|
Date: |
|
Description: | Ms memoir (70pp, written during the 1920s-30s) of his service (October 1914 - December 1918) with 10th Battalion ('Grimsby Chums') Lincolnshire Regiment (101st Brigade, 34th Division) covering his previous duties as a special constable on guard at the Great Western Railway (August 1914), his training in Grimsby, Ripon and Suffolk (October 1914 - August 1915), posting to Salisbury (August 1915 - January 1916), and active service as a signaller/clerk in France and Belgium (January 1916 - December 1918), including Albert (July 1916), Arras (March 1917), Vimy Ridge (April 1917), on the Hindenburg Line (December 1917) and during the German Spring Offensive (March 1918), with good details of trench conditions and the devastation of war generally, of the offensive on the Somme (July 1916) and at Arras (March 1917), and behind the lines following the reduction of the battalion to a 'cadre' battalion with 39th Division training US troops (June - December 1918), his duties as a signaller and in the transport lines, the poor conditions in the trenches and dugouts throughout summer and winter, enemy air raids and heavy bombardments, the limited entertainment available, their reception by French civilians, and the sense of camaraderie among the original 'Chums'; together with a pocket diary for 1918 with brief entries for March - October covering the battalion's movements and his duties; ts operation orders and a battalion war diary (March - April 1917), ts operation reports (March - April 1918), photographs and postcards of him with the battalion, including in the trenches, and of scenes of France; enlistment papers, trench maps, and other printed items relating to his service.
Cataloguer PJB | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | British Army Lincolnshire Regiment | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Clements, William Thomas | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
|
|