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Description: | British signaller served with 124th and 144th Heavy Batteries Royal Garrison Artillery in GB and on Western Front, 1914-1919
REEL 1 Aspects of period training with 124th Heavy Bty Royal Garrison Artillery at Hedon Racecourse Camp, 2/1915-4/1915: hut accommodation and stables; 4.7" adapted naval guns and question of adequacy of recoil mechanism; role of gun crew; complement of horses; gun limber; importance of getting team of horses to pull as one; use of drag ropes to help free bogged down guns; limbers and GS wagons; description of duties of specialist personnel including farriers, question of veterinary care, saddlers, wheelwright, water carriers; signallers; role of officers and lack of signal expertise of signal officers; football activity.
REEL 2 Continues: learning Morse code and flag drill; method of using heliograph; method of using Begbie signal lamp and story of being caught reading it by mechanism noise rather than light emitted; attending accelerated course at riding school including arrival of horse, 2/1915, horse corn ration, stages of learning to ride bare-backed, cleaning saddlery, cross country riding, horse's response to touch of reins on neck rather than mouth bit, method of laying telephone lines on horseback, use of climbing irons on telegraph poles.
REEL 3 Continues: telephone and Fullerphone equipment; training in method of using Barr and Stroud range finder; re-equipment with 60pdrs and comparison with 4.7"; description of method of loading and firing 60pdr. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine on Western Front, 3/1916-7/1916: effects of wear on range and consequent replacement of gun rifling tube at armaments depot at St Omer; siting telephone lines to avoid damage from German shellfire and skill in detecting line breaks; difficulties with infantry breaking lines laid along side of trenches to observation posts; method of using Lucas E signalling lamps; method of using directors to locate German artillery positions by flash spotting; absence of horses; method of locating and repairing breaks in lines.
REEL 4 Continues: story illustrating importance of splicing new lengths of line to avoid sectors under heavy German shellfire; recreations including gambling and music; beetle swarm; dugouts; food rations. Recollections of Battle of Somme, 6/1916-7/1916: method of communicating with artillery observation aircraft; bringing up shells and cartridge boxes for preliminary bombardment; digging in gun trail; use of common shell to destroy Mametz church tower, 6/1916; description of shrapnel shell mechanics; premature shell detonation; different types of shell fuse.
REEL 5 Continues: forward observation posts in front line and No Man's Land; camouflage of observatioon posts; slowly registering on German batteries; occupying observation post at night; use of aiming post to alight guns and use of siege light at night; observation post duty during preliminary bombardment; account of acting as brigade forward observation post behind first wave during attack on Montauban, 1/7/1916, including lack of effective briefing, being buried by German shells, attempting to get water supply and story of inadvertently carrying corpse to dressing station; move to Carnoy Valley; account of accompanying attack as forward observation post during attack from Montauban towards Longueval, 14/7/1916, including preliminary bombardment, officer's loss of nerve, close escape from shell, small arms fire, joining 8th Bn East Yorkshire Regt, casualty, story of crawling through German box barrage; establishing observation post.
REEL 6 Continues: account of accompanying attack as forward observation post during attack from Montauban towards Longueval, 14/7/1916, including food rations from infantry, view of Morane Saulnier pilot warning Deccan Horse of proximity of German machine guns and of their subsequent successful charge; German POWs' attempt to escape; treatment of officer who lost nerve; account of going forward and investigating Trones Wood and Bernafay Wood sector, 17/7/1916, including dismembered corpse, discovering German observation post, collecting German brass buttons to replace British composition issue and story of receiving jaw, neck and back wounds from German shell burst. Recollections of medical treatment during evacuation to GB, 7/1916: advance field post in Bernafay Wood; crossing former No Man's Land in horse ambulance; motor ambulance journey; story of nurse discovering back wound; fear of tetanus because of locked jaw; use of London buses; advance field post in Bernafay Wood; story of taking in water thorough port hole whilst crossing English Channel aboard St Andrew; train journey from Southampton to Birmingham.
REEL 7 Continues: civilians bidding to buy souvenir German helmet; civilian perception of success of Somme offensive; problems in coping with rate of casualties; reception from civilians on arrival in Manchester and drive to Rochdale; loss of weight. Aspects of period in Birch Hill Workhouse Hospital, Rochdale, 7/1916-12/1916: civilian volunteers; hospital staff; story of breaking out of hospital to visit town and clash with doctor; relationship with civilians; ageing effects of war experiences; Christmas celebration, 25/12/1916. Aspects of period at Ducie Avenue Hospital Manchester, 12/1916-1/1917: complaint over inadequate food rations; confused hierarchy amongst hospital staff; specialist jaw treatment and question of operation to remove shrapnel; disciplinary problems.
REEL 8 Continues: successful request for discharge from hospital. Aspects of period of sick leave in Hull, 1/1917: story of buying pliers for later army use; question of personal and civilian knowledge of progress of war. Recollections of periods at North Camp, Royal Artillery Command Depot, Ripon, Fort Fareham and Avington Park and Winnal Down Signal School, 1/1917-5/1917: reception; unsympathetic attitude of Medical Board; story illustrating attitude of senior officer; story of protest over inadequate food rations; stealing coal; reactions to unnecessary fire drill; opinion of 'John Bull'; inspection of parcels sent home; example of anti-Semitism of Medical Board and victim's subsequent death.
REEL 9 Continues: volunteering to return to active service; question of continuing status as signaller and background to decision to refuse offer of commission in Army Service Corps; football activities and success in six-a-side competition; passing signal course. Aspects of period at Harfleur Base Depot, Le Havre, 5/1917: Bull Ring obstacle course; subsequent mutiny. Recollections of operations with 144th Heavy Bty Royal Garrison Artillery during Battle of Messines, 6/1917: initial difficulty in locating unit, 7/6/1917; march to Vlamertinghe.
REEL 10 Continues: march to Vlamertinghe. Recollections of operations in gun positions at Kruistraat and Menin Gate, Ypres, 6/1917-11/1917: role; observation post at Hussar Farm; horse corpses; difficulty in knocking out German pillboxes; terrain unsuitable for tanks; observation post at Jasper Farm; story of difficulty in getting back to gun positions from observation post during daylight and signaller's retaliatory gesture; view of German aircraft crashing in Ypres; account of German gas shell attack, 5/9/1917, including gas shell operating mechanism, repairing telephone lines, casualties, role of Royal Army Medical Corps orderly in evacuating wounded and effect on rats; rabbit for officers' mess; leaving guns in position on move to Cambrai. Recollections of operations on Western Front, 11/1917-11/1918: move to Cambrai sector, 11/1917.
REEL 11 Continues: yellow fever case; explosion of delayed action German booby trap under latrine; techniques of harassing fire behind German lines; 106 shell fuse mechanism; air observation; 92 shrapnel fuse mechanism; moving battery and importance of water supply for horses; question of use of gas shell; story of success in salvaging two guns trapped in No Man's Land after German counter-attack at Vaucelette Farm, Cambrai sector, 11/1917; freezing oil in recoil mechanism; effect of firing gun on snow and consequent necessity of camouflage; stories illustrating inexperience of officer on observation post duty.
REEl 12 Continues: difficulty in burying telephone line in frozen ground; effects of thaw and difficulty in moving guns in mud, 1/1918; account of German offensive in Sorel sector, 3/1918, initial confused situation under German shellfire, 21/3/1918, attempting to re-establish communication, success in rescuing guns from No Man's Land, retreat in sections whilst maintaining constant covering fire. Aspects of period prior to demobilisation, 3/1919: reactions to delay; demobilisation system; fights with former Welsh miners provoked by reactions to earlier wartime strikes; view of demobilisation draft fighting with Military Police at Leeds Railway Station. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Ounsworth, Leonard Jesse | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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