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Description: | Photocopied ts memoir (48pp) recording his experiences during the First World War, enlisting with the East Surrey Regiment in October 1915, then on active service with the 13th Battalion (120th Brigade, 40th Division until February 1918, then 119th Brigade, 40th Division) on the Western Front until his capture by the Germans at Laventie on 9 April 1918 and subsequent time as a prisoner of war, describing his initial seven month training in Britain, embarkation for France and the Channel crossing, his responsibility for providing his Company with clean water and the problems associated with the transportation of supplies to the Front Line, general conditions in the trenches, troop entertainments, the use of field punishments and poison gas, the disorganisation of the Allied retreat of 21 March 1918, his treatment as a prisoner of war and conditions in Dulmen camp, Westphalia, the poor sanitation of the camp hospital where he was treated for dysentery, forced labour in a coal mine and ill-treatment which led to his catching pneumonia, the lack of adequate food in Germany and the high value attached to Red Cross parcels, the announcement of the Armistice, and his return to Britain after liberation by travelling by train to Holland and then on to Britain by ship.
Cataloguer APR
Catalogue date 2000-08-31 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Bonsey, A L | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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