2nd Lieutenant A R Armfield

Microfilm copy of a ts memoir (264pp), written ca 1967, covering his enlistment in autumn 1915 into the 3/15th Battalion London Regiment, then active service with the 1/15th Battalion (140th Brigade, 47th Division) on the Western Front (April - August 1916) until his return to the United Kingdom with wounds, transfer to No 2 Officer Cadet Battalion at Cambridge (December 1916 - December 1917) before receiving a commission into the 20th Battalion London Regiment (January 1918), his return to the Western Front for active service attached to the 12th Battalion (175th Brigade, 58th Division) (April 1918) and then his transfer to the 2/4th Battalion (173rd Brigade, 58th Division) (May - September 1918) and 2/2nd Battalion (September - January 1919) still on the Western Front, describing several infantry attacks and the sensation of going "over the top", and alarming incident regarding a potential deserter, his billets and demobilisation, while alleging that the morale of the British Army was not low during the German Spring Offensive, that the Allied armies were fully capable of effective offensive action in 1918 and that the war was not won by American troops or even by their presence in Europe. The latter section of Armfield's memoir concerns his civilian experiences in Ceylon during 1942, where he was working in Colombo as Chief Accountant for a cold storage company; he describes the destructive Japanese air raids on Colombo and Trincomalee in April, the evacuation of British women and children (including his wife) to South Africa, and the fleeing of local people into the countryside.