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Description: | British bombadier served as signaller with 1/4th Northumbrian Howitzer Bty, Royal Artillery in GB and Western Front, 1915-1918
REEL 1: Background in South Shields, Northumberland, 1897-1914: family; education; family life and living conditions; employment as errand boy; pay; story of attempt to emigrate to Australia; enlistment with 1/4th Northumbrian Howitzer Bty, Royal Artillery, 25/Feb/1915. Aspects of training with 1/4th Northumbrian Howitzer Bty Royal Artillery in GB, 1915-1916: reason for volunteering as signaller; description of training as bombadier and signaller in Newcastle, 2-12/1915; training with 1/5th Kent Bty; passed signalling test; Bty moved to Doncaster; story of being removed from Bty strength; duties as bombadier; gunnery course on Salisbury Plain; posted to France, 1/Jul/1916; reaction to being posted overseas.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of operations as bombadier with 1/4th Northumbrian Howitzer Bty Royal Artillery on Western Front, 1916-1918: description of various operations in Loos and Somme sectors; billets; assignment of aircraft recognition expert; duties in observation post; description of laying and repairing telephone lines; story of tooth being extracted; memory of derelict tank; problem of contracting flu and hospitalisation; opinion of sergeant-major in charge of signal section.
REEL 3 Continues: story of German POWs after capture of Beamont Hamel; problem of removing gun from ditch; description of operations on Scarpe, 1917; role in supporting Canadian troops in attack on Vimy Ridge, 1917; description of advancing through tunnels; story of British shells dropping short and casualties; question of Canadian troops attempting to surrender; telephone wire; story of meeting with staff officer; memories of home leave and problem of delousing, 1916.
REEL 4 Continues: further memories of home leave; story of Zeppelin raid; Bty moved to Ypres area, Belgium, 10/1917; destruction of Bty during German bombardment in St Julien sector; casualties; reconstituting of Bty; description of various operations and movements on Western Front, 1918; story of being wounded by shell, 3/1918; evacuated to GB and medical treatment; discharged as unfit for service, 9/1918. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Muir, William James | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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