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Description: | British private served with 75th and 77th Field Ambulances Royal Army Medical Corps on Western Front, 1917-1918; POW in Germany, 1918
REEL 1: Background in Portsmouth, Kent and Norfolk, 1898-1914: family including father's service with Coastguard Service; education; employment with father and apprenticeship; memory of outbreak of war, 1914; story of enlistment at 16 years old, 1914; amusing story of short-sighted friend. Aspects of basic training with army in Norwich, 1914: attitude to being posted to 2/2nd East Anglian Field Ambulance; memory of period on home defence duties, Bury St.Edmunds; posted to Aldershot for further training; story of British Legion visitor.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of operations with 75th and 77th Field Ambulances Royal Army Medical Corps on Western Front, 1917-1918: story of friend Tom and nickname 'kiddo'; description of first night in line in Armentieres area, France, and duties as stretcher bearer; comparison of British and German bandaging methods including description of shell dressing; memory of carrying dead back to dressing station; description of men suffering effects of mustard gas at Messines and opinion of treatment; story of using up-ended rifle to indicate wounded man; problem of carrying stretchers in mud at Ypres, 1917; story of shelling of shelter full of wounded on Menin Road, 1917.
REEL 3 Continues: description of various types of wounds; story of shell landing in Elephant dugout while being used as shelter for wounded; memory of collecting body parts in sandbags; question of attitude of regulars to new recruits; story of Welsh troops singing 'The Lord is My Shepherd'; problem of cold in billets in school; opinion of rations and story of being issued with rusty tins of old food; story of contracting trench fever; posted to 77th Field Ambulance and description of role in training new recruits.
REEL 4 continues: Recollections of period as POW in Germany, 1918: story of being taken prisoner during German offensive, 3/1918; story of being mistaken for cavalry trooper due to 25th Div red horseshoe insignia on uniform; description of being beaten with rifle butt during interrogation and intervention of British officer; story of volunteering to care for wounded in church and problem of lack of medical facilities; description of evacuation of wounded to railhead.
REEL 5 Continues: question of German treatment of wounded; amusing story of sausage meat; story of German miniature railway used to transport wounded to camp and role of 'Frei Willies'; attitude of POWs to co-operation with Germans; story of helping at German hospital and nicknames of 'Wilhelm' and 'Kleiner Englander'; story of being made honorary sergeant by Germans; story of party at hospital and singing 'Tipperary' with Germans; problem of contracting dysentery and treatment in prison hospital at Mons, Belgium; question of healthy ambulance men being reported dead to remain in hospital.
REEL 6 Continues: description of burying dead in communal graves including Russians; story of receiving bread supplies from US Relief agency; transferred to labour camp and nature of work; transferred to punishment camp in Friedrichsfeld, Germany; memory of POWs held since Battle of Mons, 1914; description of daily life and conditions in camp; question of receiving letter and parcels from home; problem of weakness due to dysentery; story of volunteering to work as upholsterer in nearby village; description of conditions and relations with Germans; amusing story of mattresses; description of conditions for 1914 POWs; story of Germans abandoning camp after Armistice, 11/1918; story of volunteering to stay in camp hospital and journey by train to Holland.
REEL 7 Continues: billeted in barracks in Nijmegen; story of bribing way out of camp with cigarettes and attending mayoral feast, Aspects of period in GB, 1918-1920: story of confinement in camp in Ripon, Yorks; comparison of treatment of British soldiers and German POWs; question of army discipline breaking down and threat of mutiny; attitude to treatment by army; story of being posted as emergency nurse to hospital in Blackpool; question of pay; further comments on treatment by army; demobilization, 1920; problem of finding employment; reflections on period of military service and attitude to army; story of role as nurse in Bristol hospital caring for limbless patients. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Smith, Lyn E | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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recording
British private served as signaller…
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