Description
Object description
British NCO served with Machine Gun Corps and Royal Engineers on Western Front, 1916-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Derbyshire, 1897-1914: family; education; memory of Boer War veteran; attitude to war and story of enlistment with Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt), 1914. Aspects of training with Sherwood Foresters and Machine Gun Corps in GB, 1914-1915: description of basic training in Cornwall and Lichfield; value of pre-war experience with Scouts and promotion to lance-corporal; drill and weapons training; billets; attitude to military life and discipline; story of course in machine gunnery and transfer to Machine Gun Corps; opinion of Vickers machine gun; relations between officers and other ranks. Recollections of operations with Machine Gun Corps and Royal Engineers on Western Front, 1916-1918: description of journey to France and arrival at Le Havre, 1/1916; moved to Albert, Somme area and first impression of trenches; memory of German bombardment on Bullecourt; story of lack of ammunition and requesting transfer to Royal Engineers, 4/1916; description of Somme landscape and trench system; sleeping arrangements; role in charge of training miners; description of opening bombardment of Battle of the Somme, 1/Jul/1916; story of rum ration; role during the Somme offensive; story of lorry hit by shell at High Wood with only two survivors; memory of receiving shrapnel wound; question of morale; opinion of German trenches; nature of daily duties including maintenance of trenches; story of following behind tanks on Somme and effect of tanks on Germans.
REEL 2 Continues: further comments on effectiveness of tanks; attitude to use of bayonet; story of fight with Americans; opinion of Australians and various British regiments; story of Chinese labourers captured by Germans; opinion of effectiveness of Somme offensive; leave and marriage; amusing story of visit by King George V; reaction to news of Armistice, 11/Nov/1918; question of speed of German advance during March offensive, 1918; story of being under shell fire at Cambrai; opinion of rations and food parcels from home; rum ration; water supplies; washing and sanitary arrangements; problem of lice and rats; memory of treatment for appendicitis; effects of tear gas; description of German corpses in French trenches; opinion of conscientious objectors; description of being under various types of fire; question of aerial activity and memory of being bombed from air; attitude to war and sense of comradeship; role in helping inexperienced officers.
REEL 3 Continues: story of demobilization, 2/1919. Aspects of post-war life and employment: reflections on period of war service; story of caring for disabled brother; description of role in charge of rescue team in colliery and value of war experience in dealing with casualties from mining explosions; opinion of medals; attitude to current media coverage of Battle of Somme.