|
Date: |
|
Description: | 5 ts letters and 114 ms letters and cards, (some incomplete, and 2 additional transcripts) written between 16 February 1915 and 3 June 1919, often in exceptional detail and in the form of a diary, and covering his service in the 1st/5th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment (14th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division) as Sapper and Signalling Officer in the Ypres sector (February – August 1915), in the Somme sector (August – October 1915), as Brigade Signalling Officer 90th Infantry Brigade (December 1915 – August 1917) also in the Somme sector (December 1915 – September 1916) and near Arras (October 1916 onwards), during the attack on the Hindenburg Line (April 1917), as Area Detachment Officer, 8th Corps Signals at Neuve Eglise (August – December 1917), as an instructor Australian Corps Signal School (January – March and June - August 1918), as CO of 10th Corps HA Signals (August 1918 – June 1919) including postwar service in Belgium and Germany, with excellent descriptions of conditions in the front line, references to proposed truces (April 1915), snipers, gas attacks (May 1915 and July 1916), trench construction, religious services including apparent mention of Christopher Chavasse, General C G Steavenson's qualities when in command of the 90th Infantry Brigade, outstanding accounts of the battles on the Somme, especially Montauban and Trones Wood (1916), remarks concerning Australian and American forces (November 1917 – May 1918) and conditions in Germany, together with diary notes for: March - August 1917 (59pp) with good descriptions of duties and operations; December 1917 – August 1918 (77pp) mentioning the German Spring Offensive and the effects on the civilian population as well as relations generally between civilians and foreign servicemen; August 1918 – January 1919 (40pp) with more details of relations with French civilians and life for them under the German occupation; also official papers comprising eight operation orders for 90th Infantry Brigade (December 1915 – September 1916), further papers relating to 30th Division including a list of officers (December 1915 – November 1916), four maps of the Western Front (circa 1916) and his autobiography 'The Core of the Apple' (Melbourne: 1982).
Cataloguer AC | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | McGowan, George | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
|
|