WORLD WAR I - HARRISON, Walter J.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A manuscript diary recording his service with the 27th Battery, Royal Field Artillery. An intimate record of a year of service in France, written for the author's wife and three children. Along with several of his gunner comrades, Harrison received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his service at Ligny, where he showed "bravery and devotion in withdrawing guns by hand under a heavy fire" (London Gazette). Harrison's diary opens with his mobilization on 4 August 1914. After only six days of training, he was shipped to Boulogne and began travelling towards Belgium. On 20 August he experienced his first contact with the Germans, at the Battle of Mons: "My God, the shells. It's said they fired as many shells as we did bullets... No direct hits, only splinters which killed 22 of our men". Six days later he was at Ligny, fighting in the Battle of Le Cateau, a crucial delaying action during the Great Retreat. He recalls having to abandon their guns under a rain of shells, before he and seven other volunteers offered to retrieve them. Two gunners died but Harrison received only minor wounds, calling it "a day I will never forget as long as I live". He then advanced and retreated through France and Belgium over the following year with various batteries, until he was hit by a chlorine attack dropped from an aeroplane on 8 August 1915 and was returned to England.The account is accompanied by a transcription of the text, Captain C. M. Vallentin's A Short History of the 27th Battery, R.

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