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Description: | British private served as bus driver with Motor Transport Auxiliary, Army Service Corps on Western Front, 1914-1918
REEL 1: Background in London, 1890-1914: family life; employment making fountain pens; employed as driver with London General Omnibus Company, 1912-1914; training on B-type bus; bus companies; reaction to outbreak of war, 8/1914; story of enlistment in London, 17/Oct, 1914; conversion of buses for military use; drove buses to Avonmouth; voyage to France. Recollection of operations as bus driver with Motor Transport Auxiliary, Army Service Corps on Western Front, 1914-1918: posted to Ypres sector, Belgium; description of duties transporting troops at night; casualties among bus crews; question of military training; carried rifle in bus; repairs to buses; travelled in convoy; number of buses; memory of seeing Prince of Wales; role in transporting troops of 47th Div during Battle of Loos, 1915; morale of troops; evacuated casualties to base hospitals; number of troops on bus; bus crew.
REEL 2 Continues: memories of 14th Bn London Regt (London Scottish) at St Omer; transported cavalry troops into trenches; memory of seeing Sir Douglas Haig; story of Indian troops with frostbite; summary of movements on Western Front, 1914-1918; problem of buses freezing up; opinion of American troops; German POWs; bus parks; slept on bus; memory of gas casualties; attitude to deserters; discipline; drill; pay; types of buses used; home leave; opinion of officers; problem of refugees on roads; relations with French civilians; condition of roads; maintenance of buses; petrol supplies; description of iron wheels and suspension; memories of Armistice, 11/1918; demobilisation at Crystal Palace, GB, 3/1919.
REEL 3 Continues: gratuity and medical examination after demobilisation; attitude to rum ration; guard duty on vehicles; further memories of transporting troops into front line; driving in dark without lights; memory of Christmas dinner, 1914; question of cooking food; rations; estaminets; reflections on war. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Stovold, Jan R | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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