Private Papers of L F Roker

description

Content description

Well-written illustrated ms transcription (152pp) of his diary recording his service as an NCO with the 1st Battalion The Highland Light Infantry in North West Europe and Palestine, June 1944 - April 1947, including: his family background; his call-up and training as a wireless operator in a tank with 53rd Primary Training Wing, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk; 56th Training Regiment RAC, Catterick, Yorkshire; 7th RTR (31st Armoured Brigade, 53rd Welsh Division) at Otterden, Kent, October 1942 - October 1943; retraining with the 9th Infantry Centre, Aberdeen; on an Infantry Signallers Course at Aske Hall, Richmond, Yorkshire; and a Corps Training Course at Dalton-in-Furness, Lancashire, October 1943 - May 1944; active service with 1st Battalion HLI (71st Brigade, 53rd Welsh Division), in Kent, May - June 1944, training and watching V1s; North West Europe, June 1944 - April 1945, when he was wounded, notably defending Hill 112 in Normandy (July 1944), the Battle of the Falaise Gap (August 1944), the advance through France, Belgium, and Holland (August - September 1944), the assault on s'Hertogenbosch (October 1944), OPERATION MALLARD to capture Roermond (November 1944), evacuation to No 86 General Hospital, Eindhoven, then No 110 General Hospital, Donk near Bruges, and a Convalescent depot at De Haan Aan Zee with Bell's Palsy (December 1944 - February 1945), and the Battle of the Reichswald (February - April 1945); treated at No 101 General Hospital, Louvain, and then No 96 General Hospital, Tournai, April - June 1945, where his leg was saved from amputation; home leave, June - July 1945; rejoining his battalion during the occupation of Germany, July - October 1945, ignoring non-fraternisation orders, dealing with displaced persons, returning Russians to the USSR, and transferring to the 3rd Division for the invasion of Japan; and in Jerusalem and Suez, Palestine, patrolling for Jewish terrorists, October 1945 - September 1946, notably being evacuated with jaundice to No 16 General Hospital, Jerusalem, No 12 General Hospital, Sarafand, and No 3 Convalescent Depot, Nathanya, February - April 1946, going on LIAP leave to the UK, attending the Victory Parade in London, May - July 1946, and the presentation of new colours by General Sir Miles Dempsey, August 1946; attending an course for unit education instructors and transferring to the Education Section of his battalion, Suez and Cairo, Egypt, September 1946 - April 1947, when he was demobilised; his brief recall to the ranks during the Korean War, September 1951; and commenting on army life; his duties; the conditions; the hostile reception by the French in Normandy; the heavy casualties; the German shelling; the rapturous reception at every village during the advance across the battlefields of the First World War in September 1944; anti-American feeling (September 1944) in Antwerp which had been bombed by the USAAF in April 1943; his experiences of battle, February - April 1945; CANLOAN officers; celebrations of VE Day; the strike by the Suez garrison, November 1946; and his growing boredom with Army life after the war.