Description
Object description
British NCO served as gunner with C Coy, 11th (K) Bn, Tank Corps on Western Front, 1916-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of training in GB, 1916: joined Training Reserve, Watford, 2/1916; transferred to Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch), Thetford, 1916; posted to Bovington Camp, Dorset; description of training with 6-pounder, Hotchkiss and Lewis guns; signallers course; use of Mills bombs and dynamite; sailed from Portsmouth to Le Havre, France, 24/Dec/1916. Aspects of operations with C Coy, 11th (K) Bn, Tank Corps on Western Front, 1916-1918: arrived in Blangy, near Albert; moved to Arras sector; first action at Monchy-le-Preux; gassed and treated at 23rd Canadian Hospital for eight weeks; problem of mechanical failure of tanks; effects of being gassed including blisters; description of new tracks being fitted to tank; weight and number of individual plates in track; role in operations during Battle of Cambrai, 11/1917; story of one tank driving over another to cross river; method of changing gears; steering mechanism; role as gunner in tank; conditions inside tank; drive mechanism; petrol tank at back; method of entering tank; number and position of crew; self-starting engines; problem of armour piercing bullets entering tank; casualties at Cambrai; use of tanks to create gaps in barbed wire along Hindenburg Line; role in operations at Bethune, La Bassee Canal, 1918; tanks sheltered in embankment; German plane bombed position; slept in dugouts; description of 'whizz-bang'; story of being protected by dog during bombardment; opinion of facilities at army depot; organization of 11th Battalion into three companies; repairs to tanks; in Valenciennes when Armistice announced, 11/Nov/1918; story of German POWs on train; reaction to news of Armistice and celebrations in Arras; memories of cathedral bell lying on ground and French soldier singing 'La guerre fini'; story of breaking into estaminet and taking beer and cigarettes; pay; opinion of rations.
REEL 2: further comments on rations; favourite meal of egg and chips in estaminet; further description of operations at La Bassee Canal; abandoned tanks; set up machine gun posts; story of firing tracer bullets at German plane; machine gun posts destroyed by shells; story of being charged with abandoning post; visibility from tank and use of periscope; story of capturing Germans; suitability of tanks for mobile warfare; route marches every morning; role in operations at Havrincourt Wood; loss of tanks and casualties; treatment for shrapnel wounds after direct hit on tank at Villers-Bretonneux, 9/Sep/1918; military service of three brothers; question of rank on medals; duties as corporal in charge of ration dump; story of being given medallion by French girl; weather conditions; washed in river at Blangy; use of duckboards in trenches; accommodation in round huts; attitude to army life; description of watching shells land at La Bassee Canal; story of finding concertina; question of looters being shot. Further aspects of training at Bovington Camp, GB, 1916: problem of mud; movement of gun turret in tank; trained for every position in tank; gas training; amusing story of signal.