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Description: | Photocopied ts extract (54pp) from a memoir describing his enlistment in September 1914 into the 20th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (3rd Public Schools) at Epsom, their attestation and training and initial enthusiasm, move to Clipstone camp, Nottinghamshire (May 1915) and then Tidworth Barracks, Salisbury Plain (August 1915) for further instruction, embarkation for the Western Front in November 1915 to join the 19th Brigade (33rd Division), their arrival in France and his first experience of trench warfare, living conditions, food and hygiene, being issued with the new box respirators in case of poison gas, their move to the Somme sector (July 1916), involvement in the fighting near High Wod (July - August 1916) and the high casualties suffered by his unit, his general feelings about the Battle of the Somme, his return to the UK for officer training with the Royal Engineers based at Brompton Barracks, Chatham and Aldershot (November 1916 - February 1917), then back to the Western Front in March 1917 as a Lieutenant with the 205th Field Company RE (105th Brigade, 35th Division) in the Third Battle of Ypres (August - November 1917), his duties as a Liaison Officer to the 201st Regiment of French Infantry, the atrocious conditions in the Ypres Salient, the British retreat following the German spring offensive of 21 March 1918, the Spanish influenza pandemic which broke out in 1918, the final advance into Germany and announcement of the Armistice, and his return to civilian life in 1919. Together with a photocopied reprint from the ROYAL ENGINEERS JOURNAL containing an abridged version of his wartime account (9pp); a ts draft of the same article (16pp); ts draft (6pp) of an article written by him in 1978 concerning 'Tunnelling Warfare'; a photocopied ts War Diary entitled 'With the Royal Engineers of the Irish Division' (20pp, 21 March - 4 April 1918); a few printed items relating to battlefield tours in the 1960s, original orders and service documents, and a good number of photographs, some relating to his service as a Squadron Leader in the RAF during the Second World War.
Cataloguer APR
Catalogue date 2005-12-20 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Skelton, G | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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