Description
Object description
British NCO served with 15th Bn Royal Irish Rifles on Western Front, 1914-1918, including Battle of the Somme, 1916
Content description
REEL 1: Recollections of operations as NCO with 15th Bn Royal Irish Rifles on Western Front, 1914-1918: question of age at enlistment, 8/Sep/1914; posted to France, 4/10/1914; moved into trenches at Mailly-Maillet; role in operations on first day of Battle of the Somme, 1/Jul/1916; casualties; description of explosion of mines at Messines Ridge, Belgium, 7/Jun/1917; role as bomber; carried Mills bombs in bucket; method of firing grenade from rifle; living conditions in trenches at Ypres; role in attack on Courtrai, 10/1918; description of Lewis gun; capture of German machine gun positions; story of being injured in hip and help from German soldiers; memory of being given chocolate at YMCA van; description of transport in Red Cross wagon; medical treatment at casualty clearing station and base hospital in Boulogne, 10/1918- 2/1919; post-war medical treatment and extent of damage to hip; use of mirror on bayonet to see out of trench; working parties and patrols; description of barbed wire defences and use of tin cans as alarm; night raid to capture prisoners; head wound caused by shrapnel; story of blood transfusion; comradeship among soldiers; food parcels; opinion of medical treatment in hospitals and nurses; description of trenches at Messines Ridge, winter 1917; problem of snow; comments on clothing and equipment including leather jerkin, ground sheet and helmet; story of being given rum by officer; frostbite and use of whale oil on feet; problem of digging trenches; names of trenches; rations; use of dixie; safety razor; problem of lice and rats; distribution of bread ration; description of conditions at Ypres, Belgium, Jul/1917; problem of mud; story of visit to Antwerp, 1944; ammunition; opinion of German bombs; types of British artillery; question of enthusiasm for volunteering.
REEL 2 Continues: reasons for volunteering; attitude to Germans; story of treatment in hospital in Hamburg during Second World War; home leave; various memories of service with Merchant Navy during Second World War; further description of operations at Messines Ridge, 1917; camouflage techniques used by Royal Engineers; memory of Germans aircraft shooting down barrage balloons; comparison of British and German aircraft; gas masks and medical treatment for gas cases; use of 18-pounder shell case as gas alarm; story of post-war visit to Ypres; marching; sleeping arrangements; weight of kit.
Physical description
REEL 1