Description
Object description
British officer served with 212 Siege Bty, Royal Garrison Artillery on Western Front, 1917-1919
Content description
REEL 1 Background as child in India and GB, 1898-1914: father's service as officer in Indian Army; lifestyle; lack of contact with Indian children; relationship with Indian servants; education at home; question of separation from parents on sent to GB for education, 1904; living with relatives; problems during preparatory education in Eastbourne, 1907-1912. Recollections of period at Malvern School, 1912-1916: primacy of sport; conditions and routine; fagging system.
REEL 2 Continues: educational methods employed including form system, quality of teaching and subjects taught; relationship with pupils; question of sporting activities; question of reduction in primacy of sport; nature of OTC activities including training and exercises at summer camp; discipline and punishments.
REEL 3 Continues: question of prevalence of bullying and homosexuality; reactions to outbreak of war, 4/8/1914; failed attempt to join up underage with Loyal North Lancashire Regt, 8/1914, consequent reputation at school and promotion to sergeant major in OTC; success in examination to join Royal Artillery and rejection due to inadequate eyesight; gaining scholarship to Oxford University, 1915; effects of war including treatment of father's Indian Army unit on Western Front, 1915, casualties amongst ex-pupils and reaction to white feathers.
REEL 4 Recollections of recruitment and training as private with Inns of Court OTC at Berkhamstead, London, 19/1/1916: ruse to pass eyesight test at medical; drill; reactions to army lifestyle and discipline; passing interview as possible officer with Royal Garrison Artillery. Period at Royal Garrison Artillery Cadet Schools at Weymouth and Trowbridge, 8/1916-1/1917: state of discipline; nature of training; commission and subsequent retention as orderly officer; question of irrelevance of riding training at remount depot; gun drill on obsolescent howitzers; role as orderly officer; volunteering for active service. Posting to Great Crosby Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, Liverpool, 1917: opinion of home service officers; reasons for volunteering for active service.
REEL 5 Continues: Journey out to France, 8/1917: acting as ship's officer during rough crossing to Boulogne; story of reporting food as unfit during period as orderly officer at St Martin's Camp, Boulogne; warning from officer on leave of conditions at Ypres. Recollections of period with 6" howitzers of 212 Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery in Ypres area, 8/1917-12/1917: reception on arrival at Canal Bank billets; reactions to first German shellfire whilst digging dugouts; nature of dugouts; composition of unit; reception as inexperienced officer; opinion of Major Eric Evans; reaction to German shellfire, relaxed discipline; relationship with other ranks, officers and NCOs; personal morale; origins of other ranks; role of officer's servant; lice problem; food rations and question of supplementary food supplies; officers' mess in dugout; drinking habits; opinion of Major Gwyllim Lloyd George.
REEL 6 Continues: opinion of Major Gwyllim Lloyd George; duties commanding section and at gun position; role as forward observation officer; move to gun positions at St Julian including constructing gun platforms, sand bag gun pits and necessity for camouflage from aerial observation; question of gun position dugouts and billets; muddy ground conditions and German shellfire on duckboard tracks during approach to Pilckem Ridge; nature of front line; periods as Forward Observation Officer in observation post on Pilckem Ridge including nature of shell hole OPs, reactions to firing at guns at group of German soldiers engaged in menial tasks, question of legitimate targets, method and purpose of registering targets.
REEL 7 Continues: periods as Forward Observation Officer in observation post on Pilckem Ridge including of question of selection as Forward Observation Officer for main attacks, difficulty of signallers' role in detecting and repairing telephone lines under German shellfire and consequent breaks in communication, quality of telephone reception, reporting significant German activity and question of contact with neighbouring infantry units; daily routine on duty at gun positions; gun position at Admiral's Road; receiving instructions from Forward Observation Officer; role of gun sergeants in reporting faults in guns; firing daily programme or creeping barrages during attacks; replacement of damaged guns; calls from Forward Observation Officer for counter-battery fire to support infantry; role of artillery observation aircraft including methods of communication and question of German air superiority; account of avoiding German counter-battery fire on gun positions at Admiral's Road including taking over as battery position officer, German ranging shell.
REEL 8 Continues: Continues: account of avoiding German counter-battery fire on gun positions at Admiral's Road including recognising threat following German ranging shells, evacuation of all personnel to dugouts and absence of casualties, imperative need to man guns in event of threat to infantry, damage to howitzers, German resumption of fire, reaction of commanding officer on return and rapid repair or replacement of damaged howitzers; counter-battery operations; question of moving battery positions following German counter-battery concentration on position; artillery barrage prior to infantry attack; German POWs; rest billets; visits to infantry units to investigate question of guns firing short; question of relative conditions of service of infantry and artillery; daily reports; role censoring letters of other ranks; letter and parcel contact with B; drinking habits in officers' mess; personal morale; recreational visits to restaurants in Poperinghe; story of officer's special leave due to 'sexual starvation'.
REEL 9 Continues: move to gun position in St Julian; story of getting lost in No Man's Land during attempts to act on brigadier's unrealistic orders to dig communication to OP on Pilckem Ridge; opinion of officers; story of rejecting offer to dine with Guards officer in front line; opinion of Ypres offensive strategy; service in XVIII, II and Canadian Corps; story of dining with Lieutenant General Sir Ian Jacob at Headquarters, II Corps including subsequent discussion over state of troops morale and opinion of Jacob; German air attack on artillery unit moving out of line. Rest period at Esquilbeke, 12/1917-1918: relationship with Belgian civilians; training; story of drinking cherry brandy; state of morale; Christmas celebrations, 25/12/1917.
REEL 10 Recollections of period in St Quentin sector, Somme area, 2/1918- 3/1918: terrain; strategic situation; unit role in covering main trenches in battle zone and role of outposts defence system employed in forward zone; OP on high ground in battle zone at Bois D'Holon with buried telephone cable to brigade headquarters; absence of long German preliminary bombardment; orders issued warning of imminent German offensive and designating Dennys as Forward Observation Officer; personal morale whilst spending evening at rest billets, 20/3/918. Account of acting as brigade Forward Observation Officer from OP during German attack, 21/3/1918: effects of German bombardment; reporting to battery gun positions; signallers sent by different route; journey to OP at Bois d'Holon including view on lifting of mist, reaction to German shellfire, story of close escape from shell and decision to leave mortally wounded officer; intact buried cable; briefing brigade headquarters as to tactical situation; view of German field kitchens; success in directing guns onto German troops massing in Dum and Dee Copses.
REEL 11 Continues: success in directing brigade guns onto German troops massing in Dum and Dee Copses; personal morale; night return to unit; German success in clearing forward zone and question of their failure to capture Bois D'Holon. Recollections of retreat in Somme area, 3/1918-4/1918: battery split gun positions; German advance through battle zone and approach to gun positions, 22/3/1918; decision to spike and abandon forward gun section which could be pulled out; evacuation of gun teams; temporary composite battery and arrival of replacement guns; nature of retreat back across Somme; story of acting as rearguard unit with French artillery unit, 25/3/1918; supply situation; opinion of Lloyd-George's role in retaining troops in GB, consequent shortage of troops in Somme area and question of role of Lieutenant General Gough; opinion of Lieutenant General Plumer; arrival of divisions of French troops including mutinous behaviour of division which had mutinied in 1917, story of acting as liaison officer to reliable dismounted cavalry colonial division and story of accompanying French commanding officer during French counter-attack.
REEL 12 Continues: acting as liaison officer to reliable dismounted cavalry colonial division; stabilisation of front; move to Amiens sector and unit role as artillery to Australian Corps; opinion of Australian troops and story of cricket match; German attack and successful Australian night counter-attack on Villers Brettonneux; close escape from German shell splinter. Recollections of advance from Ypres area, 8/1918-11/1918: open warfare and reduction in German resistance; reconnaissance into Menin in attempt to locate retreating German unit; reactions to death of friend; attack of influenza; story of discovering sick German in dugout; effects of approach of end of war on personal morale; occupying gun positions overlooking River Scheldt; news of Armistice, 11/11/1918, including story of firing loaded guns to clear them without causing German casualties immediately before deadline, post-war plans of officers and personal reaction. Account of troops' refusal to go on corps church parade during period at Tourcoing, 11/1918-1/1919: intention of corps parades to improve discipline; story of and success in diffusing situation following cancellation of corps parade by taking them on battery parade; question of troops' unrest over demobilisation arrangements.
REEL 13 Continues: sympathetic attitude towards troops and recognition of widespread nature of unrest over special corps parades. Early demobilisation as student, 1/1919. Post-war career: return to university prior to abandoning course to join Civil Service; question of mental and physical effects of war service.
