Description
Object description
Incomplete ts notes (19pp) for a talk given in the late 1950s and a similarly incomplete ms diary (32pp) with entries from December 1942 - July 1943, together recording his decision, after service as a rating in destroyers and obtaining a commission in the RNVR, to volunteer for bomb and sea mine disposal duties (circa September 1942), his training in HMS VOLCANO in Cumberland (December 1942 - February 1943), his appointment as the naval bomb disposal officer at Falmouth in Cornwall and his duties in this post (March 1943 - 1944) and subsequent similar posts at Harwich (circa 1944), during the final stages of the campaign in North West Europe when the party under his command were required to tackle demolition charges, booby traps, bombs and land mines left by the retreating German Army (circa January - May 1945), at the former major German naval base at Cuxhaven (May - August 1945) and at Greenock when he was responsible for the clearance of a minefield off the west coast of Scotland (1945 - 1946). The notes and diary, which include explanations of how unexploded mines and German bombs were rendered safe and also contain several amusing anecdotes about incidents during his bomb disposal service, are accompanied by his contemporary ms notes (12pp) commenting on the personalities of his fellow ratings/cadets at an unidentified naval shore establishment where they were undergoing training for selection as officers in 1941 or 1942, a file of ms lecture notes from HMS VOLCANO and an edited wordprocessed transcript (38pp) of all the above documents apart from the lecture notes.
Content description
Incomplete ts notes (19pp) for a talk given in the late 1950s and a similarly incomplete ms diary (32pp) with entries from December 1942 - July 1943, together recording his decision, after service as a rating in destroyers and obtaining a commission in the RNVR, to volunteer for bomb and sea mine disposal duties (circa September 1942), his training in HMS VOLCANO in Cumberland (December 1942 - February 1943), his appointment as the naval bomb disposal officer at Falmouth in Cornwall and his duties in this post (March 1943 - 1944) and subsequent similar posts at Harwich (circa 1944), during the final stages of the campaign in North West Europe when the party under his command were required to tackle demolition charges, booby traps, bombs and land mines left by the retreating German Army (circa January - May 1945), at the former major German naval base at Cuxhaven (May - August 1945) and at Greenock when he was responsible for the clearance of a minefield off the west coast of Scotland (1945 - 1946). The notes and diary, which include explanations of how unexploded mines and German bombs were rendered safe and also contain several amusing anecdotes about incidents during his bomb disposal service, are accompanied by his contemporary ms notes (12pp) commenting on the personalities of his fellow ratings/cadets at an unidentified naval shore establishment where they were undergoing training for selection as officers in 1941 or 1942, a file of ms lecture notes from HMS VOLCANO and an edited wordprocessed transcript (38pp) of all the above documents apart from the lecture notes.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS