Track 1. [00:00:00] General: John Auburn introduces Charles Henry Mew of 78 Beaconsview Road, Clase on 10/08/1976. [00:00:42] Transport: Early life and moving to Swansea in 1906, describing being fairly itinerant for a number of years, travelling looking for work on Railways and tramways. [00:03:22] First World War: Describing personal and more general perception of the outbreak of First World War. [00:05:51] First World War: Discussing the circumstances that led to him joining the Army in December 1914. [00:07:45] First World War: Describing going to Union Street in Swansea to sign up to the Swansea 'Pals' Battalion and his wife's reaction. [00:11:32] First World War: Recalling receiving 'the King's Shilling' and a rail travel pass to the training camp in Rhyl. [00:12:58] First World War: Describing travelling to Rhyl by train and the early training. [00:15:47] First World War: Recalling the later training, physical exercise and weapons training at Winchester. [00:19:27] First World War: Remembering route marches around North Wales in the Summer of 1915, including being met by the battalion band. [00:21:07] First World War: Describing leaving Rhyl and going for further training in Winchester and becoming a sniper (along with 3 others, Murphy, Guy and Cullis). [00:25:49] First World War: Recalling snipers duty at the front-line, which included intelligence gathering. [00:30:22] First World War: Remembering the armour that the snipers used and receiving enemy fire. [00:31:27] First World War: Memories of leaving Winchester and landing in France (Rouen) before going to the front-line in Belgium in December 1915. [00:33:05] First World War: Arriving at the front-line and undertaking further instruction with a regiment from Worcester. [00:34:36] First World War: Recalling thigh-high boots in the trenches to try and keep the water out of them. [00:35:45] First World War: Remembering the geographic location of the first trench he was in. [00:36:36] First World War: Recalling the Germans shelling a nearby church and churchyard, disturbing the recently buried as a result. [00:37:26] First World War: Remembering 'Hellfire Corner' an exposed area that was very dangerous. [00:38:17] First World War: Describing the 'line' at Neuve Chappelle which was not continuous but held in a series of 'islands'. [00:40:05] First World War: Recalling an incident when they overslept and came under machine-gun fire trying to get into an 'island'. [00:42:33] First World War: Remembering being on a charge for oversleeping. [00:44:26] First World War: Describing trying to keep rations safe from vermin, but how rats would climb on the sleeping men to get at the rations. [00:45:31] First World War: Describing the rations the men received and making Tea from rainwater. [00:48:11] First World War: Recalling the comradeship of the battalion. [00:48:57] First World War: Describing moving location to the Somme at Mametz Wood. [00:50:33] First World War: Describing the trenches and 'going over the top' at Mametz Wood. [00:56:29] First World War: Recalling shooting a German who was about to shoot a comrade in the back. [00:59:12] First World War: Coming across a machine-gun nest in Mametz Wood and getting caught in a shell-blast (continues in next recording).
Track 2. [00:00:28] First World War: Charles Henry Mew continues retelling getting caught by a shell-blast in Mametz Wood. [00:02:12] First World War: Recalling how Lieutenant Strange saw him wounded and ordered him to retreat. [00:03:12] First World War: Meeting another wounded soldier, Harry Brown, at the edge of the wood, and coming under German machine-gun fire when trying to retreat. [00:06:31] First World War: Recalling his treatment in hospital in Rouen, being marked 'T.B.' meaning 'to Blighty' and being repatriated to Stratford-upon-Avon. [00:09:30] First World War: Following the convalescent home, Mew describes losing touch with his former comrades and joined the 9th Royal Welsh Fusiliers. [00:11:40] First World War: Joining the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Ypres and describing the trench there. [00:13:20] First World War: Coming under German artillery fire again, describing the dugout taking a direct hit and burying him and 8 others alive. [00:16:52] First World War: Being rescued from the collapsed dugout, repatriated to Leicester and how he was injured. [00:21:47] First World War: Recalling the times he'd seen his wife since joining up. [00:23:03] First World War: Describing the pay arrangements in the army and how money was spent. [00:25:21] First World War: Following recovery from the 2nd wound, Mew describes being posted to Limerick for 2 weeks and Irish nationalist tensions. [00:27:59] First World War: Joining the 17th Royal Welsh Fusiliers on return to France and seeing action again at the Somme. [00:29:58] First World War: Describing a failed attack, ending up by being surrounded and taken prisoner by the Germans. [00:31:43] First World War: Recalling what happened when taken prisoner. [00:36:15] First World War: Describing conditions in the P.O.W. Camp in Munster, Alsace. [00:38:10] First World War: Transferred to another P.O.W. camp, and the paucity of rations there. [00:41:12] First World War: Describing the conditions at the second P.O.W. camp. [00:42:01] First World War: Recalling the death of a comrade in the P.O.W. camp and the funeral arrangements. [00:44:34] First World War: Describing working in the P.O.W. camp. [00:45:26] First World War: Remembering hearing about the war ending, the subsequent prisoners disobedience and being released from P.O.W. camp in December 1918. [00:53:44] First World War: Landing in Hull on 02/12/1918 and being sent to Swansea shortly after and being 'demobbed' by post at a later date. [00:55:14] First World War: Attending Swansea 'Pals' and P.O.W. reunion dinners in later life. [00:57:14] First World War: A story about having some Rum in Mametz Wood (end of recording).