Price, Donald James (Oral history)

British private served with 20th and 13th Bns Royal Fusiliers in GB and on Western Front, 1914-1918

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Barry and Cadishead, Lancs, 1898-1914: family circumstance and father's work as customs officer; education; recreations and choir singing; effects of father's death, 1913; work as apprentice in fur trade in Manchester, 1913-1914; question of approach of war; reactions to outbreak of war whilst on holiday at Keswick, 4/8/1914; reaction to propaganda stories concerning German atrocities and Russian troops passing through GB. Recruitment underage at Recruiting Office in Manchester, 29/12/1914: reasons; question of white feathers; recruiting procedure; medical and ruse to pass eye test; question of age; mother's reaction. REEL 2 Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during training with 16 Platoon B Coy 20th Bn Royal Fusiliers at Leatherhead, Woodcote Park Camp, Clipstone Camp, Mansfield and Tidworth, 1/1915-11/1915: journey down by rail; reception and passing age check; billets; recreations including drinking habits, canteens, concert parties, gambling and smoking; relationship with civilians; morning run; food rations; drill; weapons training; hut accommodation and food rations on move to Woodcote Park Camp; acclimatisation to army lifestyle and lack of privacy; question of public school origin of recruits in unit and relationship with other ranks; story of visit to pub and reaction to prostitutes in London; question of relative poverty to wealthy recruits; question of swearing and crudity; prevalence of VD; relationship with NCOs. REEL 3 Continues: relationship with NCOs and disciplinary punishments; relationship with officers; question of commission and colonel's desire to keep unit together; issue of uniform; kit inspections; story of getting drunk during visit to rollers skating park; story of gambling during visits to Epsom racecourse; cross country runs round Epsom race course; rifle and bayonet training; route marches including use of portable miniature chess set and songs sung; organisation of training; hospitalisation with measles; rejoining unit at Clipstone Camp; attack of scarlet fever during leave; rejoining unit; putting out moor fires; tactical exercises in Sherwood Forest; move to Tidworth; barrack accommodation; hand grenade training. REEL 4 Continues: rifle range training; training in trench digging and wiring parties; lectures in trench lifestyle; sniper and Lewis gun training; increasing personal maturity; question of adequacy of training; rumours of overseas posting. Journey out to St Martin's Camp, Boulogne, France, 11/1915: secrecy during march to train station; train journey to Dover; personal morale; crossing English Channel, first impressions; hospitalisation with ankle problem at Wimeroux; reactions to VD cases; rejoining unit; checking equipment; train journey and cut hand opening bully beef can. Period in Bethune, 11/1915: personal morale; barrack accommodation; story of gambling and subsequent visit to brothel. REEL 5 Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during period in Bethune area, 11/1915: impressions of first move into reserve trenches at Cambrin; nature of dugouts; tours of duty; nature of trenches; dugouts; barbed wire defences; width of No Man's Land; ration parties and food rations; disposal of tin cans in No Man's Land; food and water rations; rum ration and story of drunken soldier punished with Field Punishment No 1; cigarette ration and superstition over use of matches; food rations in rest periods; question of washing and shaving; latrines; story of close escape from German rifle grenade fire whilst using latrine. REEL 6 Continues: story of close escape from German rifle grenade fire whilst using latrine; lice and rat problems; wet conditions; story of treatment of boil; trench feet and whale oil precaution; impossibility of draining trenches; effects of cold weather and extra clothes worn; state of health; stand to; sentry duty and use of periscopes during day; sleeping during day; activities as company sniper; casualties from German sniping; effects of German barrage. REEL 7 Continues: German shell and minenwerfer fire; question of British trench mortars and rifle grenades; question of use of machine guns; minimal use of rifle; cleaning rifle; gambling on cards; casualties amongst friends in section and importance of comradeship; conversations; discipline; wiring parties; night raid to capture German prisoner including selection, weapons carried, briefing, German shell fire and consequent return to front line; covering party; personal morale; relative role and opinion of officers and NCOs. REEL 8 Continues: role of NCOs; question of superior conditions of service of officers and NCOs; rest periods including billets, eating and drinking habits in estaminets, visits to YMCA and Church Army canteens, concert parties, absence of contact with women, sporting activities, return to 'spit and polish', routine training. Recollections of operations in Mametz sector, Somme area, 7/1916: absence of prior special training; departure of regimental sergeant major on arrival, 10/7/1916; march up into shell hole positions behind Mametz Wood; ground conditions; situation; fatigue and working parties; account of attack on High Wood, 19/7/1916-20/7/1916, including absence of briefing, story of friend's wound whilst detonating captured German hand grenades, issue of spade, extra ammunition and hand grenades, move into jumping off positions in No Man's Land, casualties from German shellfire during attack, entering High Wood with small party, moving up pathway through wood, casualties and subsequent isolation in wood. REEL 9 Continues: account of attack on High Wood, 19/7/1916-20/7/1916, including fatigue, sheltering and falling asleep in dugout with wounded German soldiers; crawling back to rejoin unit on edge of wood, relief, story of getting lost and sleeping in latrine on way back to original shell hole line; casualties; German gas shells; review of account of night attack on High Wood, 19/7/1916-20/7/1916, including question of location of German front line, German shell fire during attack, ground conditions, effects of German shellfire whilst moving up pathway through High Wood, confused situation and crawling back to rejoin unit on edge of wood; personal morale and question of desire for Blighty wound; subsequent failed attacks on High Wood; personal morale and reception on moving out of line; story of sharing out parcels intended for casualties; nature of parcels and letter contact with GB; story of meeting brother driving ammunition lorry and subsequent visit to him when injured in hospital, 1917; background to mother notifying authorities of underage status and reactions to consequent removal from line. REEL 10 Continues: arrival of reinforcement drafts. Period at Headquarters, 19 Bde at Auxy-le-Chateau, 8/1916-12/1916: Somme offensive training grounds in area; story illustrating duties as officers' mess corporal. Rejoining unit and period in Somme area, 12/1916-3/1917: ground conditions; move to Arras area, 3/1917; advance following German retreat to Hindenburg Line; question of German booby traps. Recollections of period in Arras area, 3/1917-4/1917: moving forward in reserve during attack in Les Croisilles-Fontaine sector, Arras area, 4/1917-7/1917: nature of Hindenburg Line; reactions to German corpses and pervading smell; acting as runner for Lieutenant William Hill; close escape from German shell; story of moving forward to check progress of attack on German trench and getting lost and falling in river on returning; crying with exhaustion on being relieved; story of shirking during night reconnaissance patrol and subsequent sheltering in slit trench in No Man's Land during daylight; question of declining quality of reinforcement drafts and opinion of 'ranker' officers; casualties amongst friends in section and importance of comradeship. REEL 11 Continues: comparison of situation and conditions of service in Arras area with prior conditions at Cambrin, 1915-1916; role as corporal and willingness to give up stripe. Period in Nieuport area, 7/1917-8/1917: crossing canal on makeshift bridge; role as sniper and sandbagged post; German shell fire on rear areas; rest periods on coast. Recollections of operations in Ypres area, 8/1917-1917: situation; effects of muddy ground conditions including conditions of service in shell hole front lines and reduced effect of German shells; German gas shells; account of being wounded during attack in Stirling Castle sector, 25/9/1917, including muddy ground conditions, story of exhaustion after taking message back to officer's dugout; shrapnel wound from German shell and mustard gas burns; evacuation. Recollections of period in hospital at Boulogne, 9/1917-11/1917: mustard gas blister; failed attempts to be sent back to GB; conditions. Period at Infantry Base Depot, Etaples, 11/917: rumours of prior mutiny; question of discipline, bullying attitude of instructors and nature of training; renewal of ankle problem. REEL 12 Continues: question of necessity for strict discipline of instructors due to malingering attitudes prevalent amongst troops; visits to Le Touquet; reactions to watching 'Battle of Somme' film; role of military police; duties as officer's servant; role of instructors and military police. Recollections of period in Ypres area, 11/1917-2/1918: rejoining unit in reserve positions at ZillebekeLake; dugout; ground conditions; carrying parties; effects of wet and muddy conditions; difficulty in establishing location of front line positions; shell hole front line; wet conditions; personal morale and question of value of religion; question of shell shock cases; effects of German barrages; question of self inflicted wounds; cellar billet in reserve at Ypres; story of battalion postman killed by German shell at Zillebeke Lake. REEL 13 Continues: reaction to announcement of disbandment of remnants of 20th Bn Royal Fusiliers; attempt to extend period attached to battalion transport. Recollections of period with 13th Bn Royal Fusiliers in Ypres area, 2/1918: situation in composite unit; question of quality of reinforcement drafts; deterioration in quality of officers; tours of duty; story of heavy German barrage on front line positions in Tower Hamlets sector, 3/1918, including casualties, firing at German aircraft, water shortage, relief and discovery of minor wound in heel; concealing heal wound to go on GB leave, 3/1918, including concealing heel wound, wearing brother's clothes and question of civilian ignorance of conditions on Western Front and early recall due to German offensive. Recollections of operations on Western Front, 3/1918-10/1918: moving by lorry from Ypres to Somme area; opinion of US troops; boxing match; meeting brother and sharing his looted canteen stores; attack of influenza; fatigue party collecting rubber tyre fragments from roads; close escape from German shell; tours of duty in quiet sectors; preparations for offensive; account of attack on Bucuoy, 10/8/1918, including absence of briefing, personal morale, misty conditions and lack of German fire during advance into No Man's Land; digging in and orders to retire. REEL 14 Continues: account of attack on Bucuoy, 10/8/1918, including retirement to jumping off positions; foot inspection; unopposed advance to Achieux-le-Petit; story of attack including heavy German fire including taking German soldier prisoner whilst sheltering in shell hole and taking his pocket watch as souvenir; nature of advance and declining German resistance; personal morale; story of being wounded whilst leading section during attack Caudry, 8/10/1918, including prior orders, attack on Herbertise Farm, following tank with friend, exchange of fire with group of German soldiers, thigh bullet wound, taking watches from German POWs assisting him back to first aid post and friend's reaction to possibility of having killed German soldier; personal attitude to possibility of having killed in action; evacuation to Boulogne. Period in Boulogne hospital, 10/1918-11/1918: use of toothbrush to remove scab to prolong treatment; state of wound. Armistice celebrations at Infantry Base Depot, Etaples, 11/11/1918. Rejoining unit and period in billets at Ransart, 11/1918-12/1918. Demobilisation, 12/1918: early demobilisation due to long service; story of demobilised soldiers looting railway wagons at Calais during return to GB; service certificate and clothing grant. Post-war career: initially inadequate wages on return to work in fur trade and work as travelling salesmen; question of effects of war service; attitude to German soldiers; attitude to high command.