Description
Object description
British private trained as signaller with Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Regimental Depot at Bodmin in GB, 1939-1940; signaller and NCO served with 5th Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 214th Infantry Bde in GB and North West Europe, 1940-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, 1918-1939: father's military service in First World War; memories of Munich Crisis, 9/1938; expectations of coming war. Aspects of enlistment and training as private at Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Regimental Depot at Bodmin, GB, 1939-1940: prospect of call-up to Militia; reactions to call-ups for military service; lack of knowledge of regiment; arrival at depot; accommodation; basic training; instructors; character of platoon; daily routine; drill and route marches; attitude to discipline; presence of conscientious objector; useful prior experiences with Boy Scout Movement; uniform and boots; sleeping arrangements; issue of Lee Enfield .303 Rifle; opinion of Sten Gun; joining Specialist Platoon and accommodation in billets.
REEL 2 Continues: unit chaplain; homesickness and comradeship; father's experiences during First World War; request to join Signal Platoon; signals training including line laying, use of switchboard, security and despatch riding; issue of carrier pigeons; NCO instructor. Recollections of period as signaller and NCO with Signals Platoon, 5th Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 214th Infantry Bde, 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Div in GB, 1940-1944: posting to battalion; atmosphere in battalion; expectation of joining 2nd Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in France; intensification of training after fall of France, 6/1940; coastal defences duties near Newhaven; invasion scares, summer 1940; means of communication; deployment of battalion on coast.
REEL 3 Continues: battalion headquarters at Denton; accommodation; shift system worked; volume of traffic; signals office; standing to; off duty activities; evacuation of coastal areas; role of Carrier Platoon; move to The Thorne; commanding officer and second in command; degree of visits by senior officers and inspections; anti-parachutists exercises in Hertfordshire; characteristics of No 18 Wireless Set; battalion and brigade wireless nets; promotion to lance-corporal; duties as signal clerk; amphibious operations training at Inveraray; characteristics of No 36 Wireless Set.
REEL 4 Continues: scale of amphibious training; liaison with artillery; battalion anxious for action; pride in unit turnout; change in commanding officer and second in command; battle drills on Pevensey Marshes; training with armour; battalion headquarters in advance; how commanding officer got around; expectation of D-Day landings; embarkation at Newhaven. Recollections of operations as NCO with 5th Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 214th Infantry Bde, 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: beach landing; in slit trenches in orchard; wireless silence; mortaring at Cheux; death of signals officer in sunken lane; death of commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel John Atherton at Cheux, 27/6/1944; advance through cornfields towards Hill 112.
REEL 5 Continues: question of false expectations of action in Normandy; initial experience of action; death of commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel John Atherton at Cheux, 27/6/1944; smell of dead cattle, petrol and dust; taking cider from vats and filling water bottles with calvados; advance towards Hill 112; attack on Hill 112; laying line from signal office to command post; encounter with German tank in dark; reasons for setting up communications to command post; signal officer's shooting of German tank crewman with Very Pistol; further details of death of commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel John Atherton at Cheux, 27/6/1944; German shelling of Hill 112; how attending battle school compared with realities of battle; sight of battalion dead on Hill 112; reorganisation of signals platoon; duties as signals clerk; use of despatch riders and risks; use of company runners; signals log; use of code and shift system.
REEL 6 Continues: workload and radio silence; listening to British Broadcasting Corporation; transfer of signals office from Bedford 15cwt Truck to armoured vehicle; sleeping arrangements; layout of signals office; lines from field exchange; shifts; use of radio on move; difficulty of 'netting' wireless sets; obstruction to reception; how inexperienced troops were killed or wounded quickly; locations of signals office; case of American signallers being careless with safety; communication checks on line system; repairing faults and causes of damage; opinion of American and German equipment; character of commanding officer; coping with strain; Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) party in Normandy. Recollections of operations as s NCO with 5th Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 214th Infantry Bde, 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Div in North West Europe, 9/1944-5/1945: relations with Dutch civilians at Maastricht, Netherlands; prior recollection of incident with German armour at Hill 112 in Normandy, France; participation in Operation Market Garden in Netherlands; DUKWs failure to cross River Nederrijn at Driel, Netherlands.
REEL 7 Continues: signals office in Driel, Netherlands; withdrawal to Nijmegen, Netherlands; in positions near Xanten and Cleve, Germany, 1/1945; signallers captured at Geilenkirchen, Germany; advance into Germany; home leave and hospitalisation for dysentery; impressions of Germany; relations with signals officer; opinion of officers; NCO casualties; prospect of service in Far East; demobilisation and return to civilian life; attitude towards military service.