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Description: | Ms diary (16pp) written while serving as a Captain in the Royal Field Artillery and describing his escort of a shipment of men and horses to the Western Front, 30 September – 10 October 1914, recording the loading of horses on board the SS ARCHIMEDES and embarkation from Southampton, the uneventful crossing and disembarkation at Le Havre, the movement of horses in and out of the depot, his orders to accompany a train of 400 horses for the front, the warm reception received from the French people despite the destruction to their countryside and towns caused by war, the sounds of fighting near the frontline, his return to Le Havre via Rouen and embarkation home on the SS ROSSETTE; together with a photocopy of a second ms diary (11pp), 29 May – 14 June 1915, describing a further visit to the Western Front to inspect artillery units, referring to the French civilians’ reactions to shelling, the devastation caused by the war and his observation of how roadside shrines often managed to survive the shelling, time spent in the trenches where he came under fire from snipers, the harsh conditions at the frontline and the prevalence of unburied dead, an incident in which a grenade was thrown into a cellar-full of German soldiers, aerial warfare, and his return home. Also held with the collection is a very interesting ms diary for the Forward Observation Post manned by ‘A’ Battery, 271st Brigade RFA (54th Division) which he commanded at Lees Hill in Gaza, Palestine (85pp, 9 May – 25 August 1917); his Army Book 152 containing carbon copies of ms messages sent (77pp, 18 July – 12 September 1916) while in Palestine; an aerial observation photograph of Gaza (10 September 1917); and a ts cyclostyled history of 289 Commando Battery RA (38pp) covering the period from 1859 up to 1981, incorporating the 271st Brigade RFA and subsequently the 85th (2nd East Anglian) Field Brigade TA, in both of which Wilson served.
Cataloguer APR | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Wilson, Harold Rene | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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