; served with 37th Casualty Clearing Station, Royal Army Medical Corps in Germany and Poland, 1919-1920. Civilian business manager of Gaumont British Screen Services, 1939-1945. Wounded during German bombing raid on Croydon, 25/3/1944

REEL 1 Background in Croydon, Surrey, 1894-1913: family circumstances; education; work in grocery store, 1906-1909; work as gardener, 1909-1913. Recruitment as stretcher bearer with Royal Army Medical Corps at Mitcham Road Barracks, Croydon, 1/10/1913: reasons; prior experience in Church Lads Bde; enlistment procedure. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine with A Coy, Royal Army Medical Corps Base Depot, McGriggor Barracks, Aldershot, 10/1913-4/1914: issue of uniforms; basic drill; route marches; rifle training; medical classes and success in test with simulated casualty. REEL 2 Continues: kit inspections; food rations; canteen facilities; studying for education certificates; pay; relationship with other ranks, NCO instructors and officers; leave; family's reaction to enlistment; pride in status of Royal Army Medical Corps; question of contact with local civilians. Posting to Royal Army Medical Corps Base Depot Police at Aldershot, 4/1914-8/1914: reasons; passing as corporal, 8/1914; duties including controlling Saturday night drunks. REEL 3 Continues: reactions to precautionary mobilisation to Farnham Common in response to Irish situation, 7/1914. Mobilisation as medical orderly on outbreak of war attached to 7th Bde Royal Horse Artillery at Aldershot, 4/8/1914: ignorance of approach of war; prior issue of mobilisation orders; reception; officers. Recollections of journey to Mons, Belgium, 8/1914: departure from Aldershot, 15/8/1914; medical supplies carried in Maltese cart including use of iodine and morphine; effects of typhoid inoculation; Channel crossing; reception from French civilians at Boulogne, France, 17/8/1914; period at St Martin's Camp; move into Belgium and signs of preliminary cavalry actions. Aspects of Battle of Mons, 23/8/1914-24/8/1914: near contact with German troops in woods; first shrapnel shell. Retreat from Mons, 24/8/1914-4/9/1914: travelling with ammunition column; near clash with German cavalry in Caudry sector; supplying ammunition to cavalry. REEL 4 Continues: exhausted troops at St Quentin; hot weather; exhausted state of infantry and giving lifts; care of horses; absence of panic; Belgian refugees; contact with possible German spy; ration dumps; route taken; separation from batteries and question of their medical provision; end of retreat at Coulommiers, 4/9/1914; exhaustion; view of 'L' Bty following action at Nery; belief retreat was ruse; view of Field Marshal French; opinion of 'Angel of Mons'; question of German atrocities illustrated by rape case. Advance to Aisne, 9/1914: French interpreter and learning French; supplies. REEL 5 Continues: Period in Pont Arcy sector on River Aisne, 9/1914-10/1914: situation; German shelling; accidental shooting of gunner by sentry; story of meeting General Allenby; early anti-aircraft gun; story of German spy; move to Ypres area. Period behind lines with ammunition column in Messines sector, 10/1914-11/1914: arrival of territorial and Indian units; reaction to treating casualties; situation; background to attachment to 'I' Bty, 7th Bde Royal Horse Artillery, 11/1914. Period in Mont Kemmel sector, 11/1914-12/1914: shortage of ammunition; gun positions and observation post at windmill; role and promotion to corporal, 12/12/1914. Period attached to trench mortar section in Sanctuary Wood, 1/1915: method of firing primitive mortar; hut accommodation. REEL 6 Continues: accusation of being underage; local mining activity; daily routine; daily routine and duties; snipers; nature of trenches and use of sniping plates; conditions of service. Aspects of rest periods in Fletre, Meteren, 12/1915-3/1914: unusual wound from shooting accident; interrogation by French officer as possible spies during walk; duties; visits to estaminets; parade to encourage typhoid inoculation; GB leave, 1/1915. Promotion to sergeant and posting to No 1, Cavalry Field Ambulance, 1st Cavalry Bde, 1st Cavalry Div, 4/1915. REEL 7 Continues: composition of 1st Cavalry Bde; organisation and personnel of unit; contents of medical haversack. Recollections of period with advanced aid post in convent cellars near Hell Fire Corner in support of 1st Cavalry Bde composite infantry bn at Sanctuary Wood, Ypres area, 28/4/1915-4/5/1915: suitable sites for advanced aid post; successive stages in treatment of wounded in front line, advanced aid post and casualty clearing station; prior movements following German gas attack, 22/4/1915-28/4/1915; nightly collection of casualties in ambulances from Sanctuary Wood; attitude to Blighty wounds and fatalism; story of ambulance caught in daylight in open terrain and consequent shelling; account of German gas attack in Hooge and Sanctuary Wood sectors, 3/5/1915, including movements of gas cloud, armoured cars acting as reserves. REEL 8 Continues: account of German gas attack in Hooge and Sanctuary Wood sectors, 3/5/1915, including ineffectiveness of gas masks and sprayers issued, casualties wounded again in ambulance, carrying message of relief through to Headquarters, 1st Cavalry Bde at Sanctuary Wood and evacuating wounded casualties with assistance of adapted Ford motor car ambulances, post-war effects of gas inhalation, state of gas casualties, question of differing gas concentrations and its effects; relief of 1st Cavalry Bde and opinion of their infantry skills; lice problem and delousing during rest periods. Period with advanced aid post near Potize in support of 1st Cavalry Bde at Frezenberg Ridge, 5/1915: effect of high explosive shelling on front line trenches; story of looking for casualties on ridge; casualty. REEL 9 Continues: casualty; nature and treatment of high explosive wounds; danger posed by shock, tetanus and gangrene; question of shell shock and treatment; movements; story of bird singing. Periods at Cassel and Montechor, 5/1915-12/1915: rest period; GB leave; training; treatment of VD; question of role of cavalry and use of 1st Cavalry Bde as composite infantry bn; failure of Loos offensive, 9/1915. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during period at Vermelles, Loos sector, 12/1915-3/1916: organisation of combined cavalry field ambulance unit and role as senior NCO; cellar aid post; specialisations of medical officers. REEL 10 Continues: specialisations of medical officers; dugout lighting and value of candles; treatment of casualties in cellar aid post; stretcher posts in communication trenches behind front line; touring stretcher posts as NCO; stories illustrating continuous care required due to accuracy of German shellfire and sniping; German bombardment on Kaiser Wilhelm's birthday, 27/1/1916; story of unusual casualty; common types of wounds; treatment and death of Corporal Robert Dunsire VC, 30/1/1915; forwarding personal effects of corpses to relatives; checks for signs of life prior to burial of corpses; question of Royal Army Medical Corps stealing from casualties; relationship with frontline troops; duckboarding of trenches. REEL 11 Continues: draining and duckboarding of trenches; construction of stretcher post; food and water rations; washing; latrines; sniper problem; effects of winter weather conditions; trench fever cases; health of troops; routine duties; German shell fire; relationship with medical officers and other ranks; routine duties; attitude to casualties; rest periods at Noulimines. REEL 12 Continues: Recollections of period on standby for possible cavalry breakthrough based at Montechor, 3/1916-8/1917: organisation and training of mounted pack section using Price stretchers, 3/1916-7/1916; move up to Somme front and return on failure of initial offensive, 7/1916; march up to Somme front, 9/1916; story of meeting tank crew wounded by anti-tank rifle bullets which penetrated armour, 15/9/1916; move up to Somme front, 11/1916; German deep dugouts. period in Arras area, 7/4/1917-15/4/1917, including winter weather conditions, capture of Fampoux, failure of cavalry action, story of meeting Brigadier Ernest Makins in front line area, situation in aid post near Fampoux, German delousing station and use of 'creeping barrage' technique; introduction and success of Thomas splint for thigh fractures; replacement of iodine with eusol as disinfectant. REEL 13 Continues: replacement of iodine with eusol as disinfectant; gas shells and effects of mustard gas; methods of treating gas casualties; temporary treatment of gas casualties; gas masks issued; other types of gas shells; tactical use of mustard gas shells by Germans; wet weather conditions in tented camp at Ypres, 8/1917; situation on German retreat, 3/1917. Temporary posting to independent stretcher party operating from tents at Boursing, Ypres area, 10/1917-11/1917: role of cavalry working party maintaining roads; regular night shelling of camp and story of close escape; use of duckboard track in journey to collect casualties from cavalry working party in Langemarke sector; scale of destruction at Langemarke; deep mud surrounding duckboard tracks; finding possibly booby trapped German corpse in pill box; German policy of constructing thin eastern walls to their pill boxes; question of smell of corpses and distinctive smell of Germans; devastated landscape; escorting British casualty to hospital in Rouen. Return to unit and period based at Cappy, Somme area, 12/1917-3/1918: opinion of territorial and service units. REEL 14 Continues: treatment of minor casualties; paraffin wax treatment for mustard gas burns; farm billet and story illustrating limited French spoken by troops whilst at Montechor, 1916-1917; danger of septicaemia; absence of civilians; billets; signs if impending German offensive; movements towards front line. Account of German offensive and subsequent retreat in Somme area, 3/1918-7/1918: German bombardment, 21/3/1918; review of strategic situation; move forward; death of French interpreter; morning fog conditions; capture of motor ambulance and civilian status of drivers; retreat, 21/3/1918-30/3/1918, including German use of air reconnaissance, infantry rearguards, movements, formation of defensive line at Le Hamel, 27/3/1918 and German aerial bombing; defensive action at Le Hamel, 28/3/1918, including role treating casualties during German attacks; story of being blown unconscious by shell, sound of machine gun bullets and subsequent symptoms of shell shock. REEL 15 Continues: movements; search of casualties from German side of River Somme immediately prior to demolition of bridge, ca 26/3/1918; movements; billets at Bray; defensive action at Le Hamel, 28/3/1918, including role treating casualties during German attacks, story of being blown unconscious by shell, subsequent symptoms of shell shock; interrogation of Polish POW in German uniform; first aid post established at Villers- Bretonneux airfield, 4/1918; reactions to shellfire and question of shell shock symptoms; view of operations of 2nd Cavalry Bde in Amiens area; story illustrating morale of relieving Australian troops; relationship with French civilians; rest period. Recollection of operations during advance, 7/1918-11/1918: attending gas course, ca 7/1918-8/1918; situation; German aerial bombing; role with mounted forward aid post. REEL 16 Continues: question of shell shock symptoms; food rations; situation; getting German POWs to assist with German wounded; question of importance of social class in failing interview for commission, 101/1918; reactions to armistice and celebrations with Belgian civilians in Mons, 11/11/1918; concert party. Advance to Germany, 11/1918-12/1918: initial lack of food rations; effect of influenza epidemic; reaction of Belgian civilians; reaction of German civilians to German and British troops; formation of German Old Comrades Associations; crossing Rhine at Bonn, 1/12/1918; bridgehead established. Recollections of period at Heppendorf, Germany, 12/1918-9/1919: duties training new recruits; billets; relationship with German civilians and recites German song concerning relationships between British troops and German women; detention of Germans youths who had attacked British soldiers; role as staff sergeant; recreations and river trip on Rhine. REEL 17 Continues: question of demobilisation procedure and occupations released early; account of derailment of train at Charleroi station en route to Paris, France; attending Allied Victory March in Paris, 14/7/1919; recreations including visit to Versailles Palace. Return to Royal Army Medical Corps Base Depot at Crookenden, GB, 9/1919. Voyage with medical section aboard HMT Kursk to Novorrossisk, USSR, 1919-1920: carrying service families to Port Said, Egypt; carrying Turkish POWs being repatriated to Constantinople, Turkey; evacuating Russian refugees from Novorrosisk. REEL 18 Continues: evacuating Russian refugees and British personnel from Novorrosisk to Constantinople; epileptic patient; anti-influenza medicine; story of getting drunk on Gibraltar beer; return to Aldershot, GB. Posting as staff sergeant to 37th Casualty Clearing Station, Royal Army Medical Corps at Cologne, Germany and Danzig, Poland, 1920: duties running orderly room; establishing hospital in cavalry barracks; Scottish ancestory of local civilians; daily routine; appendicitis case; recreations; situation in Poland; relationship with German and Polish civilians; reasons for not extending period of service. Return to GB and demobilisation, 30/9/1920: cancellation of temporary rank of staff sergeant; reactions to refusal of offer of extended period of service; procedure; reservist status. Recollections of inter-war career, 1920-1939: work as advertisement clerk with Daily Graphic, 1920-1923. REEL 19 Continues: writing articles and stories published in newspapers concerning experiences in front line on Western Front, 1914-1918; work as advertisement manager at Sunday Referee, 1923-1939; detachment as business manager at Radio Luxemburg, 1933-1936; work for Sunday Chronicle, 1939-1942. Duties as officer with Home Guard, 1940-1942. Recollections of period as business manager with Gaumont British Screen Services, 1942-1945: creative imput and plot of short film, 'Sam Pepys joins the Navy' to encourage war savings; lack of profits due to Ministry of Information controls; creative imput in production of short film, 'Golden Harvest'; securing technicolour film from RAF; production of film 'Air Woman' on Women's' Auxiliary Air Force; training films for D Day troops; company personnel; role monitoring finances; recites part of monologue written for Ministry of Food film; fire watching duty; story of losing eye from bomb splinters whilst trying to rescue girl during bombing raid at Croydon, 25/3/1944; medical treatment at Redhill County Hospital. REEL 20 Continues: evacuation of Redhill County Hospital, 6/6/1944; convalescence; bombing casualties; return to work; effects of loss of eye.