Description
Object description
British private served with Royal Berkshire Regt on Western Front, 1916-1918
Content description
REEL 1 Story of enlisting with Cheshire Regt in GB, 1914. Recollections of operations with Royal Berkshire Regt on Western Front, 1916-1918: signalling duty; preparations to return to line; medical and kit inspection; embussed to line; description of landscape; debussed at night and marched to Bn HQ; relieved Black Watch; raiding party; story of captured German with photographs of dead Scottish soldiers; moved to camp in sand dunes on Belgian coast; drill; training exercises on section of camouflaged sea wall near Ostend; bathing; security; method of using pinhole on map and field postcard to reveal position to relatives; received green letter every fortnight; landing exercises with Navy including hauling 18-pounder guns; BEF canteen; opinion of rations; story of stolen beer; question of supporting fire from Navy; cancellation of proposed landing; shooting rabbits for food and trying to grow carrots in sand; story of looking for remnants of battalion; memories of Pte Brooks; problem of lack of rations; story of visit to estaminet; story of setting fire to field hospital; BEF officers' canteen; story of 500 troops being drunk; use of sandbags to carry rations; story of sleeping on shells in lorry; marched to barracks; description of German aircraft bombing horse lines; marched into caves.
REEL 2 Continues: held in reserve; description of breaking through German lines into open country; story of haversack being blown off by shell; problem of German enfilading fire; stand to; daily routine and duties; memories of Christmas Day, 1917 and German fireworks on New Year's Eve, 1918 ; memories of Capt Drummond-Brown; sent on map course with 1st Army; story of seeing Haig's chateau; description of front line, 3/1918; story of men in listening post being bludgeoned; problem of swampy ground in front of trenches; description of opening of German offensive, 21/Mar/1918; problem of heavy fog; commanded by Royal Engineers colonel; description of retreat and joining French troops in open country; story of adjutant and colonel being killed by machine gun; casualties among officers; took shelter in shell hole; description of German troops advancing; Red Cross vans; memory of seeing Uhlans; problem of German machine gun post; story of temporary loss of hearing after rifle fired close to ear; iron rations; various memories of friend Tommy Hughes; fired on by own troops.
REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of demobilisation in GB, 1919: posted to Prees Heath camp, Oswestry: medical examination; attitude to pension; issued with civilian clothing; retained army boots; issued with ration card and travel warrant; gratuities; returned to Chester. Further recollections of operations with Royal Berkshire Regt on Western Front, 1916-1918: reaction to death and wounding of friends; description of effects of mustard and chlorine gas; returned to line at Ham, Somme, France, 1918; description of deserted villages; memory of seeing Canadian troops launch counter-attack against Germans; reaction to arrival of American troops; tactical exercises; description of attack at Warlincourt, 8/1918; wounded in leg by machine gun bullet on leaving trench; description of wound and medical treatment; [repetition of earlier material]; problem of lice; story of colonel's shirts and lice; further comments on being wounded and medical treatment; description of field dressing station; taken to Rouen; evacuated aboard hospital ship St Andrew to Portsmouth, GB, 1918. Aspects of period in GB and Dublin, Ireland, 1918-1919: description of treatment at Red Cross hospital in Burnham-on-Crouch; duties in hospital; further comments on leg wound; home leave, 11/1918; posted to Wellington Barracks, Portsmouth; posted to Dublin, Ireland; guard duty and patrols; reaction of Irish civilians; story of train journey to Chester station.