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Description: | Ts transcription of a journal (43pp) written in 1936 - 1937 from a contemporary diary, and covering his mobilisation as a reservist on the outbreak of war in August 1914 and service as a platoon sergeant and sometime company quartermaster sergeant with the 2nd Battalion Connaught Rangers (5th Brigade, 2nd Division) in France and Belgium from August - November 1914 including the retreat from Mons, the Battles of the Marne and in particular the Aisne, the move north to Flanders and the First Battle of Ypres in which he was wounded and evacuated to England for treatment in the 1st London General Hospital in Camberwell; together with a ts transcription (22pp, trancribed by his son in 1996) of the remainder of the journal covering his service in the same capacities with the 5th Battalion Connaught Rangers (29th Brigade, 10th Division) under training in the United Kingdom and during their passage out to the eastern Mediterranean (March - July 1915), during their operations at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli (August - September 1915) and on the Salonika front (October 1915 - January 1917), with the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Regiment in the United Kingdom (June 1917 - August 1918) and back with the 5th Battalion in France (August 1918 - May 1919); also a negative of a photograph of him in uniform. The journals include interesting comments about the symptoms of the exhaustion which affected the officers and men of the Battalion during the retreat from Mons and the period of open warfare and its impact on morale and discipline; good descriptions of the major actions and the first weeks of trench warfare in France and of the fighting at Suvla Bay in August 1915; useful references to the Battalion's heavy losses; his hostility towards some of the 5th Battalion's officers; the high rate of sickness on the Salonika front; the apparent absence of strong religious belief in an Irish regiment, and the frustration over demobilisation following the Armistice.
Cataloguer RWAS
Catalogue date 1996-06 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | 2nd Division 29th Brigade British Army 10th Division 5th Battalion Connaught Rangers 2nd Battalion 5th Brigade | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | McIlwain, John | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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