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Description: | British private served with 10th Bn Durham Light Infantry on Western Front, 1917-1918
REEL 1: Background in Northumberland and Yorkshire, 1899-1914: family; employment; education; wages and hours; death of father; sporting and recreational activities; opinion of education; description of employment as dental technician in Scarborough, Yorkshire; activities with Boy Scouts; memory of outbreak of war, 8/1914; description of effects of German bombardment of Scarborough; story of being conscripted, 1916; pay; reported to Catterick and medical; question of choosing regiment; Aspects of training with 10th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 1916-1917: posted to Stockton-on-Tees; posted to Thornaby racecourse and role in charge of mules; posted to Rugely, Staffs; uniform; reaction of parents to conscription; description of basic training; drill; accommodation; cleaning uniform and kit; inspections; opinion of food; daily routine; messing arrangements; opinion of NCO instructors; discipline; attitude to army life; memory of sergeant-major; guard duty; posted to camp in Essex; living conditions.
REEL 2 Continues: leave; army boots; bayonet practice; route marches; relations with civilians; gas training; rifle and machine training; embarkation leave; description of voyage from Dover to Calais, 8/1917. Recollections of operations as private with 10th Bn Durham Light Infantry on Western Front, 1917-1918: first impressions of Calais; posted to reserve; duties of 10th Bn as pioneer battalion; stand to; accommodation in chateau; personal hygiene; problem of rats; fumigation of uniforms; problem of rats; moved into line on Belgian front; food; question of fear; story of being hit by shrapnel; transportation by buses and cattle trucks; description of duties in line including repairing trenches and laying barbed wire entanglements.
REEL 3 Continues: moved to French front, 1918; description of fighting retreat following German offensive, 21/Mar/1918; smell of cordite; question of fear; problem of shelling; noise of shells; reaction to loss of friends; problem of organisation during retreat; attitude to German POWs; state of health; patrols; casualties; attitude to medals; description of operations with French in Soissons sector; opinion of French and American troops; composition of 10th Bn; memories of Armistice, 11/1918; memories of Chinese labourers; marched into Germany; attitude of German civilians; posted to base camp; opinion of officers; attitude to promotion; opinion of training; demobilisation at Catterick, 6/1919. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Bielby, S | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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