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Description: | British private served with 2nd Bn East Kent Regt (The Buffs) on Western Front, 1915; POW in Germany, 1915-1918; NCO served with 6th Bn East Kent Regt and No 1 Bn Royal Army Ordnance Corps in GB, 1939-1945
REEL 1: Background in Barham, Kent, 1894-1914: family; father's employment as carpenter; mother a piano teacher; parents' earnings; education; left school at 14; story of confirmation; religious beliefs. Aspects of employment in GB, 1908-1914: employment as odd job man in local house and at boarding house; hours; description of family house; employment with clergyman in Cotswolds; moved to Staffordshire and employment in house; employment as valet to Rt.Hon. William Curzon at Lockington Hall, Derby.
REEL 2 Continues: story of suffragettes; recreational activities; description of activities with Boy Scouts; reaction to outbreak of war, 8/1914; story of enlistment with East Kent Regt in Canterbury, 9/1914; medical examination; reaction of parents to enlistment; issued with uniform and kit; drill; posted to Dover. Aspects of training with 3rd (Reserve) Bn East Kent Regt in GB, 1914-1915: accommodation in tents; story of buying hot water; question of black activities; pay; canteen facilities; opinion of food.
REEL 3 Continues: under canvas 8-10/1914; cold weather; attitude to army life and discipline; fifteen men to a bell tent; sleeping arrangements; drill; manoeuvres; route marches; rifle training; rapid firing; description of Short, Magazine Lee Enfield rifle; bayonet training; bombing training; digging in exercises; opinion of training; question of pride in serving with The Buffs; relations with other recruits and NCOs; opinion of officers; recreational and sporting activities; leave pass; home leave; relations with local civilians in Dover; guard duties in the citadel at Dover Castle; memory of German plane dropping bomb; church parades; drafted to 2nd Bn East Kent Regt in France, 1/1915; method of selection for overseas service; reaction to overseas service.
REEL 4 Continues: story of priest; journey by train to Dover and Southampton; description of voyage to France; story of collision with French trawler; conditions aboard ship; disembarked at Rouen; welcomed by French women with wine; marched to camp; accommodation; entrained to trenches near Kemel, France; posted to B Coy, 2nd Bn East Kent Regt. Recollections of operations as private with 2nd Bn East Kent Regt on Western Front, 1-4/1915: daily routine and duties in reserve trenches; sleeping arrangements; story of house full of corpses; marched into front line; conditions in trenches; proximity of German trenches; description of terrain; memory of French soldiers' boots; defences; dugouts; daily routine; sentry duty; night patrols.
REEL 5 Continues: preparations for night reconnaissance patrols; description of attack on German trenches at Zillebeke, Belgium; problem of snipers; living conditions in trenches; rubber boots; state of health and personal hygiene. [rest of reel is inaudible]
REEL 6 Continues: cigarettes; part of 28th Div, Third Army in Ypres sector; periods in and out of line; filling sandbags; duties out line; discipline; relations with Belgian civilians; gambling including 'under and over'; alcohol; canteen facilities; drunkeness; communication with home; censorship; summary of movements in France and Belgium, 1-4/1915; role in operations during Battle of Neuve Chapelle. 4/1915; rapid fire for two hours; cleaning rifle; story of soldier punished with Field Punishment No 1.
REEL 7 Continues: opinion of officers and NCOs; attitude to senior officers; padres; religious beliefs and attitude to death; topics of conversation; relations with regular soldiers; opinion of French and Germans; treatment of German POWs; duties guarding German POWs; operations in Zillebeke sector; casualties caused by trench mortars; opinion of new drafts; memory of smell of chlorine gas, 4/1915; joined Canadian troops; question of anti-gas precautions; description of gassed Algerian troops; attitude to use of gas; story of Algerian officer.
REEL 8 Continues: relieved Canadian troops in line, 22-23/Apr/1915; engagement with German troops; problem of chlorine gas; casualties; assisted wounded with first aid; condition of trenches; vulnerability of position; treatment and evacuation of wounded; effects of gas; use of blanket soaked in urine as gas mask; rations; memory of eating glacier mints to combat effect of gas; German attack, 23-24/Apr/1915; story of death of friend Pte Parker; captured at Zonnebeke, 24/Apr/1915; treatment of wounded by Germans; taken behind German trenches; memory of seeing gas cylinders.
REEL 9 Continues: question of being searched; attitude to being captured; story of Red Cross driver whipping Canadian troops; conditions on march; description of German gas masks; marched to Courtrai and given soup; story of two Canadian prisoners escaping; number of prisoners; locked into railway trucks; problem of lack of sleep. Aspects of period as POW in camp at Gottingen, Germany, 4-8/1915: description of train journey to Germany; arrived at Gottingen and taken to camp; put into Hut 64A; sleeping arrangements; opinion of conditions; in camp 4-8/1915; opinion of rations of soup and bread; story of selling watch to buy food at camp shop; ersatz coffee.
REEL 10 Continues: water supplies; washing facilities; shaving; problem of lice and delousing procedure; treatment for dysentery; description of work on road building; working hours; food; attitude of German civilians to POWs; church services; parcels from home; communication with family; opinion of German army training; recreational activities; latrines; freedom of movement in camp; guards; role of NCOs in distribution of parcels; question of rank and working.
REEL 11 Continues: organisation of prisoners; question of making complaints; sanitary facilities; locked in at 8 o'clock; organisation of prisoners; relations with German guards; punishments; question of escapes; opinion of French prisoners; attitude to Germans; illiteracy of many prisoners; morale in camp; problem of mental stress of confinement; moved from Gottingen due to ill health to Hamlin by train. Aspects of period as POW at camp in Hamlin, Germany, 8-10/1915: convalescent camp; work creosoting huts; daily routine and working hours; description of camp and conditions; medical treatment; opinion of food; work in pine forest; question of escaping.
REEL 12 Continues: further comments on escaping; awareness of progress of war; censorship of letters; parcels from home; distribution and contents of food parcels; uniform parcel; question of Germans interfering with food parcels; books and newspapers; standard of literacy among prisoners; allowed to write one letter a month; writing letters for illiterate prisoners; writing materials; postal service; camp post cards; freedom of movement in camp; relations with guards.
REEL 13 Continues: memories of guards at Hamlin camp; fights between prisoners; morale of prisoners; food; religious services; German civilian workers in camp; story of leaving Hamlin camp; reaction of German civilians to prisoners; description of train journey to Sessen-am-Hertz, 10/1915. Aspects of period as POW in Sessen-am-Hertz, Germany, 10/1915-1918: hostile reaction of local children to POWs; accommodation in huts; story of post-war meeting with German family; description of hut and living conditions; guards; food; washing and sanitary facilities; description of work at tin ware factory; relations with German civilian workers.
REEL 14 Continues: work welding tins together; friendship with German worker; attitude of German civilians to war; accident to hand; opinion of medical facilities; memories of Polish women workers; sexual relations between workers; supervision in factory; punishment for smoking; story of guard killed by prisoner; question of fires started by prisoners in factory; deaths among prisoners; rotation of jobs; skills of prisoners; nature of work in kilns; further comments on welding.
REEL 15 Continues: opinion of working conditions in factory; accidents; daily routine and hours; work on farms on Sundays; clothing; clogs; weekly wages of 5 pfennig stamp for prisoners; canteen facilities; memory of German beer; question of war work in factory; story of making paper bicycle tyres; further description of work in factory; description of accommodation in factory.
REEL 16 Continues: eating arrangements; number of guards; roll call; lighting; locked in overnight; recreational activities in evening; darning socks for other prisoners; washing facilities; number of prisoners; showers; sanitary facilities; personal hygiene; opinion of accommodation; haircuts; shaving; news of German victories; attitude to French prisoners; memory of Russian prisoners arriving at camp, 1916; attitude to Russians; story of friendship with two Russian prisoners; food parcels.
REEL 17 Continues: story of loaves; various memories of Russian prisoners and relationship between Russians and other prisoners; opinion of Russians; story of biscuits for Russian prisoners.
REEL 18 Continues: camp organisation; state of health of Russian prisoners; attitude of Russian prisoners to war; treatment of Russian prisoners; opinion of Russian prisoners' skills; clothing; opinion of Polish prisoners; memories of Belgian and Canadian prisoners; story of Russian prisoner Nikolai Yurshov; morale and conditions in factory towards end of war.
REEL 19 Continues:story of guards taking prisoners into pine forest; changing attitude of Germans in factory to prisoners towards end of war; memory of seeing German wounded returning; political situation in Germany; story of leaving factory and sent to POW camp near Bremen, 7/Nov/1918; description of camp and conditions; accommodation; food.
REEL 20 Continues: daily routine; story of learning songs; opinion of guards; conditions in camp; washing facilities; memories of Christmas, 1918; morale and state of health; story of two prisoners journey to camp in Hamlin, 12/1918; liberation from camp and return to Hamlin, 29/Dec/1918; food parcels and accommodation; by train to Dutch boarder, 31/Dec/1918; marched into Holland; memory of hearing church bells; accommodation in factory; treatment in hospital; by train to Rotterdam; delousing and medical examination; issued with new clothes and kit.
REEL 21 Continues: description of prison clothes; haircuts; medical examination; state of health; recreational activities; story of German woman posing as soldier; conditions in camp and discipline; embarked aboard troopship Derbyshire; issued with hammock; duties collecting rations; sailed from Rotterdam to Hull via Harwich, 1/1919; by train to army camp in Ripon; issued with cap badge and medal ribbons; gratuity payment; completed form about period of captivity; daily routine; issued with pass and given two months leave; story of visiting family in Barham.
REEL 22 Continues: reaction of family and friends on return; veterans' reunions and meetings; various memories of leave in GB; reported back to depot in Canterbury; question of length of service and pension; discharged from army; back pay. Aspects of post-war life and employment: period of unemployment; story of obtaining job at Snowdown colliery, Kent; description of work as ripper.
REEL 23 Continues: further comments on work as ripper; shifts and wages; effects of period of captivity on health; attitude to Germans; activities with church and dramatic society; further comments on employment at Snowdown colliery; other employment and social activities.
REEL 24 Continues: Aspects of period as NCO with 6th Bn East Kent Regt and No 1 Bn Royal Ordnance Corps in GB, 1939-1945: story of enlisting with East Kent Regt at outbreak of war, 8/1939; reported to depot at Canterbury; issued with uniform and kit; posted to coastal defence at Folkestone harbour; guard duties; description of duties training new recruits; opinion of recruits; gas training course; comparison of training in First and Second World Wars; posted to Maidstone; story of posting to No 1 Bn Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Basingstoke; examination and courses; question of keeping rank of sergeant; description of daily routine and duties in ammunition stores; accidents.
REEL 25 Continues: organisation of camp and ammunition stores; accommodation in barracks; sporting activities; daily routine and duties; relations with officers; delivering supplies; demobilised, 1945. Post-war life and employment. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Colthup, Charles Francis | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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