Description
Object description
British private served with 2nd Bn King's Liverpool Regt on Western Front, 1917-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Liverpool, 1900-1917: family; daily life and living conditions; religious beliefs; education; employment; recreational activities; memory of outbreak of war, 8/1914; attitude to Germans; effect of war on daily life; description of casual employment at docks; recreational activities; story of enlistment and question of age, 1917; medical examination. Aspects of training with 52nd Training Bn Manchester Regt in GB, 1917-1918: relations with fellow recruits; attitude to army life and discipline; opinion of accommodation and food; pay; drill; route marches; rifle training and qualification as marksman; care of rifle; bayonet drill.
REEL 2 Continues: bombing training; gas drill; opinion of instructors and training; recreational activities; drafted to France, 1917. Recollections of operations with 2nd Bn King's Liverpool Regt on Western Front, 1917-1918: description of daily life and conditions in trenches; problem of mud and water; dugouts; sleeping arrangements; rations; rum ration; cigarettes; washing facilities; problem of lice and rats; water supplies; shaving; care of uniform; state of health; daily routine including stand-to; sentry duty; use of periscope; sanitary facilities; description of training as Lewis gunner.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of efficiency of Lewis gun; role of Lewis gun team; rate of fire; question of sniping at German trenches; reaction to being under artillery fire and casualties; opinion of gas masks; trench maintenance; description of role in night patrol; problem of mines; star shells; question of encountering German patrols; daily routine in rest areas; question of polishing buttons; problem of VD; memory of shell shock cases; opinion of French troops; relations with NCOs; opinion of officers.
REEL 4 Continues: story of being wounded in leg by shrapnel; opinion of medical treatment; returned to GB, 1918. Aspects of period in GB, 1918: attitude to receiving 'Blighty' wound; attitude to war; question of enlisting underage. Post-war service with 113th Bty King's Liverpool Regt in GB, 1918-1921. Civilian life and employment: question of receiving pension for war wound.