Description
Object description
British private served with 15th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers on Western Front and in Germany, 1915-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Recollections of operations with 15th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers on Western Front and in Germany, 1915-1918: mobility as scout and sniper; description of role in operations during the Battle of the Somme, Jul/1916; problem of entering the wrong trench; moved into front line at Beaumont Hamel; story of post-war visit to Somme battlefields; story of compiling list of British dead in no man's land at Thiepval, 10/1916; problem of identification of bodies; description of successful attack at Beaumont Hamel, 22/Nov/1916; received first home, 11/1916; story of locating grave of work colleague's fiancée at Colincamps; memories of James 'Nobby' Clarke VC; story of disembarking in Folkestone, GB on Armistice, Day, 11/Nov/1918; reaction to end of war; posted to Germany after end of war; problem of not receiving rations; story of locating own battalion; billeted in museum in Koblenz Strasse, Bonn; relations with demobilised German troops and German civilians; story of visit to German cemetery at Nesle, France; opinion of German dugouts.
REEL 2 Continues: further comments on German dugouts; description of equipment and kit including gas mask; Lee Enfield rifle fitted with sniper's sight; method of operation as sniper; story of filing fictitious report at sniping post near Arras; opinion of rations; mail from home; problem of Queen Mary's Christmas box being emptied of contents, 1915; attitude to Germans; story of returning to civilian employment after war; attitude to sleeping in trenches; story of bullet wound in leg and medical treatment in Deauville; reaction to casualties on 1/Jul/1916; sailed from Folkestone to Boulogne, 22/Nov/1915; entrained to Amiens; marched to Albert and billeted in hospital; story of officers offering 5 francs for nose cap of shell; method of payment while in the field; kept pay book as souvenir; story of being posted to Nieuport on Belgian coast dressed in French uniform; description of German attack, 9/Jul/1917; problem of crossing river over pontoon bridges.
REEL 3 Continues: regularity of German firing; role in holding up Germans; trained company of US troops at Ypres; attitude to Indian troops; description of cavalry charge on Somme, c.8/1916; various memories of seeing tanks in action; opinion of Douglas Haig; description of German trench raid and British reprisal raid at Thiepval, 10/Jul/1916; story about Bangalore torpedo; opinion of Mills bomb; story of visit to Somme, 1966; description of first time in action, 1915; story of finding graves marked with wooden crosses and caps; attitude to death; description of Golden Virgin statue in Albert; story of conversation with Brigade officer on Christmas Day.