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Description: | British NCO served with 4th Bn Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regt) on Western Front, 1915-1917, including Battle of the Somme, 7/1916; served with 370 Forestry Coy, Royal Engineers in France, 1917-1919
REEL 1: Aspects of period in London, 1896-1915: family; education; employment in barber's shop; story of obtaining employment in Monninger's saw mill; wages; location of factory in Saffron Hill and move to Tottenham; daily routine and working hours; description of work in saw mill; activities with Boys' Brigade including camps.
REEL 2 Continues: uniform and kit; role as instructor; attitude to military training; reaction to outbreak of war, 8/1914; comments on Boer War; reason for enlisting; social conditions; story of being given white feather by girl; question of physical condition and attempt to join regular army; story of enlistment with Royal Fusiliers in Hoxton, 1/1915; memory of eating red herrings; posted to Barnet.
REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of training with Royal Fusiliers in GB, 1-4/1915: posted to Oak Hill; accommodation in country house; training in Trent Park; opinion of food; uniform; shaving; rifle and bayonet practice; opinion of instructors; drill and marching; opinion of training; attitude to military life and discipline; inoculations; physical condition; relations with other recruits; daily routine; recreational and sporting activities; opinion of NCOs and officers; pay; haircuts; drafted to France, 4/1915; by train to Southampton; story of sending letters; description of voyage to France aboard SS Munich, 15/Apr/1915.
REEL 4 Continues: conditions aboard ship. Recollections of operations as NCO with 4th Bn Royal Fusiliers on Western Front, 1915-1917; disembarked at Rouen; issued with long Lee Enfield rifles; memory of smell of horses; story of order to reverse arms; marched to camp near pine forest; memory of concert party and hearing popular songs; conditions in camp; opinion of railway transport; story of rumour about German use of gas; attitude to use of gas; entrained to railhead near Poperinghe, Belgium; story of sleeping in shop; marched to Poperinghe; memory of canvas stalls in market square; civilian population evacuated.
REEL 5 Continues: memory of refugees on road; description of Red Cross GS wagon; memory of seeing fire in St Julien; marched to Ypres; troops given paper and envelopes to write home; marched to village of Le Paradis; moved into front line trenches in Neuve Chapelle sector, France; description of conditions in trenches; view across No Man's Land; barbed wire; proximity of German trenches; slept on firing step; problem of water supplies and washing facilities; rations carried up in sand bags; description of rations; story of breaking tooth on biscuit and treatment; tobacco and cigarette ration.
REEL 6 Continues: distribution of rations; contents of parcels from home; question of sharing and trading parcels; comradeship; rum ration; stand to; state of health; trench feet and use of whale oil; problem of lice and rats; daily routine; stand to; repairs to trenches at night; wiring parties; description of barbed wire; story of period of six weeks in front line; reliefs; conditions out of line; baths; billets; estaminets; memory of chicory water in cauldron.
REEL 7 Continues: daily routine and duties in reserve; baths at La Gorgue; washing and delousing clothes; inspections; discipline; recreational activities; memories of estaminets; opinion of French wine and beer; opinion of Indian troops; opinion of officers; German artillery fire; problem of lack of artillery shells; snipers.
REEL 8 Continues: further comments on snipers; morale; attitude to shell shock and self-inflicted wounds; duties with wiring and carrying parties; Very lights; use of waterproof sheet; story of home leave, 4/1916; personal hygiene and cleaning of clothes; question of awareness of civilians about conditions at front.
REEL 9 Continues: living conditions in trenches; pay and prices; problem of lack of money; recreational activities on leave; relations with civilians; description of journey back to Western Front; training at bombing school; daily routine and duties; opinion of rations.
REEL 10 Continues: location of battalion near Arras; marched to Doullens; memory of shops; marched to Hebuterne sector, Somme; story of digging trenches; opinion of German trenches; proximity to German trenches; description of trench system in W sector and preparations for Somme offensive, 4-6/1916; role in operations on first day of Battle of Somme, 1/Jul/1916; description of going over the top and occupying deserted German trenches; attitude to taking souvenirs from dead Germans; care of wounded; casualties; opinion of German defensive strategy; returned to own trenches.
REEL 11 Continues: description of terrain and wounded; distance between British and German trenches; attitude to losses; treatment of wounded and burial of dead; problem of trenches filling with water; living conditions in trenches; transferred to Combles sector; description of terrain around Bois de Leuze ('Lousy Wood'); proximity of Germans; various uses of timber; location in former German trenches.
REEL 12 Continues: opinion of Germans; summary of movements in Somme area, 1916; living conditions; problem of water shortage; story of Captain Cooper; problem of bayonet scabbard damaged by shrapnel.
REEL 13: relieved by 4th Bn Middlesex Regt; further comments on damaged bayonet scabbard; transported by GS wagon to trenches at Le Paradis, Neuve Chapelle sector, 1/1917; terrain and trench system; various memories of Christmas in trenches; daily routine; problem of snipers; story of train journey to Rouen; trade test with Royal Engineers; transferred to Royal Engineers and promoted corporal, 9/1917.
REEL 14 Continues: story of promotion to lance-corporal, 1916. Recollections of operations as NCO with 370 Forestry Coy, Royal Engineers in France, 1917-1919: description of machinery and work at saw mills in Vieux Rouen and Incheville; distribution of timber and uses on Western Front; memories of Chinese labourers.
REEL 15 Continues: use of German POWs and black boys in saw mills; duties as corporal; number of employees; machinery and tools; story of studs; cutting railway sleepers; repair of saws; organisation of mills; types of wood.
REEL 16 Continues: accommodation; description of saws and method of cutting wood; daily routine and hours; story of complaint leading to closure of mill; food; story of well; memory of post-visit to Incheville; relations with French civilians; posted to saw mill at Gamaches, Somme; description of mill and location; daily routine and duties; equipment.
REEL 17 Continues: number of saws; night shifts; removal of sawdust and cleaning of machinery; food; story of night watchman and dog; accommodation in huts; washing and sanitary facilities; use of chloride to purify water; story of water diviner; personal hygiene; washing clothes; comparison of living conditions in saw mills and at front; recreational activities.
REEL 18 Continues: story of home leave, 9/1917; posted to saw mill at Richemont, 1918; transport and communications; organisation; daily routine and duties; machinery and saws; length of service; discipline; personnel and duties; wood fuel for machinery; pay.
REEL 19 Continues: memories of café in Richemont; relations with French civilians; opinion of food; parcels from home; use of Field Service Post Card and Green Envelope and question of censorship.
REEL 20 Continues: accommodation at Richemont; use of men from Labour Corps and Pioneer Corps; recreational activities; daily routine and working hours; memories of last home leave, 9/1918; reaction to news of Armistice, 11/11/1918; posted to Ormelles and nature of duties; accommodation and food; story of return to GB, 3/1919.
REEL 21 Continues: problem of seasickness; demobilised at Wimbledon and transferred to Army Reserve; gratuity; attitude to leaving Army; medals. Post-war life and employment: price of alcohol; returned to pre-war employment at saw mill in Tottenham; reflections on period of military service; question of adjusting to civilian life; employment as saw doctor with London Transport, 1930-1965; wages; service with ARP and Home Guard during Second World War, 1939-1945; story of fire-watching at Chiswick; memory of V1 landing and damage. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Brooke, Bill | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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