Description
Object description
British gunner served as signaller with 329th Field Bty, 83rd Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in North West Europe, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Warrington, GB, 1924-1942: family; education, employment; parent's reaction to his call-up for military service, 1942. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Artillery in GB, 1942-1943 attitude to military service; nature of basic training at Barnard Castle, 12/1942-1/1943; polishing boots; kit inspections; discipline and comradeship; guard duty; drilling and physical training; weapons training; bayonet training; instructors' treatment of recruits; anti-gas training; character of signal training at Wakefield, 1943; signal procedures.
REEL 2 Continues: line laying. Aspects of period as signaller with B Troop, 329th Field Bty, 83rd Field Regt, Royal Artillery in GB, 1943-1944: posting to unit at Sutton Valence, 1/1943; accommodation; character of unit; line laying on schemes; composition of signal section; importance of communications; billeting in Herne Bay; story of attempt to chat up girls at cinema in Herne Bay; attitude towards military service; degree of knowledge of future role; rations; importance of fitness; relations between different ranks; troop's attitude towards senior officers; period in holding camp prior to move to Normandy, France; question of personnel morale; move to Tilbury Docks for embarkation, 6/1944.
REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of operations as signaller with B Troop, 329th Field Bty, 83rd Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: crossing English Channel; disembarkation at Arromanches-les-Bains; opinion of Corps of Military Police; impression of German beach defences; reaction to German Air Force attack during beach landing; moving inland and sight of dead German Army troops; contact with French civilians; weather conditions; initial gun positions and line laying; role of Royal Artillery field regiments; communication duties; forward observation personnel; relations between other ranks and officers; under German Army artillery fire in gun pit; reaction to sight of dead bodies; fate of Jewish bombardier; living conditions; method of cooking; degree of knowledge of situation in front line; attitude towards German Army troops.
REEL 4 Continues: opinion of chaplains; frequency of mail; importance of hygiene. Recollections of operations as signaller and gunner with B Troop, 329th Field Bty, 83rd Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 53rd (Welsh) Div in North West Europe, 8/1944-5/1945: receiving first leave in Brussels, Belgium, 9/1944; amusing story of accommodation in Antwerp; reception from civilians in Armentières, France, 9/1944; personal morale; conditions in Caen, France, 8/1944; occasion when he knocked French civilian off his bicycle in Caen, France, 8/1944; impressions of Falaise Gap, France, 8/1944; opinion of Canadian Army troops; finding egg supply in s'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands; ammunition detail; problems encountered in Netherlands; volunteering to become a gunner near Goch, Germany, 3/1945.
REEL 5 Continues: conditions at Goch, Germany, 3/1945; wounding and evacuation to Regimental Aid Post; removal to hospital in Lille, France; leave in GB; prior recollection of line repair duties in Netherlands; under German multi-barrelled mortar fire; casualties at Goch, Germany; question of what caused damage to his gun; rejoining regiment in Germany. Aspects of period as gunner with 83rd Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in 1945: impressions of Hamburg; handling Waffen-SS prisoners of war; move to Mönchengladbach; consequences of NCO fraternising with German civilians. Recollections of operations as signaller and gunner with B Troop, 329nd Field Bty, 83rd Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in North West Europe, 6/1944-5/1945: living conditions; rumours of German airborne infiltrators Ardennes, Belgium; lack of contact with United States Army troops in Ardennes, Belgium; story of being separated from regiment in Ardennes, Belgium.
REEL 6 Continues: ambush of regimental vehicles; conditions in Reichswald Forest, Germany, 2/1945; bombardment of Goch, Germany, 3/1945; morale and religion; loss of regimental driver in accident on River Rhine, Germany; reaction to witnessing case of shell-shock. Aspects of period as gunner with 83rd Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in Germany, 1945-1946: attending Corps of Military Police training course; return to unit at Mönchengladbach; demobilisation process in Mönchengladbach and York, GB; spending of gratuity; question of adjusting to civilian life. Reflections on military service, 1942-1946: question of effects of military service; opinion of Corps of Military Police.
REEL 7 Continues: opinion of Royal Army Medical Corps; black market dealings in Mönchengladbach; question of looting; family reaction to his return home.