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Description: | Detailed ts memoir (December 1912 - March 1919, 123pp) written in March 1966, regarding his service as a Signaller with the 8th (Howitzer) Brigade RFA (5th Division) on the Western Front and commenting on his enlistment and training at Kildare near Dublin, sailing to Le Havre (August 1914) and marching across the border into Belgium where he first encountered the Germans (23 August) before enduring the retreat back into France, being involved in the Battles of the Marne and the Aisne (September 1914), adapting to trench warfare, his admiration for his Adjutant Captain Yorke, experiences during the Second Battle of Ypres (April - May 1915), the use of gas attacks and the British Army's development of anti-gas measures, his transfer to the 37th Battery and move to the Somme sector (August 1915), his promotion to Bombardier in the Arras sector (February 1916) where he first encountered the German Minenwerfer, returning to the Somme front line (June 1916) and his involvement in the Battle of the Somme (July- September 1916) including the first use of tanks (September 1916), his 'going over the top' (15 September 1916) which resulted in his wounding and evacuation to a Base Hospital at Rouen; then his evacuation back to Southampton and travel by train to Dudley Road Hospital in his home town of Birmingham, moving to Harbourne Hall and later to a convalescent camp at Eastbourne, Sussex, being awarded the Military Medal for his actions during the Battle of the Somme before being sent to Preston Barracks at Brighton to train signalling recruits (winter 1916 - 1917), transferring to Hemel Hempstead (spring 1917) and being demoted for failure to attend a 'roll call'; then his return to the Western Front to join his new unit the 58th Brigade RFA (11th Division) in the La Bassee area (spring 1917), commenting on the effects of poison gas, the use of Lewis guns, his contracting fever and recovery at a Field Hospital at Rouitz, attendance on a Signaller's Course at Herly before rejoining his Battery at Epinoy after qualifying as a Signalling Instructor, the advance through Cambrai (October), Eth, Roisin and Mons (November), receiving news of the Armistice (11 November 1918) and his return to the UK and demobilisation (March 1919).
Cataloguer VB
Catalogue date 2004-06-07 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Whitehouse, P | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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