Description
Object description
Photocopies (189pp) of ts and ms transcribed extracts from his letters to his family, with additional correspondence, covering his military service with the 1st Battalion The Rifle Brigade (22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, 1942 - 1943): as a subaltern and Bren carrier platoon commander in North Africa, September 1942 – September 1943, with good descriptions of living conditions, Army life, his experiences during the Battle of Alamein (October 1942, see January 1943) after which he was evacuated wounded to Cairo, the victory parade in Tripoli (February 1943) and operations during the Tunisian campaign including along the Mareth Line and the fall of Tunis, as well as a description of General Montgomery as a 'jaundiced ferret' (23 January 1943) and a critical appraisal of the film 'Desert Victory' (see 21 March) and many references to old Etonians; in Italy (September – October 1943) with descriptions of the Salerno landings, carrying out patrols and conditions in the Italian countryside; as a prisoner of war in Germany held at Oflag VIIIF (Wahlstatt), circa February – May 1944 and Oflag 79 (Brunswick), circa May 1944 – April 1945, with his reaction to being a prisoner and brief details of conditions in the camps, together with a copy of a telegram listing him as missing, a radio letter from him transmitted after his capture and reprinted in a Dorset newspaper and letters from his aunt dated April 1945 recounting his experiences evading capture in Italy and during his imprisonment in Germany as related to her by him immediately after his release; in Malaya and Singapore after he had been hospitalised with tuberculosis (December 1956 – February 1957) with brief references to operations against insurgents and mention of the old Etonians in his Battalion, covering also his voyage home on HMT DEVONSHIRE (February – March 1957) and treatment at hospitals in Haslemere, Surrey and Midhurst, Sussex (March – May 1957), as well as references to Field Marshal Montgomery, whose ADC he had been, and to family matters including the fate of the family home at Tyneham, Dorset, requisitioned with the rest of the village in 1943 by the War Office; also a photocopy (39pp) of a ts account in which he describes in great detail his last patrol in Italy before being captured in October 1943, his treatment as a prisoner of war until he made his escape shortly afterwards when the train in which he was being transported was bombed and his subsequent experiences undergoing great privations in snow covered mountain areas while evading German search parties until his recapture close to the Allied front line in December 1943, as well as photocopies (6pp) of his service details and a published article by him in which he recalls with much comic detail his enlistment in Weymouth in November 1940 and experiences on arrival at the billets of the 70th (Young Soldiers') Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps in Harrow, and a photocopy (4pp) of an undated published article covering his military career, public service in Dorset and family connections with Tyneham.
Content description
Photocopies (189pp) of ts and ms transcribed extracts from his letters to his family, with additional correspondence, covering his military service with the 1st Battalion The Rifle Brigade (22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, 1942 - 1943): as a subaltern and Bren carrier platoon commander in North Africa, September 1942 – September 1943, with good descriptions of living conditions, Army life, his experiences during the Battle of Alamein (October 1942, see January 1943) after which he was evacuated wounded to Cairo, the victory parade in Tripoli (February 1943) and operations during the Tunisian campaign including along the Mareth Line and the fall of Tunis, as well as a description of General Montgomery as a 'jaundiced ferret' (23 January 1943) and a critical appraisal of the film 'Desert Victory' (see 21 March) and many references to old Etonians; in Italy (September – October 1943) with descriptions of the Salerno landings, carrying out patrols and conditions in the Italian countryside; as a prisoner of war in Germany held at Oflag VIIIF (Wahlstatt), circa February – May 1944 and Oflag 79 (Brunswick), circa May 1944 – April 1945, with his reaction to being a prisoner and brief details of conditions in the camps, together with a copy of a telegram listing him as missing, a radio letter from him transmitted after his capture and reprinted in a Dorset newspaper and letters from his aunt dated April 1945 recounting his experiences evading capture in Italy and during his imprisonment in Germany as related to her by him immediately after his release; in Malaya and Singapore after he had been hospitalised with tuberculosis (December 1956 – February 1957) with brief references to operations against insurgents and mention of the old Etonians in his Battalion, covering also his voyage home on HMT DEVONSHIRE (February – March 1957) and treatment at hospitals in Haslemere, Surrey and Midhurst, Sussex (March – May 1957), as well as references to Field Marshal Montgomery, whose ADC he had been, and to family matters including the fate of the family home at Tyneham, Dorset, requisitioned with the rest of the village in 1943 by the War Office; also a photocopy (39pp) of a ts account in which he describes in great detail his last patrol in Italy before being captured in October 1943, his treatment as a prisoner of war until he made his escape shortly afterwards when the train in which he was being transported was bombed and his subsequent experiences undergoing great privations in snow covered mountain areas while evading German search parties until his recapture close to the Allied front line in December 1943, as well as photocopies (6pp) of his service details and a published article by him in which he recalls with much comic detail his enlistment in Weymouth in November 1940 and experiences on arrival at the billets of the 70th (Young Soldiers') Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps in Harrow, and a photocopy (4pp) of an undated published article covering his military career, public service in Dorset and family connections with Tyneham.
History note
Cataloguer AC