Description
Object description
British officer served with Royal Engineers in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Yorkshire, 1917-1939; family; education; interest in arts; period at Balliol College Oxford; opinion of teaching staff; organising art exhibitions; memory of other students including Edward Heath; political activities and membership of Communist Party. Aspects of training with British Army in GB, 1940-1942: volunteered at outbreak of war, 3/Sep/1939; period with Home Guard on Ilkley Moor, Yorkshire; nature of injury during training; description of duties with Movement Control; opinion of other recruits; amusing story of boots; description of training including drill; selected for officer training in Scarborough; volunteered for Combined Operations and nature of training in Scotland; memory of seeing aircraft carrier sink. Recollections of operations as officer with Royal Engineers in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, 1942-1945: description of role as Assistant Military Landing Officer; opinion of training and attitude to discipline; importance of team work and influence on later political career; description of unopposed landing in South of France, 8/1942; posted to 8th Army in Algiers, North Africa, 11/1942; memory of seeing Montgomery; 6/1943; description of daily duties with Movement Control; posted to 231 Bde and role as Military Landing Officer in landings in Sicily,7/1943; description of duties on landing beach including sweeping for mines and laying tracks for tanks.
REEL 2 Continues: opinion of Dieppe landings; description of role as Military Landing Officer at Anzio, Italy, 1/1944; posted to Caserta, Italy, and nature of duties; musical activities in Naples including visits to opera house; memory of seeing Humphrey Bogart; opinion of German General Etterling; attitude to conduct of Italian campaign; further description of role in organisation of troop movements and ports; story of driving jeep through Italy to Klagenfort, Austria, 5/1945; attitude to repatriation of Cossacks. Aspects of post-war life and employment: story of involvement in General Election at Pudsey, Yorkshire, 5/1945; employment with Labour Party and election as Labour MP. Reflections on Italian campaign,