description
Content description
18 ms letters (35pp, January 1942 - April 1945) written to his parents in Leeds recording his active service, having been commissioned from the ranks, as an officer with the Green Howards and on the Staff in the Middle East, North Africa, and Italy, serving with the 6th Battalion (69th Brigade, 50th Division) in Kirkuk in Northern Iraq (November 1941- January 1942) and the Western Desert (February 1942 - September 1942) and as Staff Captain with 69th Brigade (September 1942 - ?December 1943) describing in some detail his participation in the planning, preparation, and execution of the invasion of Sicily in July 1943; at the Middle East Staff College at Haifa (December 1943), and as a DAAG with the British Staff attached to the Headquarters of the 5th US Army (May 1944 - May 1945); and giving his comments on the conditions, the experiences of the front line troops, army life, being removed from command of the Signal Platoon by his CO, who was 'extremely abusive', January 1942; becoming Adjutant in June 1942; on the 'somewhat disasterous campaign', which included the battles of the Gazala Box and Knightsbridge and the subsequent retreat leading to the fall of Tobruk and the battle of Mersa Matruh (May 1942 - June 1942); on the RAF accidentally bombing and strafing their own troops (June 1942); his anxieties at taking up the responsible post of Staff Captain well aware that 'the desert is the tactician's heaven and the administration & supply officer's hell'; his admiration for his Brigadier, formerly his CO (Brigadier E C Cooke-Collis); being appointed as GSO2 in the Infantry Branch at GHQ, MEF in Cairo, a posting which was subsequently cancelled; being Mentioned in Despatches for his services in Sicily; the death of Franklin D Roosevelt and his replacement as President by Harry S Truman; being awarded the MBE; his relief at learning that he is unlikely to be sent to the Far East, being ' well out of it'; and the plans for his wedding on his return home.
History note
Catalogue date 2003-10-04
History note
Cataloguer SNR
