Description
Object description
British NCO served with 9th Bn Royal Fusiliers on Western Front, 1915-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of training with 9th Bn Royal Fusiliers in GB, 8/1914-5/1915: enlisted at Hounslow Barracks, 20/Aug/1914; reaction of parents; posted to Colchester Barracks; story about death of Lt. Knight; posted to Shorncliffe, Kent; water cart fatigue; opinion of Bn CO; opinion of Quartermaster Shelley; posted to Grand Hotel, Folkestone; billeted in garage; memories of visiting entertainers; route marches; further comments on Bn CO; description of march from Folkestone to Aldershot; story of winning money at cards; description of training as Vickers machine gunner at Aldershot; posted to France, 5/1915. Aspects of operations with 9th Bn Royal Fusiliers on Western Front, 1915-1918: disembarked in Le Havre, France; description of horse and mule transport; memory of children running alongside train and begging for food; weather conditions; reviewed by Lord Kitchener; problem of losing pay book; moved into line at Armentieres; reaction to seeing first shell; attitude to French; problem of lice and methods of removal; number of machine guns; listening patrols; stand to; story about article critical of Kitchener battalions; moved to Loos sector, 10/1915; story of seeing Prince of Wales at Lesboeufs; amusing story of machine gunner falling into stream; burial of dead at Lone Tree; moved into abandoned German trenches as reserve.
REEL 2 Continues: description of trenches and shelling; story of taking seriously wounded soldier on stretcher to field ambulance; reaction to death of friend Jimmy Hall; story of giving leave pass to soldier to visit son; description of shell exploding in dugout and casualties; treatment of wounded and burial of dead; story about revolver; role as No.2 on Vickers machine gun during attack at Loos, 1915; gathered fire wood for boiler; volunteered to join newly formed machine gun company; description of German dugouts on Hindenburg Line; in trenches at Hohenzollern Redoubt for 9 months; description of Vickers machine gun and team; description of trenches and living conditions in Festubert sector; used three skeletons as markers.
REEL 3 Continues: drew lots to go on leave; marched to Somme sector, 1916; memory of seeing cavalry; obtained water from wells; story of representing battalion during visit by King George V; problem of rats; memories of eating in estaminet; billeted in barn; attitude to the French; appointed sanitary man; description of trench mortars being fired over German lines at Hohenzollern Redoubt; opinion of Australian troops; story of receiving medical treatment after drinking water contaminated by gas from shell hole; various memories of heavy-weight boxer 'Banger' King; account of operations at Aveluy Wood, Somme, 1/Jul/1916; shelled with gas shells; sheltered under fallen tree; reaction to casualties and loss of friends; moved to Arras sector; story of being wounded by minenwerfer explosion.
REEL 4 Continues: re-organisation of battalion; problem of barbed wire; amusing story about Quartermaster Shelley; rotation in and out of line on Somme; description of terrain and trenches at Arras; description of attack at Arras, 7/Apr/1917; role as No.1 in machine gun team; description of attack at River Scarpe, 3/May/1917; story about Cpl Jarratt winning VC; story about sniper, 1918; account of role in operations during Battle of Cambrai, 10/1918; story of being awarded the Military Medal.