Description
Object description
British private served with 2nd Bn Honourable Artillery Company in GB, on Western Front and in Italy, 1915-1919
Content description
REEL 1 Background to return of family from Edmonton, Canada to Welshpool, GB, 9/1914: father's status as reserve officer; Canadian enthusiasm to enlist, 8/1914. Recruitment as private with Honourable Artillery Company at Armoury House Headquarters, Finsbury Pavements, London, 23/4/1914: reasons; reaction to being given white feather by woman; question of conscientious objectors; kitting out. Initial period with 2nd Bn Honourable Artillery Company in London, 4/1915-10/1916: training at Richmond Park; composition and social origins of Honourable Artillery Company; relationship with officers and their previous experience as other ranks; period in Blackheath area; guard duties in Tower of London; reports of conditions on Western Front; embarkation leave; journey out, 10/1916. Recollections of period in Ypres area, 10/1916-11/1917: gas masks; situation and nature of trenches in Sanctuary Wood; move to Ploegsteert Wood; first casualty; nature of trenches; German snipers; flooded rest billets; problem with boots; march to Somme area, France, 11/1916.
REEL 2 Continues: conditions during march to Somme area. Aspects of period in Beaumont Hamel sector, Somme area, 11/1916-2/1917: successful attack; casualties; conditions of service; tours of duty and rest periods at Bertrancourt; story of finding German corpses eaten by rats in dugout; rat and lice problems; German POW taken for interrogation; wiring parties; attack of influenza; divisional rest at Rubembpre; hospitalisation with influenza; advance following German retreat to Hindenburg Line, 3/1917; question of German booby traps; attack on German positions in Bucquoy, 14/3/1917; question of use of bayonet; view of British corpses in German barbed wire from their failed attack on Serre, 1/7/1916; devastation of Serre. Recollections of attack at Bullecourt, Arras area, 3/5/1917: failure of attack; crawling back to British front line; casualties; German counter-attack to recapture front line; death of officer after receiving 'Blighty' wound; question of evacuation of wounded; reactions to first view of tanks.
REEL 3 Continues: close escape from German shell which killed friends; German shell fire; subsequent quiet period, 6/1917-8/1917. Recollections of conditions of service and operations in Ypres area, 9/1917-10/1917: period in Sanctuary Wood; account of attack on Reutel, 04.30, 9/10/1917, including German reliance on pillboxes, equipment carried in action, casualties, role in capturing German pillbox, personal morale, success in capturing Reutel and casualties missing in mud; medical arrangements; German dugouts; opinion of high command; muddy conditions in Polygon Wood sector; food rations; water supply; rum ration; move to rest area; award of Military Medal; GB leave, 8/1917.
REEL 4 Continues: GB leave, 8/1917. Various aspects of period in Italy, 11/1917-11/1918: journey out to Nervesa, Piave area; situation; conditions of service; taking over Italian defensive positions on Aisago Plateau, 2/1918; trench raids; opinion of Italian troops; question of Etaples mutiny, 9/1917; recollections of attack during Battle of Vittorio Veneto, 2710/1918, including crossing Piave by boat, capture of Austrian trenches and their retreat until Austrian Armistice, 5/11/1918; state of Austrian POWs. Period with Army of Occupation in Innesbruck, Austria, 11/1918-1/1919: relationship with Austrian civilians; demobilisation, 1/1919; minimal duties. Post-war career.
