Description
Object description
British private served with 1/1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in GB, 1911-1912; served with 1st Bn Hertfordshire Regt in GB and on Western Front, 1912-1914; qualified as pilot and served as officer with 40 Sqdn RAF on Western Front, 1918
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Rotherfield, Wolverton and Harpenden, 1893-1914: family; education; work as clerk. Recruitment and training with F Coy, 1/1st Buckinghamshire Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry at Railway Carriage Works Drill Hall, Wolverton, 1911-1912: reasons; frequency drill nights and time off from bank to attend summer camp; rifle training; route marches and songs sung; relationship with other ranks, NCOs and officers; transfer to Hertfordshire Regt on move to Harpenden. Recollection of training with B Coy, 1st Bn Hertfordshire Regt at St Albans, 1912-1914: absence of regular battalions.
REEL 2 Continues: attending summer camps including opinion of tactical exercises and artillery formation; promotion to corporal; colonel's nickname; news of outbreak of war whilst at camp, 4/8/1914; call up to Hertford, 8/1914; assisting in company office; volunteering for service overseas; issue of rifles and difficulty in cleaning vaseline out of mechanism. Move via Le Havre, France to Zonnebeke sector, Ypres area, Belgium, 11/1914: reversion to private; train and bus journey; attachment to 4th Guards Bde; ignorance of strategic situation.
REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of operations in Ypres area, 11/1914: situation on arrival in Zonnebeke sector including reports of nature of fighting from artillerymen, establishing contact with battalion on left on taking up initial advanced position in wood and tense nature of situation; later Brickfields position at Cuinchy, France, 1/1915-2/1915; story of billet at Hooge Farm; opening fire under control of Guards NCO during German attack at Brickfields, 1/1915-2/1915; method of developing advanced cavalry rifle pits to establish front line trench in Zonnebeke sector including shortage of water and inadequacy of entrenching tool. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine in La Bassee area, 12/1914-6/1916: relieving Gurkhas and their ability to keep trenches warm; accidentally opening fire on listening post party; absence of Christmas Truce, 25/12/1914; nature of trench system; food rations and cooking using smokeless fires.
REEL 4 Continues: water cigarette, tobacco and rum rations; washing, lice problem and baths in brewery vats; shaving; latrines; rat problem; corpses in No Man's Land; effects of winter weather and state of health; stand to; improving trenches and example of Guards units; role of orderly sergeant including checking listening posts and sentries; question of relative role of officers and NCOs.
REEL 5 Continues: effects of shellfire and minenwerfers; sniping; wiring parties; listening patrol; personal morale; preference for reserve line duty; soldier's accidental self inflicted wound and subsequent inquiry; introduction of ban on cameras; keeping diary; role of padres; length of tours of duty; rest periods including question of spit and polish, story illustrating relationship with French and Belgian civilians, visiting estaminets, pay and parcels from GB; background to becoming time expired and decision to remain; story of Corporal Birt winning VC and his return home as time expired.
REEL 6 Continues: unusual incident; story of falling back to reserve line during minenwerfer bombardment prior to German raid and booby trap left in front line trench by German raiders; death of friends during shelling of working party following German aerial reconnaissance and question of theft of watch by Royal Army Medical Corps personnel, 1916; use of high sandbag parapet/barricades where ground was waterlogged and 'islands' in No Man's Land; story of shooting of rat; story of being wounded in knee whilst cutting grass in No Man's Land, 6/1916. Evacuation via St Omer Hospital to GB, 6/1916: stretcher bearers; medical treatment; ambulance journey; canal barge; nurses at St Omer Hospital; question of 'Blighty wound'.
REEL 7 Continues: scabies problem; state of leg; amputation case. Period at Oxford Workhouse Hospital and at convalescence home, 1916-1917: treatment of scabies; family visit; treatment of knee. Background to application for commission and attending Officers Cadet Training Unit at Gailles, Scotland, 1917: reasons; training; question of behaviour in mess; reasons for application to join Royal Flying Corps; absence of sensation of height in aircraft. Recollections of flying training on Maurice Farnham Shorthorn with No 12 Training Squadron, Royal Flying Corps at Thetford RFC Station, 11/1917-12/1917: method of turning; initial dual control flying; slow learning process; difficulty of vertical turns; method of landing; instructor; Shorthorn controls; first solo; sensation of gliding in Avro 504.
REEL 8 Continues: flying experience before first solo flight; question of accidents and importance of landing skills. Recollections of continues training with 74 Sqdn Royal Flying Corps at London Colney RFC Station and 89 Sqdn Royal Flying Corps and RAF at Harling Road RAF Station, 12/1917-5/1918: air fighting tactical lecture from Major Edward Mannock; opinion of Mannock; story of pilot landing without propeller; methods employed on cross country navigation exercises; I R A Jones; inherent stablity of Avro 504; omission of training on Sopwith Pup; opinion of instructors; various aerial manoeuvres taught; gunnery training including use of camera gun, Aldis sight and difficulty of deflection shooting; formation flying.
REEL 9 Continues: question of stunt flying; opinion of SE 5; posting to pilots pool; Major Draper's stunt flying in Sopwith Camel. Recollections of period flying SE 5a with 40 Sqdn, RAF based at Beass, France, 8/1918-10/1918: familiarisation flight over operational area; ban on mentioning anti-aircraft fire in mess; value of 'hedge hopping' to escape from pursuing German aircraft; flying over La Bassee area; difficulty in seeing German aircraft in air; procedure on sighting German aircraft; examples and impressions of air combat; shooting down observation balloon; typical dawn patrols as left wingman with Flight Commander Chidlaw Roberts including flying uniform worn and effects of cold, question of pilots superstitions; question of briefing including scout role of SE 5a pilots and dislike of carrying bombs.
REEL 10 Continues: dawn patrols including flight formation on patrol, area patrolled, altitude, role protecting flight commander's rear, personal morale, duration of flight, question of previous squadron not patrolling over German lines, comparison of SE 5a and Sopwith Camel, bombing raid on German aerodrome, dislike of carrying bombs and consequent random high level bombing, question of wind speed and question of post patrol debriefing; relationship with ground staff; close escape in combat; personal machine; duties as orderly officer; bridge playing; conditions of service; airfield layout; messlife including question of drinking habits, initiation ceremony and Bennett's shyness.
REEL 11 Continues: messlife including relationship with Childlow Roberts, habit of not using Christian names in mess, stories and opinions of various officers; story of feigning to ram German aircraft to escape during dogfight; story of guns jamming, engine failure and consequent forced landing in No Man's Land, 9/10/1918. Period based at Anniche, 10/1918-11/1918: ignorance of approach or armistice; news of end of war during GB leave, 11/11/1918; reactions to anti-aircraft fire. Period with RAF squadron based at Cologne, Germany, 3/1919-5/1919: prior movements; privileges as occupying forces; relationship with German civilians; question of duties; pay and question of remaining in RAF; reactions to formation of RAF, 1/4/1918. Demobilisation, 5/1919. Post-war career: return to bank and their war pay scheme; initial mild claustrophobia; question of flying and taking controls during flight in 1986.