Description
Object description
British private served with King's Royal Rifle Corps in GB, India and Burma, 1919-1939; NCO served with 1st Bn Queen Victoria's Rifles in GB and France, 1939-1940; captured at Calais, 5/1940 and POW in Germany, 5/1940-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of period in GB, 1904-1919: family background in Peckham, London; story of enlisting with King's Royal Rifle Corps, 1919; question of age; basic training; length of service. Aspects of operations with King's Royal Rifle Corps in GB, India and Burma, 1924-1939; posted to India, 1924; civilian employment as messenger boy at Vickers; wages; father served with Army Service Corps during First World War; returned from India, 1934; problem of ulcer and medical treatment; posted to Burma with 2nd Bn; transferred to Queen Victoria's Rifles and mobilized on outbreak of war, 9/1939; description of journey to Dover and voyage to Calais, 5/1940. Aspects of operations with 1st Bn Queen Victoria's Rifles in Calais, France and as POW in Germany, 5/1940-5/1945: story of requisitioning motorbike for Maj. Timpson; opinion of RSM; recced position with officers; weapons; position along canal; role in organising soldiers from other units and issuing rifles; rations on quayside; story about quartermaster killed by friendly fire; sleeping arrangements; story of being wounded by shrapnel in legs, 26/May/1940; description of medical treatment at dressing station in tunnel; story of being taken prisoner by German officer; question of wounded not being evacuated; taken to convent in Calais; further medical treatment by British naval doctor; reaction to being captured; story of cutting off badges.
REEL 2 Continues: role in charge of hut in POW camp; problem of lice; working parties; story about argument with sergeant over delousing; fear of being shot; opinion of treatment by Germans and Austrians; problem of shortage of rations in Calais; wife tells story about receiving letters from husband in POW camp; reason for being Mentioned in Dispatches; use of British doctors in camp; story of police doctor instructing POWS in use of codes for letters home; story about copy of German orders in English; duties maintaining POW record cards; various memories of Douglas Bader in camp; role with working party felling trees; story of stealing map from German aircraft; further comments on period in convent in Calais; given bread by French women; reflections on operations in Calais and not being evacuated.