Description
Object description
British trooper served with 1/1st Hampshire Yeomanry and as observer with IX Corps on Western Front, 1916-1918
Content description
SU REEL 1: Background in Hampshire, GB, 1914: story of enlisting with Hampshire Yeomanry in Winchester, 1914; reaction of father; guard duty; posted to depot at Alsford; drilling and guard duty. Aspects of training in GB, 1915-1916: posted to Tidworth for training with 18th Hussars; memories of boxer Johnny Hughes; daily routine and duties with horses; description of riding training including rough riding without saddles, jumping and riding with troop on plains; learned bugle calls; parades; charging and wheeling; posted to No 1 Troop, Hampshire Yeomanry in Oxford; embarked from Southampton and disembarked at Le Havre, France, 1916. Aspects of operations as trooper with 1/1st Hampshire Yeomanry on Western Front, 1916-1917: marched to Locre, Belgium and set up horse lines in disused brick field; duties digging communication trenches in Kemmel Hill sector; posted to Somme area, France; slept in barns; memory of song 'Mother McCrae'; posted to Ypres Salient, Belgium, 1917. Aspects of operations as observer with IX Corps on Western Front, 1917-1918: posted to observation post at Kemmel North, Belgium; issued with telescopes, field glasses and degree board; duties observing German lines on Messines Ridge and monitoring number of trains between Roulers, Menin and Courtrai; description of daylight attack by Irish regiments at Petit Bois; location in dugout on south side of Kemmel Hill; memories of German offensive, 3/1918; opinion of observation post near Hill 60; description of piles of dead Germans in rain; story of German POW and water; memories of meeting brother Albert in Flamertinghe; returned from home leave on Armistice Day, 11/Nov/1918; story of selling cigarettes to owner of estaminet; memories of post-war period in Cologne and Lindenthal, Germany; patriotism and attitude to Germans; casualties on Western Front; further comments on duties as observer with IX Corps; liaison with artillery; description of mines exploding on Messines Ridge, 6/1917; four days home leave during active service; sings song 'Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?'; description of evacuation of Kemmel Hill during German offensive and role of French reinforcements, 3/1918; memories of barrage balloons shot down by German aircraft and observers parachuting out; description of German artillery shells ('whizz-bangs'); various memories of officers, NCOs and friends; story of being relieved by Lovat's Scouts; memory of leaving horse when regiment dismounted; role of horses drawing artillery; sings song 'I'll Make a Man of You'; memory of Baron von Richthofen (Red Baron) flying over Kemmel Hill; memory of 16-inch naval gun.
REEL 2 Continues: Sings songs 'Bless 'em All' and 'Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty'.