Description
Object description
British rifleman served as signaller with 2nd Bn Rifle Bde on Western Front, 1917-1918; POW in Germany, 3/1918-11/1918
Content description
REEL 1: Enlistment with Rifle Bde, 1/1916. Aspects of training with Rifle Bde in GB, 1/1916-1/1917: description of basic training; exercises in dummy trenches; bayonet practice; assault course; examination and posted to signalling school, Isle of Sheppy; embarkation leave, 12/1916; description of night crossing from Southampton to Le Havre France, 1/1917. Recollections of operations as signaller with 2nd Bn Rifle Bde on Western Front, 1917-1918: description of Le Havre; memory of deep snow; accommodation in tents; posted to 2nd Bn Rifle Bde in reserve near Passchendaele, Belgium; reaction to being under fire and question of fear; description of conditions; danger of falling off slippery duckboards; moved into front line; role as signaller; use of intensifying set to pick up enemy signals; description of morning 'hate' exchanges of fire; description of trenches; role in night raid on German trenches to take prisoners; question of adapting to conditions in line; entrained to Ham, Somme area, France; description of German barrage and massed attack, 21/Mar/1918; heavy casualties; reaction to death of close friends; description of being shot in right hand and medical treatment; story of being taken prisoner. Recollections of period as POW in Germany, 3/1918-11/1918: further medical treatment at German dressing station; story of British aircraft strafing pontoon bridge and being shot down by machine gun fire; memory of seeing pilot and observer receiving medical treatment in German post; entrained to POW camp at Lamsdorf, Silesia; description of journey in cattle trucks; accommodation in huts; question of treatment of Russian POWs and deaths from starvation; description of work in food store; question of stealing food and searches by civilian staff; punishments for stealing food; amusing story of wasps in marmalade; amusing story of stealing margarine; description of POW clothing and footwear; role assisting in post-mortems and with burial party; memory of Russian choir singing at funerals; story of German guard and carrots; transferred to Neuhammer Camp; description of conditions in camp and accommodation; story of sleeping in pits with dead bodies.
REEL 2 Continues: description of work in coal mine; accommodation; problem of cockroaches; story of Rumanian POWs killed in pit collapse; further description of work in coal mine; problem with wounded hand and description of treatment by German doctor; accidents in mine; question of self-inflicted wounds among POWs; description of POWs standing barefoot in snow as collective punishment for smoking in mine and bayoneting of prisoner; problem of trench feet; paper clothing; description of camp and surrounding landscape; escape and re-capture of Rumanian POWs; description of punishment for throwing lump of coal at German guard; story of Jewish POW acting as interpreter and collaborating with Germans; story of theft of bread ration and fight; description of liberation of camp after Armistice; story of being issued with food and clothing parcels and deaths from over-eating; number of POWs left alive in camp; question of physical fitness and survival.
