Description
Object description
British NCO served with 8th Bn Royal Fusiliers in GB and on Western Front, 1914-1917; POW in Germany, 1917-1918
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Lambeth, London before 1914: social circumstances; education; work as trainee electrical engineer with Post Office; background to leaving Post Office on leaving army, 1918. Recollections of recruitment and training with 8th Bn Royal Fusiliers in Hounslow Barracks, Colchester Barracks, Shorncliffe Camp and Aldershot, 8/1914-5/1915: background to underage recruitment at Lambeth Town Hall, 13/8/1914; mother's reaction; treatment of underage soldier in France; PT sessions at Hounslow Barracks; nature of recruits; issue of uniform at Colchester Barracks; nature of basic training and instructors; inculcation with regimental spirit; promotion to lance corporal; food rations; canteen; recreations; relationship with other ranks; nature of basic training and route marches; relationship with NCOs and soldier's court martial after attack on NCO.
REEL 2 Continues: punishments; move to Shorncliffe, 10/1914; tactical exercises; firing course on rifle range; tactical exercises including question of attack formations; map reading; digging trenches; making jam tin hand grenades; ; bayonet training; question of opinion of German soldiers; movements prior to march to Aldershot, 2/1915; nature of exercises; selection and training as sniper. Various aspects of service on Western Front, 1915-1917: difficulty in finding sniping positions and question of use of steel loop holes; story of failure to shoot escaping German POW at Arras, 4/1917.
REEL 3 Continues: story of failure to shoot German soldier at Arras, 4/1917; accurate sniping range; relationship with sniping officer; sniping equipment and dissolution of sniping squad, 1916; hand grenade accident; reactions to death of platoon officer; question of personal morale; route marches; stories illustrating of relationship and opinion of various officers including colonel, adjutant, platoon officer and regimental sergeant major; question of shell shock and executions for cowardice; personal morale under shell fire; reaction to conscientious objectors. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine period in Ploegsteert, Armentieres and Loos sectors on Western Front, 10/1915: journey out and overnight stop at Boulogne, 5/1915; story of subsequent rough Channel crossing.
REEL 4 Continues: story of subsequent rough Channel crossing; question of learning French in German POW camps, 1917-1918; winter conditions, consequent attack of trench feet and period on regimental police, 1915-1916; move up in stages; taking over trenches from Guards in Loos sector, 9/1915; improving shallow trenches; situation in front line; wiring parties; effects of German machine gun fire; introduction to trench routine in Ploegsteert sector, 6/1915; latrines; nature of quiet sectors; concentrated period of German shell fire at Houplines; shooting at rats in River Lys; reactions to casualties and personal morale; tours of duty; prior gas mask training; working parties and mining activities; relationship with French civilians; drinking habits; question of contacts with French Army; role of NCOs in organising sentry routine; food rations including problems with cooking; water supply; sleeping arrangements; working parties.
REEL 5 Continues: account of attack on B Crater following detonation of mines at Hohenzollern Redoubt, 3/1916, including effects of detonation, successful advance to capture crater, reasons for failure to dig communication trench back to front line, distance across No Man's Land, British casualties from effects of mine detonation, German night counter-attacks, reactions of colonel, value of machine gun and question of British shells falling short; view from trenches; German use of minenwerfer and rifle grenades; nature of trenches and dugouts; use of Stokes mortars to clear Germans from dugouts, 9/1915; barbed wire; tours of duty; effects of wet and cold conditions; failure to use whale oil; attack of trench feet and consequent period on regimental police; shower bath; lice problem; causes of casualties; state of morale; opinion of colonel; contrast of regular and wartime officers.
REEL 6 Continues: story of copying style of officer's cap in GB; relaxation of relationship with officers and NCOs; inexperience of reinforcements, 1916; burial of corpses; reception of reinforcements; role of latrine orderlies; route march to Somme area, 6/1916; problems as NCO in distributing food rations; estaminets; personal kit and souvenirs. Recollections of operations in Somme area, 7/1916: kit carried into action; letter contact with GB; question of sharing out parcels of casualties; cooks; personnel left out of battle; account of attack with Headquarters Coy at Ovillers, 7/7/1916, including formation, death of Colonel in No Man's Land, break down of attack due to German machine gun fire, moving along ditch, attack formation, German hand grenades, view of Germans troops retreating, move into German trench, relief and state of unit at roll call, 8/7/1916.
REEL 7 Continues: question of prior briefing; failure to cut wire; collection of paybooks from corpses; state of German trench; question of medical treatment for German wounded; lack of first aid training and problem of casualties bleeding to death; attitude of German POWs; observation post duty; opinion of German uniform and equipment; question of prior briefing and German counter-attack at Loos, 9/1915; effects of machine gun fire; bullet through rifle butt; question of effects of preliminary bombardment. Recollections of night attack on Ration Trench at Pozieres, 4/8/1916: absence of preliminary bombardment; capture of German front line; German POWs; prior arrival of large reinforcement drafts to reconstitute unit; use of periscopes to draw fire to unoccupied trench; German bombardment on captured trench; facial wound from German shell; evacuation as walking wounded; initial treatment and tetanus injection at advanced dressing station; evacuation by ambulance and hospital train to Canadian Hospital, Etaples.
REEL 8 Treatment at Canadian Hospital, Etaples, 8/1916: question of being sent back to GB; removal of shrapnel from jaw; problem with grit in eyes and subsequent treatment. German air raid on Dover during journey to Liverpool, 6/8/1916. Period at Liverpool Hospital, 8/1916-11/1916: reception; hospitality and entertainment from civilians; severely wounded Australian soldier; effects of wound. Period at Rehabilitation Centre at Watford, 1916-1917: interview with general; Journey out with draft via Etaples Infantry Base Depot, Etaples and reception on rejoining unit in Somme area, 1917. Recollections of attack in Arras area, 9/4/1917: move up from Somme area and billets in caves; successful advance behind creeping barrage; linking shell holes to form trench; signal to aircraft; question of changes in unit personnel since 1916; failed cavalry attack; reaching objectives and capture of German gun line; nature of German trenches; wiring parties; relief and return to Arras; alarm of German counter-attack and casualties caused by German shell fire in field bivouacs. Recollections of attack on Monchy le Preux, 3/5/1917: prior briefing; casualties from machine gun on left flank; story of failure to shoot escaping German POW; leaving dugouts to mopping up parties; casualties; consolidating shell hole line; German attack from behind line; sniping from isolated position.
REEL 9 Continues: effects of sniper fire from isolated position; concealment behind German lines for two days using water and iron rations taken from corpses; question of attempt to break through lines; discovery by German trench digging party. Recollections of initial period as POW, 5/1917: attempt to help badly wounded friend Bill Hubbard, refusal of assistance from German troops and failed attempt to carry him back out of line; march through Douai; jettisoning hand grenades prior to search; interrogation; train journey to Dulman POW Camp, Westphalia; question of notification of family; interrogation. Conditions during period in Fort Macdonald, Douai, 5/1917: shortage of food; latrines; story of gifts of food from French civilian during march round Douai. Recollections of period in various POW Camps in Germany, 5/1917-11/1918: shortage of food and malnutrition; Red Cross parcels; attack of dysentery; disruption of Red Cross parcels supply on moving between POW camps; German guards' search of contents of Red Cross parcels; camp defences; roll calls and hut searches.
REEL 10 Continues: treatment of Russian POWs; exchanges of bread for potatoes and cabbages; bribing German guards and evading searches; working party building road to camp; question of escape; trench to prevent tunnelling activity; conditions in camp jail; take over of control of camp by German sailors deputation from Soldiers Councils of Bremerhaven, 11/1918; visit out of camp to trade for food with German farmers; move to Saltau POW Camp; Italian NCO acting as cook; background to train journey to Hamburg. Journey back to London, 11/1919. Demobilisation, 1919. Post war career: return to work with Post Office; reactions to bombing during Second World War.