|
Date: |
|
Description: | Photocopies of his well written ms account in three volumes (168pp, written from a brief diary while recovering from wounds in hospital in 1920 and completed in January 1926) recording his service as an officer with the British Army in the UK and on the Western Front, June 1915 - September 1918, including: joining the Territorials, June 1915; training with the Inns of Court OTC in London and Berkhamsted, June - December 1915; obtaining a commission after an initial rejection in January 1916; serving as Lewis Gun Officer with the 3rd/4th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment (202nd Brigade, 67th Division) in Kent, February 1916 - May 1917, and in France attached to the 9th, 17th, and 34th Divisions, June - August 1917, and then as part of the 52nd Brigade, 17th Division on the Arras front, June - September 1917, in the Third Battle of Ypres, October - November 1917, and on the Cambrai front, January - February 1918, when the battalion was disbanded; service as a Company commander with the 6th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment (37th Brigade, 12th Division), February 1917 - August 1918, participating in the German Spring Offensive, March - April 1918, and a disastrous attack on Aveluy Wood, June - July 1918 (awarded MC); and commenting on his duties; trench conditions; shell damage to Arras; his off-duty entertainment; on his COs; trench mortars; being impressed by the C-in-C, Field Marshal Earl Haig, March 1918 (pp.87-88); covering for a fellow officer who was too drunk to command his Company on the eve of an assault (pp.134-140); ill-feeling between officers of the Battalion; the arrest of a Company Commander for his conduct during the Aveluy Wood attack; shortages of fit men by 1918; training, notably a lecture by Major General A A Montgomery (later Field Marshal Sir Archibald Massingberd-Montgomery), MGGS 4th Army (pp.167-168); and giving a good description of a trench raid, March 1918 (pp.89-108). Also included are photocopies of his service record (Army Book 439) and other papers relating to his army career (10pp).
Cataloguer SNR
Catalogue date 1998-04-30 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Clifford, W C | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
|
|