Description
Object description
A draft ts account (117pp, compiled c.2009) including photocopied photographs and illustrations, of his service as a sapper in 79th Assault Squadron Royal Engineers, 1st Assault Brigade RE (79th Armoured Division), (March 1943 – August 1945), and also drawing on a variety of sources including memories of former comrades and the 79th Assault Squadron War Diary, with detail about the formation of the 79th Armoured Division, his role in working on and testing specialised modified tanks (known as 'Hobart's Funnies' after the commanding officer, Major General Percy Hobart) including experiments in how to overcome a variety of obstacles, designs for new tanks, learning how to drive these tanks, being based in various locations including Fort George near Inverness (December 1943 – April 1944), preparations for Operation Overlord, landing on Sword Beach on D-Day (6 June 1944), with detailed descriptions of the Squadron's actions on D-Day, the squadron's participation in Operations Goodwood and Totalize (July - August 1944), being wounded by a shell (September 1944), details of his return to England, being hospitalised in Stoke on Trent and Loughborough followed by convalescence at F Company 4(R) Base Depot RE until the end of the war, followed by posting to Palestine, with further details of the squadron's actions during the Battle of the Scheldt in Belgium and the Netherlands (October - November1944), and crossing the Rhine, in which he did not take an active part.
Content description
A draft ts account (117pp, compiled c.2009) including photocopied photographs and illustrations, of his service as a sapper in 79th Assault Squadron Royal Engineers, 1st Assault Brigade RE (79th Armoured Division), (March 1943 – August 1945), and also drawing on a variety of sources including memories of former comrades and the 79th Assault Squadron War Diary, with detail about the formation of the 79th Armoured Division, his role in working on and testing specialised modified tanks (known as 'Hobart's Funnies' after the commanding officer, Major General Percy Hobart) including experiments in how to overcome a variety of obstacles, designs for new tanks, learning how to drive these tanks, being based in various locations including Fort George near Inverness (December 1943 – April 1944), preparations for Operation Overlord, landing on Sword Beach on D-Day (6 June 1944), with detailed descriptions of the Squadron's actions on D-Day, the squadron's participation in Operations Goodwood and Totalize (July - August 1944), being wounded by a shell (September 1944), details of his return to England, being hospitalised in Stoke on Trent and Loughborough followed by convalescence at F Company 4(R) Base Depot RE until the end of the war, followed by posting to Palestine, with further details of the squadron's actions during the Battle of the Scheldt in Belgium and the Netherlands (October - November1944), and crossing the Rhine, in which he did not take an active part.
History note
Cataloguer SJO