Description
Object description
Ts memoir (19pp), written ca 2007, recounting his service as a Private with the 13th Battalion Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment (May - November 1943) and then the 2/7th Battalion QRWS Regiment (December 1943 - February 1944), describing his basic training at Maidstone and his specialist mortar training at Bury, Lancashire, sailing from Liverpool to Algeria to help train West African troops (November 1943), embarking for Italy and landing at Naples (December 1943), crossing the Garigliano river under heavy bombardment and engaging German forces (January 1944), supporting Allied forces fighting at Anzio (early February 1944), being captured by Mongolian soldiers fighting with the German forces (late February 1944), being held in a prison camp situated in a film studio in Rome (March 1944), transferring to prisoner of war camps at Assisi, where he was hospitalised, and Florence, being transported, via the Alps, to Stalag VIIA near Munich (June 1944), the daily routine in the camp and his work in a brewery, the danger from constant bombing by the 8th USAAF as the Allies fought their way across Europe, being liberated by American troops (April 1945) and visiting Dachau concentration camp before flying back to England for debriefing prior to demobilisation in May 1945.
Content description
Ts memoir (19pp), written ca 2007, recounting his service as a Private with the 13th Battalion Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment (May - November 1943) and then the 2/7th Battalion QRWS Regiment (December 1943 - February 1944), describing his basic training at Maidstone and his specialist mortar training at Bury, Lancashire, sailing from Liverpool to Algeria to help train West African troops (November 1943), embarking for Italy and landing at Naples (December 1943), crossing the Garigliano river under heavy bombardment and engaging German forces (January 1944), supporting Allied forces fighting at Anzio (early February 1944), being captured by Mongolian soldiers fighting with the German forces (late February 1944), being held in a prison camp situated in a film studio in Rome (March 1944), transferring to prisoner of war camps at Assisi, where he was hospitalised, and Florence, being transported, via the Alps, to Stalag VIIA near Munich (June 1944), the daily routine in the camp and his work in a brewery, the danger from constant bombing by the 8th USAAF as the Allies fought their way across Europe, being liberated by American troops (April 1945) and visiting Dachau concentration camp before flying back to England for debriefing prior to demobilisation in May 1945.
History note
Cataloguer JHK
History note
Catalogue date 2007-12-21