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Description: | British private served with 1/5th Bn West Yorkshire Regt on Western Front and in Germany, 1918-1919
REEL1: Background in Deptford, London, GB, 1889-1917: family; education; employment as errand boy in greengrocer's shop; memory of outbreak of war, 8/1914; effects of war on daily life; story of enlistment in Deptford, 10/1917; issued with armband; reaction of parents; called up to 97th Training Reserve, 1/1918. Aspects of training in GB, 1918: posted to Barossa barracks, Aldershot; accommodation; uniform and kit; kit inspection; opinion of food; description of training; drill; rifle practice; passed as Second Class shot; bayonet training; route marches; gas and Mills bomb training; accidents during training; posted to 1/5th Bn Royal Sussex Regt; relations with other recruits; opinion of NCOs including Sergeant-Major Nicholson; opinion of officers; attitude to army life and discipline; recreational and sporting activities; religious beliefs; reason for being Confined to Barracks; posted to Cromer; billeted in hotel; training; embarkation leave; posted to France, 1/1918. Recollections of operations as private with 1/5th West Yorkshire Regt on Western Front, 1918: landed at Calais; transferred to B Coy 1/5th Bn West Yorkshire Regt; description of training at Etaples camp; transport by cattle trucks to Ypres sector, Belgium; first impressions of front line.
REEL 2 Continues: description of living conditions in trenches and dugouts; duties with ration party; opinion of rations; water; rum ration; iron rations; washing and shaving; latrines; problem of lice; baths; problem of rats; weather conditions; use of whale oil on feet; state of health; daily routine; stand to; breakfast; sentry duty; use of trench periscope; topics of conversation; attitude to Germans; problem of corpses and smell; identification of dead; wiring party; story of night patrol; German artillery; question of fear; German machine gun fire from blockhouses; gas shells; gas mask; effects of gas; comparison of German and British bombs; problem of snipers; composition of 1/5th Bn; story of being ordered to collect water.
REEL 3 Continues: various memories of friends; rest periods out of line; description of estaminet; communication with home; parcels from home; problem of cracked lips; opinion of officers; chaplain; description of operations in Ypres sector, Belgium; marched to La Bassee sector, Somme, France; (sings various popular songs); description of attack by 49th Div in Cambrai sector; equipment; preliminary bombardment; description of going over top and crossing No Man's Land; occupied deserted German trenches; casualties; reaction to loss of friends; transferred to Arras sector and description of conditions; memory of French refugees at Givenchy and bayoneted French woman; opinion of American troops; story of joint patrol with Americans.
REEL 4 Continues: description of operations at Valenciennes, France, 11/1918; reaction to Armistice, 11/11/1918. Aspects of operations with 1/5th Bn West Yorkshire Regt in Germany, 11/1918-11/1919: description of duties with Army of Occupation in Cologne, Bickendorf and Zweifel; relations with German civilians and question of fraternisation. Demobilisation at Crystal Palace, London, 29/11/1919; problem of lice in civilian suit; gratuity pay. Post-war life and employment: problem of finding employment; employment on railways . Reflections on period of war service. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Law, Ernest | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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