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Description: | Photocopied ts transcription (235pp) of a diary kept during his service as a Signaller with the Royal Engineers, based mainly at the 4th Army Signal Office on the Western Front, May 1916 - January 1919, describing his initial journey to the frontline and signalling duties, visits to YMCA canteens and estaminets, his low opinion of the military leadership and criticism of the way in which the war was being fought (especially with regard to the Battle of the Somme), his views on the architecture of French churches and cathedrals and the French way of life, difficulties with the French language, Army discipline, German air raids and aerial warfare, the prevalence of war rumours, the ruins of Albert and Arras, Christmas celebrations, prostitution in Amiens, a visit to a relative's grave, his billets, the condition of recently-captured German territory, periods of leave back in the United Kingdom, and time spent in a Casualty Clearing Station before evacuation to a rest camp with stomach pains; then with the Army of Occupation in Germany, January - July 1919, referring to post-war conditions in the country including the lack of food, his billets, sightseeing and the local architecture, recreational activities including sports, the German way of life, drunken behaviour by British soldiers, British war graves and his witnessing a military funeral, fraternisation with German civilians and his improper arrest by Military Police.
Cataloguer APR
Catalogue date 2001-10-03 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Eachus, S T | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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