Description
Object description
British private served with 1/8th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers in GB, Egypt and Gallipoli, 1914-1916
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Salford, 1896-1914: family; education; work making castings at iron foundry, 1910-1914. Recruitment and training with No 1 Section, A Coy, 1/8th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers based at Cross Lane Barracks, Salford, 2/1914-8/1914: reasons; drill nights; rifle training; drill; bayonet training; Vickers Gun lectures; route marches; tactical exercises at summer camp; relationship with other ranks, NCOs and officers; Initial period at Cross Lane Barracks on outbreak of war, 8/1914: first news of war, 4/8/1914; story of interrogation by police; call up by telegram to barracks; 5/8/1914; uniform and kit; initially sleeping and eating at home; story of singing at night in barracks. Period at Turton Camp, 8/1914-9/1914: volunteering for overseas service.
REEL 2 Continues: proportion of unit volunteering for overseas service; story of breaking out of camp to visit home; visit from father; preparations for embarkation. Aspects of voyage on Neuralia to Alexandria, Egypt, 9/9/1914-25/9/1914: song sung by troops; convoy ships. Recollections of conditions of service and lifestyle at Abbassia Barracks, Cairo and Alexandria, 9/1914-1/1915: pay; beds; desert training exercises; opinion of Australian troops' physique, discipline and pay; question of brothels and VD; relationship with Australian and New Zealand troops; civil unrest amongst Egyptian civilians and consequent march by 42nd Div through Cairo, 31/10/1914; guard on latrines to prevent attacks by Egyptian civilians; period on guard duties at El Geisha Magazine including story of dangerous night visit to local village, duties as sanitary orderly and false alarm on guard; story of Egyptian civilians attack on sentry box at ammunition dump.
REEL 3 Continues: YMCA canteen; food rations; story of false alarm on guard duty; desert marches. question of first news of Gallipoli campaign; issue of extra ammunition prior to embarkation, 1/5/1915. Landing at W Beach, Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey, 5/5/1915. Recollections of attacks in Fusilier Bluff sector, 6/5/1915-7/5/1915: move up via Gully Ravine; advance and Turkish retirement, 7/5/1915; personal morale; throwing pith helmet away; method of digging in; failure of attack by 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 7/5/1915; story of being relieved, collecting pack, getting lost and eventually rejoining unit in Gully Ravine; personal morale illustrated by ignoring superstition concerning will; unit morale; nature of fighting. Period in reserve and front line, 7/5/1915-3/1915: nature of fighting; conditions of service. Account of facing Turkish counter attacks in Krithia Nullah sector, 4/6/1915-6/6/1915: reserve role during initial attack; close escapes during move up communication trench to face Turkish counter attack to right of gully; hand to hand clash with group of Turks; firing on Turkish mass attack towards left hand side of gully; view of charge on Turks by British troops; move into gully to stop Turks moving down.
REEL 4 Continues: forcing the Turks to retreat back up the gully; occupying and holding trench on left; night reinforcement by Anson Bn; return to unit in reserve; review of events; presence of Cotton. Recollections of conditions of service in Krithia Nullah sector, 7/6/1915-15/7/1915: lice problem; nature of trenches; unburied corpse and fly problems; skin sores; unburied corpses; story illustrating sniping problem; food rations and story of replenishing iron rations from dump; water ration; shaving, washing, sea bathing; uniform; latrines; letter contact with GB.
REEL 5 Continues: relationship with other ranks, NCOs and officers; daily routine and sentry duty; Maxim machine gun training; pipe smoking; story of being wounded in head by sniper, 15/7/1915; evacuation under Asiatic Annie shelling from V Beach. Evacuation to Malta, 7/1915. Period in hospital in Malta, 7/1915-8/1915: reception; tetanus injections; question of cause of death of Colonel Fallows; sea bathing trip. Return to unit in Krithia Nullah sector, Gallipoli, 8/1915: Recollections of period in Krithia Nullah and Gully Ravine sectors, 8/1915-12/1915: state of unit; story of burying officer's corpse in No Man's Land.
REEL 6 Continues: story of burying officer's corpse in No Man's Land; story of being on sentry duty during failed Turkish raid down communication trench between lines; mining activities including incident whilst guarding miners from Turks breaking into galleries underground, removing soil, signs of Turkish mining close by, dimensions and Royal Engineer miners; story of challenging Brigadier Frith whilst on guard against Turkish infiltrators reported to be shooting British officers; effect of HMS Majestic's bombardment of Krithia, 5/1915; story of separation from unit whilst sheltering from shell fire; story of discovering corpses.
REEL 7 Continues: period in Eski Line prior to evacuation, ca 12/1915; personal morale. Period at Lemnos, 1/1916. Aspects of service in Egypt and Palestine, 1/1916-2/1917: crossing at El Kantara; cavalry units; Turkish air bombing of column; animal baggage train; story of accompanying British officer in Arab dress (possibly T E Lawrence) into Arab quarter and clash with Arabs civilians whilst in Cairo; Lewis gun training at Heliopolis; opinion of Lewis gun and Lee Mitford rifle; relationship as lance corporal with other ranks; story of colonel guarding oasis to prevent unauthorised filling of water bottles at El Katia; story of carrying message guided by stars and sighting Turkish patrol in desert; conditions of service and comparison with Gallipoli; showers.
REEL 8 Continues: story of being shelled whilst climbing date tree at El Katia. Voyage to France, 2/1917: reactions; torpedo alarm and resulting emergency boat drill. Journey to Albert, Somme area, 3/1917. Recollections of period in Somme area, 3/1917-8/1917: story of being flooded out in rest camp trenches in Bullecourt sector; story of leading machine gun covering party in Havrincourt Wood sector; story of losing promotion to sergeant for being drunk after drinking extra rum rations; story of setting up machine gun post in No Man's Land to stop German raid; extraction of tooth; story of meeting Frith whilst escorting leave party to GB; stories illustrating relationship with civilians whilst on leave in GB; family casualty; comparison of shell fire with Gallipoli. Recollections of period in Ypres area, 8/1917-9/1917: story of shrapnel wound in thigh on Menin Road in Zonnebeke sector, 3/9/1917.
REEL 9 Continues: story of searching German dugout; stories of shooting at German aircraft; question of looting clothes shops. Evacuation to 4th General Hospital at Etaples, 9/1917: possibility of leg amputation; close escape during bombing raid on hospital. Evacuation to GB, 9/1917. Period in hospitals in GB, 1917-1918: changing of leg drainage tubes; relationship with nurses; treatments; view of Zeppelin raid at Heaton Park, Salford. Period with reserve battalion of Lancashire Fusiliers, 1918: promotion to sergeant and resignation in dispute over receiving lance corporals pay; state of leg and later disability pension; lecturing in Lewis gun; question of return to active service; comparison with 1/8th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers.
REEL 10 Continues: news of armistice, 11/11/1918; friend. Demobilisation and post war career, 1918-1989: story of losing disability pension at medical board, 1922; state of leg; return to work at iron foundary.
