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Description: | Three original ms diaries covering his service in France (73pp, September 1915 - February 1916), Salonika (96pp plus 11pp lists and notes, January 1917 – January 1918) and Mesopotamia (38pp, August 1918 – September 1920), together with ts transcriptions (13pp, 22pp and 10pp, some incorrectly dated) and a ts account (49pp and 39pp) of his military service. The diaries and account cover his commission into the 13th Battalion Middlesex Regiment (later 73rd Brigade, 24th Division) in August 1914, the problem with too many recruits and not enough equipment, winter weather (late 1914), attendance at machine gun school, embarkation for the Western Front in command of the battalion machine gun section (September 1915), expectations for the Battle of Loos but lack of orders, the rescue of his Colonel from a Highlander regiment who believed him to be a spy, the early gas masks and grenades, his overseeing battalion relief at night, an incident in which he missed roll call and was reported as missing, in and out of the line in the Ypres sector, life and conditions in the trenches, home leave (January 1916), in the trenches at Sanctuary Wood (8 February 1916) and the heavy enemy shellfire experienced, his wounding in the arm by a sniper while bringing teams their rum ration, after a short stay in a London hospital his recovery at home which meant that he missed the Battle of the Somme, his transfer to the Machine Gun Corps, his near death in a grenade training accident, joining a draft to Salonika (January 1917) where he led a draft of Irish troops to the Struma front, dealing with discipline problems, his posting to the 270th Machine Gun Company (26th Division) (14 February 1917), an air raid which caused many hundreds of casualties (5 March 1917), Salonika town and the local population, his move to the Doiran front and a failed attack at Winton Hill (24 April 1917), ceasefires to allow the recovery of wounded troops, trench raids, his suffering from Malaria (June – July 1917), instances of drunkeness within his unit (25 July 1917), a raid on Tore Tepe (7 September 1917), his application for a transfer to the Indian Army shortly before his promotion to Captain (November 1917), official transfer to the Indian Army and voyage for India (26 December 1917) via Port Suez and then train to Calcutta, where he describes garrison life, the language problems, his move to Nowshera and appointment in command of No 3 Indian Machine Gun Company forming at Mhow with Maxim guns (June 1918), embarkation for Bushire, Persia (August 1918), further bouts of Malaria, action at Daliki against the Khan of Borazjum (11 November 1918), news of the Armistice, his command of a column of 127th Baluch Light Infantry (2 December 1918) before the disbandment of his unit (24 April 1919) and transfer to the 130th Machine Gun Company at Quetta (June 1919), his application for six months home leave to get married (November 1919 – April 1920), then posting to the 2/123rd Outram Rifles, but instead ordered to escort home of group of 1,800 Turkish prisoners of war from Rangoon (May – July? 1920), receiving orders to proceed to Persia for the Iraq revolt, garrison duty at Nasirah, a river boat expedition to provision the garrison at Samawah (26 August 1921), the siege of Samawah (to 12 September 1921), their relief and his mention in dispatches, his return to India and posting to the 104th Wellesly Rifles at Mhow, then the 104th Company of the Training Battalion at Ajmer, before further re-organisations leading to his retirement. Running through both diaries and personal account are clues to his relationships, conducted mainly by post, with several woman.
Cataloguer AJC | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | 127th Baluch Light Infantry 26th Division Machine Gun Corps British Army 24th Division 73rd Brigade 13th Battalion Indian Army Middlesex Regiment 130th Machine Gun Company 270th Machine Gun Company 123rd Outram's Rifles | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Norton, Charles Edgar | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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