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Description: | Photocopy of 5 ms diaries (248pp), not entirely chronologically coherent, covering his service in France and Belgium with the 2/1st London Field Ambulance (56th Division)(February 1916 - February 1919) and describing the march to Soustre (April 1916), the opening days of the Battle of the Somme and the difficulties of clearing casualties from the battlefield under fire, the journey to Estaires where the police had to stop civilians from selling chocolate and opening cafes in No Man's Land (September 1916), his enjoyment of the Division concert band 'The Bow Bells' and many other descriptions of the Division's theatrical endeavours, numerous meetings of the Division Debate Society, his stay in chalk caves in Wancourt (April 1917) and a brief description of the May attack on the Arras front for which he was awarded the Military Medal for performing his duties under heavy gas fire without a gas helmet, his work during 3rd Ypres along the Ypres-Menin Road where he notes the near-impossibility of carrying a stretcher through the mud (August 1917), his descriptions of a heavy attack during the 2nd Battle of the Aisne, where he mentions a rumour that cardboard dummies were used as decoys for the German artillery fire (October 1917), the Division's return to the deserted battlefields of Arras where he comments on numerous French civilians who remain in their homes despite the complete destruction around them (May 1918), his work during an attack on Mercatel where he was in charge of escorting German prisoners down the line and his distaste for the litter in German trenches (August 1918), his leave in the United Kingdom during which the Armistice was declared, his return to the St Jean's Hospital in Mons where he discusses the numerous festivities devised by the hospital staff in order to forestall boredom until they could return home (December 1918 - February 1919). Also included is a photocopy (51pp) of his memoir, published in 1924, which is primarily an elaboration on the material in the diaries.
Cataloguer BEK
Catalogue date 2006-06-26 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Chase, H L | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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