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Description: | British NCO served with 14th, 1st, 18th and 4th Bns Middlesex Regt and Tank Corps in GB and on Western Front, 1914-1918.
REEL 1: Recollections of operations as corporal in Tank Corps on Western Front, 1917-1918: role as second right-hand gunner; firing at houses to knock off slates; description of re-starting and driving away damaged tank; bombed by German aircraft and memory of seeing horses killed; dug-in in chalk-pit; casualties; three week rest followed by posting to Fontainbleau; selling souvenirs to Americans; move to Mormal Forest, 10/1918; story of smelling salts after mustard gas attack; memory of celebrating Armistice and return to GB for demobilisation.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of training with 14th Bn Middlesex Regt in GB, 1914: memory of outbreak of war, 8/1914 and brothers volunteering; enlistment at New Cross, 28/Aug/1914; posted to 14th Bn Middlesex Regt; training at barracks in Chatham and Gravesend; drill practise; amusing story of accidentally bayoneting sergeant major; issue of uniform; memories of billets in Colchester, Shoreham and Lancing, including seeing Zeppelin raid. Recollections of operations with 1st Bn Middlesex Regt on Western Front, 1914-1918; arrival in France, 9/1914; posted to 1st Bn Middlesex Regt; involvement in action at Loos; amusing story of having French pigs for Christmas lunch; explanation of term 'thinning out parades'; manning machine-gun post at 'Seymour Street' in Cambrin sector; memory of friend injured by shrapnel; story of hearing German miners tunneling and memory of mine explosion; story of French spy signalling to German aircraft on La Bassee Road; memory of friends injured by shell in trench; story of accidental injury to Corporal Sylvester and post-war meeting; description of conditions in trenches at Festhubert; memory of officer shooting rats in water; story of two men hit by one bullet.
REEL 3 Continues: description of position on La Bassee-Bethune road; casualties caused by German shelling; transfer from machine-guns to scouting party; memory of battalion Commanding Officer on white horse; firing rifle grenades and Stokes' mortars; night attack and story of failed attempt to take prisoners; wounded in legs by shell fire, 7/1916 and return to GB for treatment and convalescence; memory of girl giving him strawberries on station. Recollections of operations with 18th and 4th Bns Middlesex Regt on Western Front, 1916-1918: arrival in France, 8/1916, and posted to 18th Bn Middlesex Regt at Bray; story of stealing coal; memory of man hit by shell cap in trench; memory of man blown up by brazier.
REEL 4 Continues: posted to 4th Bn Middlesex Regt; description of operations at Courcelles and clearing dug-outs in Hindenburg Line; danger of booby-traps; story of taking German prisoners; description of operations near Ypres and in Polygon Wood; danger from splinter grenades; move to Passchendaele; loss of men in ration parties; carrying Vickers machine gun; medical treatment; memory of sleeping on corpse; amusing story of encountering Germans in shell hole.
REEL 5 Continues: Further recollections of operations as NCO with Tank Corps in GB and on Western Front, 1917-1918: volunteering for Tank Corps in Polygon Wood; selection process and tests for volunteers; return to GB for period of training at Bovington Camp;description of training and naval gunnery training at Chatham and Lulworth Cove; return to France to collect tank; problem with engine; involvement in action at Cambrai, 11/1917; description of zero hour and attack; memory of seeing Germans surrendering; issue of rum ration; promotion to first driver. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Fullerton, W J | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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