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Description: | Ts transcription (189pp) of a memoir covering his service as a Private in the 9th Battalion Devonshire Regiment (20th Brigade, 7th Division) in Italy and on the Western Front, 1914 – 1919, describing life before the war, reactions on the declaration of war (4 August 1914), life on the Home Front, how his family billeted two sergeants from the Royal Engineers (Signals) who taught him army procedures, bugle calls and various methods of signalling, his enlistment and training at Cowley Barracks, Oxford (January 1917) before transfer to Sutton Veney, being confined to barracks due to an outbreak of Meningitis, his move to Fovant, Wiltshire and Taversham for further training, embarkation on MONA’S QUEEN, an Isle of Man packet boat, to Le Havre, the journey to join the 9th Battalion Devonshire Regiment at Legnago, Italy (November 1917) where he comments on the disorderly conduct of the men, the march from Legnago to Castel Franco (24 November – 3 December 1917), billeting at Riese and Volpago, the march to Nervesa (January 1918) where he recalls being under shell fire, to Luvigliano (6 March 1918) and Piovene – Rocchetta (22 March 1918), becoming the company stretcher-bearer (April 1918), the march to Arizgnano (May 1918), his sickness with influenza, the capture of a large number of Austrian prisoners of war, experiencing an electrical storm and the effect that it had on the troops and destruction caused to barbed wire defences and communication cables, their return to France (September 1918) and experience of being a stray battalion until they were formed into the 7th Brigade (25th Division), arrival on the Somme (30 September 1918) in time for the final Allied advance, orders regarding the Armistice (11 November 1918), the march to Englefontaine (January 1919) and his demobilisation (1919). The collection includes a photograph of him in uniform.
Cataloguer APR | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | 9th Battalion British Army Devonshire Regiment | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Baker, Harold Edgar | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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