Description
Object description
British NCO served as Lewis gunner with C Coy, 18th Bn Manchester Regt on Western Front, 1915-1916
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of period in Eccles, Manchester, GB, 1897-1914: family background; education; part-time work on market; joined Boys Brigade and church choir; recreational activities including cinema and cycling; memories of Trafford Park and Manchester Ship Canal; rifle practice with Boys Brigade; description of employment with electrical contractor and as apprentice at British Westinghouse, Trafford Park; story of installing x-ray equipment.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of operations as Lewis gunner with C Coy, 18th Bn Manchester Regt on Western Front, 1915-1916: story of troops singing song 'Good Bye-ee' on departure from Dover; assigned to lifeboat duty during crossing; disembarked Boulogne, France and marched to camp; opinion of rations; problem of swollen genitals caused by drinking infected water; medical inspection for VD; story of colonel reading out list of penalties for disobedience; description of journey by cattle trucks to Bethune; issued with Lewis guns; use of truck to carry guns; weather conditions; first experience of shelling; description of refugees on roads; opinion of Portuguese troops; problem of road under observation from balloons; use of narrow gauge railway; description of heavy German naval gun firing; description of trenches and breastworks; proximity to front line; awareness of smell from dead bodies; description of shrapnel shells bursting; story of crossing duckboard under machine gun fire and casualties; role as No. 2 in Lewis gun team; description of bullet ridden steel helmets in trench; use of tin cans on barbed wire as alarm; description of trenches and dugouts; use of latrine buckets; story of first contact with Germans; problem with Lewis gun misfiring and causing fatality; description of bullet hitting Lewis gun and wounding ear; rum ration; promoted corporal in the field and stripe chalked on arm; method of siting gun on luminous stone.
REEL 3 Continues: method of firing Lewis gun; story of killing German sniper and keeping helmet as souvenir; story of meeting friend from Boys Brigade; question of age and serving at the front; description of trench mortars and 'plum pudding' bombs; excused duties with wiring party; description of Very lights exploding; memories of estaminet; billeted in barn at Jacob's Ladder; amusing story about eggs; story of unwittingly joining queue for brothel and reaction of padre; opinion of Salvation Army facilities; moved into trenches at Festubert; problem of digging trenches; use of numbered islands of ground as strongpoints; description of bombing squad armed with Mills bombs and cudgels; story of two soldiers bayoneted to death in trench; problem of snipers; duties digging cable trenches at La Bassee; role of Lewis gun team as part of flying column; description of cemetery marked with wooden crosses; description of march to Somme sector; bivouacked in field; description of manoeuvres near village of Bapaume; opinion of Canadians; marched to Flesselles; Bn made up to strength and marched to Suzanne; location of Coy HQ in tram shed; story meeting future brother-in-law Ernest Withington; description of Happy Valley and Crucifix Corner; story of receiving parcel from home.
REEL 4 Continues: description of attack on Bapaume, 12/Oct/1916; preliminary artillery barrage; story of taking Lewis guns and ammunition up with ration party; story of sheltering in shell hole next to dead German; story of friend dismembered after shell landed on ration party and keeping rosary as memento; story of killing three Germans with Lewis gun; story about doctor at dressing station blinded by gas; story about Prussian officer; description of Scottish soldiers dropping hand grenades into German dugouts; description of attack on objective at Martin's Farm; story of being trapped in position while waiting reinforcements; description of memorial service for casualties; problem of sunstroke; description of German bodies being burned in tents; preparations for attack and casualties in C Coy; story of black colonial troops being beaten by French soldiers; marched to Arras as part of flying column; duties at listening post; posted to camp at Etaples; returned to GB and posted to Ripon, Yorkshire as instructor for new recruits until end of war; various memories of soldiers in billets in Manchester; pride in being Territorial soldier; importance of comradeship. Further memories of pre-war employment at British Westinghouse, Trafford Park.