Description
Object description
British officer served with Royal Horse Artillery and 351 Siege Bty Royal Garrison Artillery on Western Front, 1917-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of operations with Royal Horse Artillery and 351 Siege Bty Royal Garrison Artillery on Western Front, 1917-1918: amount of time spent out of line compared to infantry; attitude to Germans; opinion of medical services and postal service; communication with home; attitude to writing letters to bereaved families; opinion of colonel; story of finding dismembered bodies of entire gun team killed by shell; daily routine and duties including manning forward observation post for 24 hours; used Vauxhall cars for transport; accommodation; home leave; story of hitting French torpedo boat at night; story of post-war visit to battlefields; comparison between conditions in First and Second World Wars; attitude to war as an adventure; story about war memorial at Malvern College; reaction to death of best friend W.H. Furley, 4/1918; story about Indian Prince in same unit; story of being wounded at Passchendaele, 9/1917; posted to Middle East before returning to Western Front; attitude to conduct of war including Passchendaele campaign; opinion of German trenches and defences; attitude to tactics and casualties; opinion of German Army; description of gas attack at Kemmel Hill, 1918; description of terrain at Hill 60; opinion of value of post-war battlefield tours; ammunition brought up on lorries; description of counter battery work.
REEL 2 Continues: further comments on Hill 60; story of returning to GB after being wounded and admission to No.1 General Hospital, Camberwell, 9/1917; story of returning to Dover and demobilisation on 21st birthday; duties manning observation post at Kemmel; description of mustard gas shells landing; attitude of older generation to soldiers returning home at end of war; relations with gunners and question of class; description of sight-seeing visits in France and Belgium while awaiting demobilisation; further comments on Passchendaele campaign and casualties; varied backgrounds of officers. Various memories of time as pupil at Malvern College.