Description
Object description
British private and NCO served with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Infantry Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Div in GB, 9/1940-11/1941; NCO served with 108th Regt, Royal Armoured Corps, 10th Armoured Bde and 10th Tank Bde in GB, 11/1941-12/1943; served with 1st Lothians and Border Horse, 30th Armoured Bde, 79th Armoured Div in GB and Normandy, France, 12/1943-8/1944; served with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in North West Europe, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Wood Green and Stoke Newington, London, GB, 1916-1940: social background; education; employment in dry cleaning shops; recreational activities; motorcycle and car driving; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; call up, 6/1940. Recollections of enlistment and training with British Army at Carlisle, GB, 6/1940-9/1940: reception and kitting out; hutted accommodation; vaccinations; rations; drill; rifle and bayonet training; preparations for inspections to avoid guard duty as 'stick' man; hand grenade training; route marches and problems with feet; physical training
REEL 2 Continues: relations with Other Ranks; reaction to swearing; opinion of NCO instructors; degree of contact with officers; recreational activities in Carlisle; pay. Aspect of period as private and NCO with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Infantry Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Div in GB, 9/1940-11/1941: tented accommodation at Newbury Racecourse; eating arrangements; reception and relations with Regular Army and Territorial Army troops; Bren Gun training; learning to drive Universal Carrier; promotion to unpaid lance corporal; relations with NCOs and officers. Aspects of period as NCO with 108th Regt, Royal Armoured Corps, 10th Armoured Bde and 10th Tank Bde in GB, 11/1941-12/1943: background to change of unit role and designation to 108th Regt, Royal Armoured Corps, 1/11/1941; attending instructors course in driving Cromwell Tank at Bovington Camp; promotion to sergeant on rejoining regiment at Barnard Castle; nature of sergeants' mess and dances; opinion of Churchill Tank; characteristics of M4 Sherman tank.
REEL 3 Continues: characteristics of M4 Sherman Tank; role as driver/fitter instructor on Churchill Tank and M4 Sherman Tank; story of breaking clutch; role as tank commander in M4 Sherman Tank crew; wireless and intercom sets; nature of tactical exercises; disbandment of regiment, 12/1943. Recollections of period as NCO with 1st Lothian Horse and Border Regt, Royal Armoured Corps, 30th Armoured Bde, 79th Armoured Div in GB, 12/1943-6/1944: nature of M4 Sherman Flail Tank; failed roller M4 Sherman Tank variant; problems with flail mechanism and low speed of M4 Sherman Flail Tank; waterproofing and tests; marriage and honeymoon, 4/1944. Aspects of operations as NCO with 1st Lothians and Border Horse, Royal Armoured Corps, 30th Armoured Bde, 79th Armoured Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: embarkation aboard Landing Ship Tank; reaction to news of D-Day landings, 6/6/1944.
REEL 4 Continues: dry landing from Landing Ship Tank at Arromanches-les-Bains; move inland; bivowac; initial cooking arrangements; use compo rations; cigarette smoking and supplies; whisky ration received as NCO; relation with tank crew; latrines; use of M4 Sherman Flail Tank to clear path across fields under fire; bailing out after M4 Sherman Flail Tank was hit; move to holding unit, 8/1944. Recollections of period with C Sqdn, 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry during operations in France, Belgium and Netherlands, 8/1944-12/1944: reaction to joining Scottish unit; opinion of Lieutenant Lamont; opinion of squadron commander and Sergeant Vallance; role as Lamont's tank crew driver; view from driver's periscope in actions; night advance to Amiens, 30/8/1944; capture of German half-track crew carrying German payroll.
REEL 5 Continues: taking small amount from German payroll; relationship with French civilians and their treatment of collaborators; advance to Antwerp; visit to Antwerp; objecting to issue of German food rations; static period in Little Amerika sector; story of close escape from German mortar fire; cold conditions sleeping in Sherman; role as tank commander in 'point' tank; use of HE shells and machine gun fire on suspicious localities; personal morale; question of Sherman flammability; fighting in Deurne, 10/1944; relationship with Dutch civilians in billets at Helmond. Attending course in Comet tank at Bovington Camp, 12/1944-2/1945: characteristics of Comet; leave; story of escorting prisoner to military prison. Rejoining unit in Ypres, 2/1945: giving instruction on Comets at Ypres; billets; relationship with Belgian civilians; drinking habits.
REEL 6 Continues: review of Comet crew of Co Driver Jimmy Phythian, Driver Larry Smith, Wireless Operator Ginger Weston and Gunner Ted Gwalter; sleeping arrangements; uniform and issue of zoot suits; question of tank camouflage. Aspects of operations in Germany, 3/1945-5/1945: crossing Rhine on pontoon bridge, 27/3/1945; story of breaking down due to faulty electrical master switch and difficulty in regaining touch with leading tanks; fighting at Loccum, 4/1945, including situation, reconnaissance on foot, discovery of 88 mm gun, success in destroying 88mm gun, ditching and bailing out of Sherman; subsequent award of MM; re-supply at overnight laager; cooking arrangements and brewing tea; isolated situation having crossed river; panzerfaust and mines problems; opinion of German tanks and 88mm gun.
REEL 7 Continues: advance on motorway and entry into Lubbeck, 30/4/1945; co-operation with personnel of Cheshire Regt carried on Sherman; German POWs; Billets; using tanks to assist Swedidh Red Cross to control looting activities of German civilians; celebrations of VE Day, 8/5/1945; slaughtering cow. Period at Bredstedt, 5/1945-6/1945: accidental shooting incident; assisting with Displaced Persons' Camp; course as electrician; relationship with German civilians; opinion of Major Hotblack. Period with 1st F&FY in Germany, 6/1945/1946: background to transfer; role on promotion to squadron sergeant major; cancellation of posting to Far East, 8/1945; opinion of Crocodile tanks; stag hunting. Demobilisation, 3/1946. Post-war career: return to work with dry cleaners in Nottingham; problems adapting to civilian lifestyle and question of rejoining army; membership of South of Border Group, Fife and Forfar Yeomanry Association.