Description
Object description
Memoir (11pp, written 2004) containing anecdotes about his wartime experiences as a WOII (Sergeant Major) and tank commander of 'Funnies', specifically an AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers) Petard, in 1st Assault Brigade, 79th Armoured Division during the Normandy Landings (June 1944), and later a LVT (Landing Vehicle Tracked) Buffalo taking Canadian Soldiers across the Scheldt (October 1944), with brief details about his joining up, serving in Sicily and Italy, arranging with Royal Marine Commandos to clear out 'the spoils of war' after the assault on a German bunker near Juno beach (14 June 1944), house to house fighting against German snipers, the difficulty of taking German prisoners, being injured by a shell which hit his tank at Westkapelle, being billetted with and looking after Albert Pierpoint, the executioner of Nazi War Criminals, black market activities, the Army being a luxury after childhood poverty, his views on journalists reporting on military operations, with negative comments about modern journalism and compensation culture, and comparing his experiences to the First World War and the Gulf War in the 1990s. Together with a post-war photograph of Harry Ellis and copies of his birth certificate and mentioned in despatches certificate.
Content description
Memoir (11pp, written 2004) containing anecdotes about his wartime experiences as a WOII (Sergeant Major) and tank commander of 'Funnies', specifically an AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers) Petard, in 1st Assault Brigade, 79th Armoured Division during the Normandy Landings (June 1944), and later a LVT (Landing Vehicle Tracked) Buffalo taking Canadian Soldiers across the Scheldt (October 1944), with brief details about his joining up, serving in Sicily and Italy, arranging with Royal Marine Commandos to clear out 'the spoils of war' after the assault on a German bunker near Juno beach (14 June 1944), house to house fighting against German snipers, the difficulty of taking German prisoners, being injured by a shell which hit his tank at Westkapelle, being billetted with and looking after Albert Pierpoint, the executioner of Nazi War Criminals, black market activities, the Army being a luxury after childhood poverty, his views on journalists reporting on military operations, with negative comments about modern journalism and compensation culture, and comparing his experiences to the First World War and the Gulf War in the 1990s. Together with a post-war photograph of Harry Ellis and copies of his birth certificate and mentioned in despatches certificate.
History note
Cataloguer SJO