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Description: | British NCO served with Royal Army Ordnance Corps at Archangel, Russia, 1918-1919
REEL 1 Recollections of operations as NCO with Royal Army Ordnance Corps at Archangel, Russia, 1918-1919: joined army in 1915; service on Western Front, 1916-1918; return to GB and reasons for volunteering to go to Russia; background to Allied intervention in Russia; description of sea journey to Archangel; problem of sea-sickness; accommodation and sleeping arrangements; amusing story of incident in mess; tobacco; description of Archangel and surrounding area; arrival at Ordnance Depot at Bakaritza, 9/1918; description of winter clothing and problem of extreme cold; role and nature of duties dealing with supplies and ammunition; co-operation with Russian forces; types of horses and use of sleighs; opinion of Russian workers; use of Russian workers for snow clearing and moving barbed wire; description of various types of boots and fur hats.
REEL 2: Continues: memory of crossing frozen river and using railway sleepers to make road; story of sleeping in railway truck and problem with sleeping bag; memory of requisitioning horses; opinion of Russian tea and rations; memory of skiing on hillside; use of sleighs; relationship with civilian population; description of Russian houses and opinion of billets; Russian phrases; amusing story of little boy and cigarettes; description of Russian horse-collars; sharing tea rations with civilian population; memory of friend marrying Russian girl; relationship with White Russians and memory of visiting Russian commandant; problem of lice; description of Russian baths.
REEL 3 Continues: story of Russian prisoners and ammunition supplies; problems with transport; memory of Singer sewing machine in cottage; problem of water supplies freezing up; return to GB, 7/1919; story of Russians using abacus; treatment of Bolshevik prisoners; formation and training of Dyer's Regiment and defection back to Bolsheviks; memory of visiting fish market; Russian words and phrases; problem of contraband goods in railway trucks; problem with learning Russian language and further words and phrases; memory of friend and Russian wife.
REEL 4 Continues: return to GB for demobilization, 7/1919, and further memories of friend and Russian wife; opinion of Russian people. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Earnshaw, R H | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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