Description
Object description
British officer served with 191st (Hertfordshire and Essex Yeomanry) Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 4th Army Group, Royal Artillery, I Corps in GB and North West Europe, 1943-1944; served with 147th (Essex Yeomanry) Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 8th Armoured Bde in North West Europe, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as officer with 191st (Hertfordshire and Essex Yeomanry) Field Regt, Royal Artillery in GB, 1943-1944: posting to unit, autumn 1943; background of regiment; training; accommodation; daily routine; anti-tank training; move into sealed camp at Epping, 5/1944; issue of escape kit; waterproofing vehicles; strength and organisation of unit; officers and other ranks; comparison between army in 1944 and 1939; move to London Docks; embarkation. Recollections of operations as officer with 191st (Hertfordshire and Essex Yeomanry) Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 4th Army Group, Royal Artillery, I Corps in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: voyage to Normandy; view of coast and noise of battle; transfer to assault craft; landing on Juno Beach, 8/6/1944.
REEL 2 Continues: disembarkation and movement inland; de-waterproofing vehicles; battery command post; forward observers; reaction times to requests for fire support; defensive fire tasks; pre-recorded targets; support for infantry by observed fire; rates of fire; laying guns; supply of ammunition; harassing fire; degree of intelligence about targets; location of command post; artillery boards; surveying and programme shooting; barrages; deployment distances; types of targets fired on and counter-battery fire.
REEL 3 Continues: use of smoke; German counter battery fire; liaison with RAF; Allied air superiority and German Air Force attacks; opinion of German forces; rate of advance in Normandy; communication between artillery and infantry; German prisoners of war; working routine; digging in; accommodation; rations; relations with civilians; frequency of changing locations; reconnaissance of gun positions; state of health in field; unit casualties; use of woods as a tactical location; view of Operations Epsom and Goodwood; entry into Caen.
REEL 4 Continues: bombing of Caen; supporting 6th Airborne Division, 8/1944; counter mortar work; exchanges with Airborne troops; ranging on mortars; advance to Fecamp; surrounding of Le Havre; losses to mines and booby traps; repair and replacement of vehicles. Aspects of operations as officer with 191st (Hertfordshire and Essex Yeomanry) Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 4th Army Group, Royal Artillery, I Corps in North West Europe, 8/1944-12/1944: surrounding of Dunkirk, France; advance into Netherlands; disbandment of regiment and effect on morale, 12/1944. Aspects of operations as officer with 147th (Essex Yeomanry) Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 8th Armoured Bde in North West Europe, 12/1944-5/1945: joining regiment; advance to River Rhine, Germany; crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; administration of Displaced Persons in Hanover, Germany; behaviour of Displaced Persons.
REEL 5 Continues: Aspects of period as officer with 147th (Essex Yeomanry) Field Regt, Royal Artillery in Germany, 1945-1946: exchange of Polish Displaced Persons for German refugees; nature of Soviet suspicions; reaction to Winston Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech, 5/3/1946; size and frequency of convoys to Stettin; incident of British vehicle not being fired on in Stettin; character of Soviet Zone of Occupation, Germany; attending trial of General Kurt Student. Aspects of period as officer with 191st (Hertfordshire and Essex Yeomanry) Field Regt, Royal Artillery, I Corps in Normandy, France, 1944: use of mobile bath unit; capture of German prisoners of war and their treatment; rations.