Description
Object description
British trooper served with 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons and 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Dragoon Guards on Western Front, 1916-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of operations with 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons and 5th Dragoon Guards on Western Front, 1916-1918: summary of movements in Somme area, France, c.7/1916; description of trenches; cookhouse; use of ammonal to destroy German saps; method of advance behind creeping barrage; laying of guide tapes; bugle calls; story of helping wounded sapper; wounded by shrapnel in foot; medical treatment at US Red Cross hospital near Le Havre; evacuated to GB aboard hospital ship Carisbrook Castle for further medical treatment and convalescence; returned to reserve regiment in Aldershot; sailed from Southampton to Boulogne, France, 2/1918; seven days in depot waiting to be posted; question of secrecy about location of regiments, 2/1918; role in operations at Corbie during German offensive, 3/1918; wounded in arm, 29/Mar/1918; medical treatment at Rouen hospital; evacuated to GB aboard hospital ship Queen Alexandra for further medical treatment and convalescence; posted to Aintree race course for possible deployment to Ireland; weather conditions in France; caught scabies from horses; opinion of rations; story of being saved from bullet wound by bag of flour; attitude to entry of US into war; various memories of brother Fred, killed in action in 1918. Aspects of period in GB, 1914-1916: reason for volunteering; employment as gardener; story of enlistment in Stratford, London; question of age and providing birth certificate. Further aspects of operations with 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons and 5th Dragoon Guards on Western Front, 1916-1918: description of mining operations against German lines; opinion of German dugouts; sugar factories; memory of Golden Virgin statue in Albert; opinion of rations.
REEL 2 Continues: price of cigarettes; feeding and care of horses; use of mules; blankets; carried corn bags and spare horse shoes; equipped with lance; gas attacks; role of cavalry; problem of deep mud and poor roads; use of whale oil to treat frostbite; description of underwear and uniform; issued with leather jerkin for winter; received scarves and mittens from home; personal hygiene; washing clothes; opinion of Army Postal Service; lasting effect of foot wound; story of having X-ray on foot. Reflections on war and attitude to anti-war movement.