Description
Object description
British private served with Machine Gun Corps on Western Front and in Italy, 1916-1918
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Northumberland, 1895-1915: family; father employed as groom; education; description of employment on farm; wages; accommodation and food; volunteered for army and enlisted at Wooler, 1915; medical; reaction of parents; reason for volunteering; memory of recruiting sergeant; drafted to Tyneside Irish Bn of Northumberland Fusiliers. Aspects of period with Machine Gun Corps in GB and Ireland, 1915-1916: posted to camp at Catterick, 10/1915; volunteered for Machine Gun Corps; posted to Ireland with 23rd Div, 11/1915; description of duties; attitude to army life; opinion of rations and accommodation; posted to Belton Park, Grantham, 12/1915; description of training with Vickers machine gun; transporting of gun; opinion of Vickers machine gun; recreational activities; location of camp; accommodation; hut and kit inspections; daily routine; rifle drill; role as limber driver; care of mules and equipment; polishing harness; insignia; relations with other soldiers; posted to France, 3/1916; description of voyage from Southampton to Le Havre. Aspects of operations as private with Machine Gun Corps on Western Front, 1916-1917: relations with French civilians; marched to Albert, Somme sector; mules killed by shelling; attitude to fear; description of carrying rations and supplies to trenches by mule; gas masks for mules; condition of French trenches; billets; opinion of rations; attitude to death of friends.
REEL 2 Continues: posted to Ypres sector, Belgium, 4/1916; description of terrain and conditions; memories of Cloth Hall and Hell Fire Corner; snipers; story of shell cap; memory of divisional CO; story of cigarettes; estaminets; pay; duties taking supplies to troops at night; attitude to danger; problem of moving over cratered ground; billets; guard duty; opinion of officers; discipline and punishments; description of journey by train to Italy, 1917. Aspects of operations as private with Machine Gun Corps in Italy, 1917-1918: duties as limber driver; opinion of Italian food; location in mountains; use of machine guns against aircraft; rotation of A, B, C and D Coys; crossed River Piave on pontoon bridges; fraternisation with Italian civilians; billets; reaction to news of Armistice, 11/1918; returned to GB via France, 2/1919; demobilisation at Ripon. Further comments on operations on Western Front: personal hygiene; problem of lice and rats; parcels from home; state of health. Post-war life and employment.