Description
Object description
Detailed ts memoir (52pp written c.1980), covering his service as an OCTU Instructor and as a Staff Officer during the Italian Campaign, including references to preparing the school where he worked as a teacher for evacuation (1938), qualifying as an ARP Warden, being called up to 164 Officer Cadet Training Unit, Colchester (September 1939 – April 1940), going to a Small Arms Course at Hythe, Hampshire (April-May 1940), being appointed a Battalion Weapons Training Officer, manning beach defences (May 1940), a false alarm about the German invasion being sounded (September 1940), moving to Barmouth, Gwynedd, Wales (November - December 1941), being posted to the HQ Company, 15th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (167th Brigade), at Lyminge, Kent (January 1941), the Battalion taking over coastal and airfield defences as part of the Devon and Cornwall Division (spring and summer 1941), attending the Main Intelligence Course at Christ's College, Cambridge (Autumn 1941), becoming Battalion officer in charge of training including training Home Guard units, attending a course at the GHQ Battle School at Hambledon Camp, Barnard Castle, County Durham, following which he was posted as an Instructor on the Senior Officer's Wing at the same school, newly called the School of Infantry (August - June 1942), attending the Staff College, Camberley, despite being a Territorial Army officer, with brief details of the sixteen week course (June - August1943), his posting to the Staff Pool in the CMF at Algiers (October 1943), joining 46th Division HQ at Sessa Aurunca, Italy (December 1943), joining the Quartermastering staff as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General, operating in the Monte Camino sector, moving to the 56th (London) Division as DAQG (January 1944), taking supplies through minefields, his organisation of the loading of troops and supplies onto LSTs for Anzio (February 1944), receiving units evacuated from Anzio at Nocera (March 1944), the logistics of feeding, billeting and re-kitting the 167th Brigade and 169th Brigade, rest and retraining in Egypt, a ten day trip to Palestine to find possible suitable training areas (March – April 1944), being based at Divisional HQ in Giza, (May - June1944), joining the 168th Brigade at Burg-el-Arab, the preparation for joining V Corps, Eighth Army, flying to Rome, via Malta and Naples (July 1944), organising the Division's move from Egypt, moving up to the Gothic Line (August [July?] 1944), witnessing General Sir Oliver Leese outlining his plans, the logistics of supplying the large amounts of ammunition needed for the front lines, moving to the area of San Severino and Tolentino (August 1944), advances being hampered by bad weather, viewing the terrible aftermath of battle following the crossing of the river Conca, towards Monte Croce, torrential rain whilst moving slowly near San Marino (September 1944), the disbandment of the 168th Brigade as a fighting unit and its subsequent reorganisation, (October 1944), being part of a deception plan by the 56th Division in front of Cesena (November 1944), his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and posting as Adjutant and Quartermaster of the 46th Division, with detailed descriptions of the officers he served with and under, the training he received and the places he visited whilst on leave. Together with ts Camberley Staff course notes and timetables, June - July 1943; ts notes concerning exercise Yardstick carried out by 4th Infantry Brigade, September 1943; a few 56th Divisional Orders, Italy, July - October 1944; and 46th Divisional Administrative Orders, Austria, 22 May 1945; together with a German Soldbuch and a facsimile of a Soldbuch.
Content description
Detailed ts memoir (52pp written c.1980), covering his service as an OCTU Instructor and as a Staff Officer during the Italian Campaign, including references to preparing the school where he worked as a teacher for evacuation (1938), qualifying as an ARP Warden, being called up to 164 Officer Cadet Training Unit, Colchester (September 1939 – April 1940), going to a Small Arms Course at Hythe, Hampshire (April-May 1940), being appointed a Battalion Weapons Training Officer, manning beach defences (May 1940), a false alarm about the German invasion being sounded (September 1940), moving to Barmouth, Gwynedd, Wales (November - December 1941), being posted to the HQ Company, 15th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (167th Brigade), at Lyminge, Kent (January 1941), the Battalion taking over coastal and airfield defences as part of the Devon and Cornwall Division (spring and summer 1941), attending the Main Intelligence Course at Christ's College, Cambridge (Autumn 1941), becoming Battalion officer in charge of training including training Home Guard units, attending a course at the GHQ Battle School at Hambledon Camp, Barnard Castle, County Durham, following which he was posted as an Instructor on the Senior Officer's Wing at the same school, newly called the School of Infantry (August - June 1942), attending the Staff College, Camberley, despite being a Territorial Army officer, with brief details of the sixteen week course (June - August1943), his posting to the Staff Pool in the CMF at Algiers (October 1943), joining 46th Division HQ at Sessa Aurunca, Italy (December 1943), joining the Quartermastering staff as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General, operating in the Monte Camino sector, moving to the 56th (London) Division as DAQG (January 1944), taking supplies through minefields, his organisation of the loading of troops and supplies onto LSTs for Anzio (February 1944), receiving units evacuated from Anzio at Nocera (March 1944), the logistics of feeding, billeting and re-kitting the 167th Brigade and 169th Brigade, rest and retraining in Egypt, a ten day trip to Palestine to find possible suitable training areas (March – April 1944), being based at Divisional HQ in Giza, (May - June1944), joining the 168th Brigade at Burg-el-Arab, the preparation for joining V Corps, Eighth Army, flying to Rome, via Malta and Naples (July 1944), organising the Division's move from Egypt, moving up to the Gothic Line (August [July?] 1944), witnessing General Sir Oliver Leese outlining his plans, the logistics of supplying the large amounts of ammunition needed for the front lines, moving to the area of San Severino and Tolentino (August 1944), advances being hampered by bad weather, viewing the terrible aftermath of battle following the crossing of the river Conca, towards Monte Croce, torrential rain whilst moving slowly near San Marino (September 1944), the disbandment of the 168th Brigade as a fighting unit and its subsequent reorganisation, (October 1944), being part of a deception plan by the 56th Division in front of Cesena (November 1944), his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and posting as Adjutant and Quartermaster of the 46th Division, with detailed descriptions of the officers he served with and under, the training he received and the places he visited whilst on leave. Together with ts Camberley Staff course notes and timetables, June - July 1943; ts notes concerning exercise Yardstick carried out by 4th Infantry Brigade, September 1943; a few 56th Divisional Orders, Italy, July - October 1944; and 46th Divisional Administrative Orders, Austria, 22 May 1945; together with a German Soldbuch and a facsimile of a Soldbuch.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 1984-10