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Description: | Ms journal (5 books, 359pp), somewhat anecdotal, covering his service with the 151st Machine Gun Company, 1/6th Battalion Durham Light Infantry, April 1915 - October 1918, in which he describes being stationed behind the front lines for the 2nd Battle of Ypres and watching the return of the walking wounded, the death of men in his Division from 'friendly fire', searching a railway station for wounded or dead of their own Division and the moral conflict of leaving unknown British soldiers behind (April 1915 - September 1916), the Division's first battle experience at Flers-Courcelette in which he served as a signaller (September 1916) and the winter spent on the Somme battlefields (September 1916 - March 1917), the contrast between his Division and the new, conscripted officers who relieve them, the journey to Arras where he worked as Orderly Sergeant during the second phase of the Second Battle of Arras (April - May 1917), news of various raids on the Arras front and the later journey to Flanders, with detailed descriptions of the alcohol consumed by the Orderly Room Staff (July - October 1917), the subsequent retreat during the German Spring Offensive (May 1918), his descriptions of marching past piles of dead American soldiers awaiting burial, and his inability to sleep due to nerves. Also included are his trench maps of Hazebrouck and Lens, a map showing final trench positions at the end of the Battle of the Somme, a BEF Christmas card from 1917 and a book of postcards showing the ruins of Vimy.
Cataloguer BEK
Catalogue date 2006-06-20 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Barclay, J | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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