The poignant archive of a World War One stretcher bearer including his blood-stained armband have been discovered 106 years on.

Private Frank Pye was in the thick of the action with the 1/1 East Lancashire Field Ambulance on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918.

His arm was splashed with blood while retrieving a wounded Tommy from No Man’s Land during the brutal trench warfare.

Pte Pye also kept a harrowing diary which filled three pocket notebooks and told of the ‘heartbreaking’ scenes he encountered, including men ‘blown in half’.

He penned a moving poem for his brother-in-law, 2nd Lt Reginald Smallwood, of the 5th Battalion Cheshire Regiment, who was killed in action in 1917.

Private Frank Pye, pictured right, was in the thick of the action with the 1/1 East Lancashire Field Ambulance on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918

His wartime archive – including a blood soaked armband – is being sold by auction

Pte Pye wrote a poem for his brother-in-law Reg who was killed in action. That forms part of the poignant archive

Also included in the sale is a copy of The Pannier – a trench magazine 

It reads: ‘Brother of mine, I’m sad at heart /Though proud to think you played your part /Far from your home you fought so well /And bravely fighting, nobly fell /Here in fair France vale you lie /But souls like yours, they never die /in God’s fair mansions they go to reign /In God I trust shall meet you again.’

In other extracts, he describes the effects of mustard gas, a German plane being shot down and ‘two commanders killed whilst bandaging another comrade up who had been hit in the head’.

Frank, who was born in 1882 in Royston, Yorkshire, enlisted as part of the Territorial Force with the 1/1 East Lancs Field Ambulance in April 1913, aged 31.

He entered the Great War on September 28, 1914, in Egypt, initially as a cook, later becoming a stretcher bearer.

One diary entry reads: ‘I saw a lot of small balloons going over the German lines. I enquired what they were and was told they were containing messages and photos of Germans lying dead and starving.’

A range of documents are included in the archive including these discharge papers

His diaries also outline his time in Egypt – including this sketch 

Pte Pye’s armband was spotted in blood from soldiers he carried away from the front line

Another states: ‘Each day was very quiet and everything going on alright all and all merry and bright until the 27th when two of my commanders were killed whilst bandaging another comrade up who had been hit in the head.

‘The names of the two killed was Hastley and Rathbone and the others wounded Walton’.’

An entry from September 1917 states: ‘In the early hours of the morning our guns started a starvation barrage and the noise was deafening and any amount of wounded kept pouring in day and night – it was simply heartbreaking and a sight I shall never forget.

‘We stayed in the firing line for 11 days and on the morning of the 11th at 1:15am we left the White Chateau for Ypres and directly we got on the road*..dropped mustard gas shells each side of us and heavy lyddite as well and the gas hung around us like a fog, but all went well until we strayed off the road owing to not being able to see with our masks on.

‘I fell down a hole and an overhanging tree caught my mask and I was hanging by it and I had to slip my mask off and in doing so I got a bad dose of gas and it made me very ill for a day or two.’

The entire archive is expected to sell for around £400 when it goes under the hammer

The auction will take place at Hansons Auctioneers in Etwell, Derbyshire

Pte Pye outlined his experiences on the front line in a series of diaries 

He explains what it is like to be subjected to a mustard gas attack

A July 1918 entry reads: ‘On the morning of 17/7/18 a German plane was brought down about 200 yards from my cookhouse* It was a huge thing, it was brought down by machine gun fire.

‘A bullet went right through his petrol tank. There were three men in it and when they dropped they set fire to it and it was burnt to bits.’

The archive has emerged for sale for £400 at Hansons Auctioneers, of Etwall, Derbyshire.

It has been consigned by a descendant of Pte Pye who lives in Leicestershire.

He also talks of witnessing men being cut in half by large explosive shells 

Head of Hansons Militaria Matt Crowson said: ‘It’s a fascinating and poignant collection.

‘It really brings home the brutality of war, particularly Frank’s Army Medical Service stretcher-bearer’s armband.

‘The cotton is soiled with dirt and splashed with blood from the trenches more than 100 years ago, a grisly testament to the horrors witnessed.

‘He saw death and destruction on a scale most of us find hard to comprehend, or even think about, inflicted on both sides.

‘For example, he described seeing German soldiers hit by British shells, and that ‘again a terrible sight met my eyes, men blown clean in half’.

‘His diaries provide an important first-hand account documenting what so many men endured a century ago.’

The sale takes place on August 7.