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Description: | British private served with 20th Bn West Yorkshire Regt and 2/9th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB and on Western Front, 1914-1916; POW in France and Germany, 11/1916-11/1918
REEL 1 Recollections of operations with 20th Bn West Yorkshire Regt and 2/9th Bn Durham Light Infantry on Western Front, 1916: posting to France with 20th Bn West Yorkshire Regt, 10/1916; arrival at Boulogne; training at Etaples and Paris Plage; transferred to 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry at Hennencourt, France; bivuouaced in Mametz Wood; description of trench system; moved into front line trenches in Butte de Warlincourt; description of going over the top, 5/11/1916; fog; briefing from colonel; story of soldier receiving Blighty wound in arm during briefing; artillery barrage; description of leaving trench and crossing No Man's Land; casualties; contact with Germans; probelm of losing direction and re-forming; took shelter in shell hole; problem of being caught in own artillery fire; story of being taken prisoner. Recollections of period as POW in France, 1916-1917: taken to Cambrai and accommodation in barn and barracks; stripped of uniform and equipment by Germans; description of interrogation; nature of work; problem of lice; problem of cold winter and shortage of food; description of work in Bullecourt area on Hindenburg Line.
REEL 2 Continues: description of work on railways unloading trucks; living conditions; problem of lice and blood poisoning; state of health and morale; illness among POWs; opinion of guards; clothes fumigated and hair cut; problem of contracting dysentery; description of medical treatment at hospital in Mons, Belgium, 5/1917; description of journey to POW camp in Giessen, Germany. Recollections of period as POW in Germany, 1917-1918: description of camp and POWs; further treatment in camp hospital; opinion of food and treatment; food shortages among German civilians; description of working on farm, 8/1917-12/1917; relations with French POWs; attitude to farm work; accommodation in village; communications with home; story of Catholic priest; opinion of food; return to camp at Giessen; memory of Christmas, 1917; Red Cross parcels; opinion of Irish soldiers.
REEL 3 Continues: description of work on railways at Hanau; attitude to German civilians; returned to work on farm, 3/1918-11/1918; story of hearing news of Armistice, 11/11/1918; conditions in camp after Armistice; question of release of POWs; description of journey back to GB and return to home in Bradford; story of being reported killed in action. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Wilson, Ernest J | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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