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Description: | British officer served with 2nd and 20th Bns Lancashire Fusiliers and as staff officer at HQ 104th Bde, 35th Div on Western Front, 1915-1918
REEL 1: Background in GB, 1914-1915: enlisted with brother in Special Reserve 1914; commissioned, 15/Aug/1914; posted to 2nd Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 5/1915. Aspects of operations with 2nd Bn Lancashire Fusiliers on Western Front, 1915: relieved French troops in Ypres Salient, Belgium; description of conditions; memory of unburied Algerian troops; length of first tour of duty in trenches; problem of lack of water; attitude to gas attacks; rest period out of line; description of operation with battalion of Queen’s Royal Rifle Corps; high level of casualties; full strength of battalion in line; casualties among officers; proximity of German trenches; took over command of sector of trench; description of damage to left eye after bullet shattered spectacles; problem of blood in eyes and temporary loss of sight; medical treatment and evacuation to Canadian Casualty Clearing Station at Le Touquet, France; operation and decision not to remove eye; returned to GB for further treatment; posted back to France end of July1916; problem of continuing with frontline duties due to eye injury. Aspects of operations with 20th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers on Western Front, 1916-1917: special requirements of bantam battalion; average height of soldiers; specially constructed fire-step in trench; question of not carrying full pack; opinion of fighting qualities of 20th Bn; morale; description of trenches on outskirts of Arras; proximity of German trenches; role as company commander; story of finding five sentries asleep on duty; attitude to ‘live and let live’ system; story of platoon commander being killed and body hanging on barbed wire; problem of rats; effect of rat poison; description of killing rats; removal of bantam soldiers from 20th Bn; classified unfit for front line command and posted to HQ 104th Bde. Aspects of operations as staff officer at HQ 104th Bde, 35th Div on Western Front, 1917-1918: duties as Assistant Brigade Major and Intelligence Officer; opinion of Brigade Major Bernard Law Montgomery; opinion of new Brigade Major Simmons; transferred to Passchendaele sector, Belgium, 1917; description of terrain and living conditions; opinion of high command strategy; description of operations on 7/Nov/1917; problem of removing wounded; high casualty rate; opinion of brigade commander; story of being reprimanded for mentioning lack of contact with senior commanders in War Diary; memories of visit by Prince of Wales.
REEL 2 Continues: moved to sector south of Passchendaele and occupied trenches on Ypres Salient; description of start of German offensive, 21/3/1918; moved to Somme area, France; transport in buses to front line; morale of retreating British troops; occupied position in timber yard near Bde HQ; preference for rifle over revolver; killed members of German machine gun team; story of general winning posthumous VC; problem of establishing contact with right flank; story of stopping staff car on road; description of moving into village and presence of German troops; meeting with battalion commanders; demolished bridge over River Ancre after crossing; problem of exhaustion; story of horse; moved to position in chalk pit; shelled by Germans; casualties including soldier with leg blown off; relieved by Australians; moved to southern part of Ypres Salient; information from German POW about possible attack; location of Bde HQ; amusing story of costume; posted to Army HQ for staff course until end of war, 11/1918; story of Bde troops suppressing mutiny at leave camp in Calais, France, 1918; capture of deserters; demobilised, 1919. Post-war life in GB: returned to Christ Church College, Oxford, 3/1919; story of four members of Christ Church College rowing team being killed in war. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | MacIver, Alan Squarey | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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