Description
Object description
A notebook containing a ms account (154pp), as well as a word-processed transcription (53pp), illustrated with sketch maps of his movements, relating to his service as an Nursing Orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), with details of being called up as a Territorial (September 1939), with 'B' Company 150th Field Ambulance RAMC (150th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division), training in Hull, East Yorkshire, near his home town of Elloughton, moving to Broadway, Worcestershire, then to France (January 1940), train to Le Mans, poor opinion of the town of Crissé, the cold winter, a small 'mutiny' against the poor food, moving to Crèvecœur-le-Grand, trips to Beauvais, moving to Vendin-le-Vieil, the German invasion of Belgium, an air raid on a plant providing electricity for the Maginot Line, moving to Berchem, Belgium, setting up an Advanced Dressing Station (ADS) but receiving mainly civilian refugees, going to Halchin to man a small first aid post to treat casualties on convoys travelling through, 50th Division moving to Arras, taking wounded men to Vimy, coming under friendly shell fire, and enemy bombing and strafing, retiring to Loos, ambulances being dive bombed and destroyed, setting up ADS in Belgium, losing his hearing from a nearby shell, looting an abandoned NAAFI truck, retreating towards Dunkirk, dumping vehicles and walking the rest of the way, helping out another Field Ambulance at Adinkerke and the General Hospital in Dunkirk, boarding a paddle steamer and then a destroyer (3 June 1940), the reception at Dover, re-kitting at Aldershot, 50th Division moving to Knutsford, leaving camp with fake passes, moving round various places while re-equipping, moving to Kingston Maurward, Dorset, working in the gardens of the manor house in which they were billeted, moving to Yatton near Bristol (November 1940), running a Main Dressing Station, moving to Weston-Super-Mare (January 1941), working as a Nursing Orderly in a hospital, boarding HMT EMPRESS OF ASIA (April 1941), details of the voyage to Egypt (April – June 1941), the route and convoy, stops on the way in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Cape Town, South Africa, the friendliness of the South Africans and trips around Cape Town, stopping again at Durban, arriving in Egypt (June 1941), camped in Quassasin, travelling through Cairo and Burg el Arab to Fuka, living in tents, dust storms, spending his 21st birthday in the desert, moving to Famagusta, Cyprus (August 1941), 'B' Company running a hospital for divisional troops in Larnaca, patients with sandfly fever, moving to Kouklia to build a new hospital, returning to Famagusta and re-joining 150th Brigade, travelling to Haifa, Palestine (November 1941), based in Jamala, moving back to Egypt and on west of Alexandria, moving to Bir El Thalatha via Mersa Matruh (December 1941), desert training, Christmas and New Year, moving into Libya (January 1942), first fighting casualties, based in Bir Hakeim, joining a fighting patrol to Mechili, Germans flying Hurricanes, German tanks chasing his patrol back, moving north to the Gazala line, working in the MI Room at Bir Jeff, patrols with 150th Brigade (March 1942), attacking German aerodromes, air attacks, setting up an MDS in the Knightsbridge box, the Battle of Gazala (May 1942), having to withdraw to Tobruk leaving 150th Brigade and 'A' Company of 150th Field Ambulance who were captured, withdrawing to Egypt, transferring to 186th Field Ambulance (69th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division) (June 1942), losing men in friendly fire from the RAF, moving to Hawala, breaking out of German encirclement under heavy fire and losing friends, stopping past El Alamein, moving to Alexandria (August 1942), returning to Alamein (October 1942), operating a Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) for XIII Corps, casualties from the Battle of El Alamein, returning to Libya to El Adem (December 1942), heavy rains in the new year, based in Benina near Benghazi, moving to Zarzis, Tunisia (February - March 1943), the Battle of the Mareth Line (April 1943), advancing through Libya, returning to Egypt, near Alexandria (May 1943), waiting with the stores as Quartermaster's batman and storeman while his unit crossed to Sicily, following on and re-joining them later (July 1943), setting up a dressing station in Catania (August 1943), working in hospitals treating malaria, in Taormina, returning to the UK via Algeria, (October – November 1943), based in Thetford, Norfolk, moving to Beccles, Suffolk (February 1944), invasion preparation, driving up to Invararay, Scotland, supplying units, back down to Romsey, Hampshire (March 1944), invasion exercises in LSIs and LCTs (April 1944), boarding LCT 2555 for the invasion (June 1944), landing on 'Gold Beach' on D-Day (6 June 1944) at H-Hour +90, the sights and sounds of the crossing, the chaos on the beaches, acting as the unit landing party and setting up the medical area in Ver-sur-Mer, resting in Bayeaux, moving round Normandy, with brief details of places he passed through, crossing into Belgium (September 1944), crossing in to Holland with Operation Market Garden, setting up a Dressing Station in Nijmegen, crossing and re-crossing the border, the disbanding of 50th Division and his transferring to 25th Field Dressing Station RAMC as Orderly Room Clerk in Calais (January 1945), until his demobilisation in April 1946, with throughout anecdotes, details of places, movements, leave and leisure time, thoughts of the civilians he met, casualties, daily routines, shelling and strafing, and Christmas dinners. Together with: his Soldier's Service and Pay Book (AB 64); a letter written to his mother after his arrival back in the UK following the Dunkirk evacuation (June 1940) descibing his experience as 'Perfect Hell' and saying old soldiers from the last war said they would prefer four years of that to one week of this; two field service postcards; a ms letter (2pp) to his mother (November 1943) following his return to England from the Mediterranean; three silk postcards to his mother from France (1940 and 1945); a silk card souvenir from France with a poem; a screen shot from a documentary called "As it happened D Day" using original footage showing Copeland on the LCT [taken from Film Archive, catalogue number A70 37-4].
Content description
A notebook containing a ms account (154pp), as well as a word-processed transcription (53pp), illustrated with sketch maps of his movements, relating to his service as an Nursing Orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), with details of being called up as a Territorial (September 1939), with 'B' Company 150th Field Ambulance RAMC (150th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division), training in Hull, East Yorkshire, near his home town of Elloughton, moving to Broadway, Worcestershire, then to France (January 1940), train to Le Mans, poor opinion of the town of Crissé, the cold winter, a small 'mutiny' against the poor food, moving to Crèvecœur-le-Grand, trips to Beauvais, moving to Vendin-le-Vieil, the German invasion of Belgium, an air raid on a plant providing electricity for the Maginot Line, moving to Berchem, Belgium, setting up an Advanced Dressing Station (ADS) but receiving mainly civilian refugees, going to Halchin to man a small first aid post to treat casualties on convoys travelling through, 50th Division moving to Arras, taking wounded men to Vimy, coming under friendly shell fire, and enemy bombing and strafing, retiring to Loos, ambulances being dive bombed and destroyed, setting up ADS in Belgium, losing his hearing from a nearby shell, looting an abandoned NAAFI truck, retreating towards Dunkirk, dumping vehicles and walking the rest of the way, helping out another Field Ambulance at Adinkerke and the General Hospital in Dunkirk, boarding a paddle steamer and then a destroyer (3 June 1940), the reception at Dover, re-kitting at Aldershot, 50th Division moving to Knutsford, leaving camp with fake passes, moving round various places while re-equipping, moving to Kingston Maurward, Dorset, working in the gardens of the manor house in which they were billeted, moving to Yatton near Bristol (November 1940), running a Main Dressing Station, moving to Weston-Super-Mare (January 1941), working as a Nursing Orderly in a hospital, boarding HMT EMPRESS OF ASIA (April 1941), details of the voyage to Egypt (April – June 1941), the route and convoy, stops on the way in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Cape Town, South Africa, the friendliness of the South Africans and trips around Cape Town, stopping again at Durban, arriving in Egypt (June 1941), camped in Quassasin, travelling through Cairo and Burg el Arab to Fuka, living in tents, dust storms, spending his 21st birthday in the desert, moving to Famagusta, Cyprus (August 1941), 'B' Company running a hospital for divisional troops in Larnaca, patients with sandfly fever, moving to Kouklia to build a new hospital, returning to Famagusta and re-joining 150th Brigade, travelling to Haifa, Palestine (November 1941), based in Jamala, moving back to Egypt and on west of Alexandria, moving to Bir El Thalatha via Mersa Matruh (December 1941), desert training, Christmas and New Year, moving into Libya (January 1942), first fighting casualties, based in Bir Hakeim, joining a fighting patrol to Mechili, Germans flying Hurricanes, German tanks chasing his patrol back, moving north to the Gazala line, working in the MI Room at Bir Jeff, patrols with 150th Brigade (March 1942), attacking German aerodromes, air attacks, setting up an MDS in the Knightsbridge box, the Battle of Gazala (May 1942), having to withdraw to Tobruk leaving 150th Brigade and 'A' Company of 150th Field Ambulance who were captured, withdrawing to Egypt, transferring to 186th Field Ambulance (69th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division) (June 1942), losing men in friendly fire from the RAF, moving to Hawala, breaking out of German encirclement under heavy fire and losing friends, stopping past El Alamein, moving to Alexandria (August 1942), returning to Alamein (October 1942), operating a Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) for XIII Corps, casualties from the Battle of El Alamein, returning to Libya to El Adem (December 1942), heavy rains in the new year, based in Benina near Benghazi, moving to Zarzis, Tunisia (February - March 1943), the Battle of the Mareth Line (April 1943), advancing through Libya, returning to Egypt, near Alexandria (May 1943), waiting with the stores as Quartermaster's batman and storeman while his unit crossed to Sicily, following on and re-joining them later (July 1943), setting up a dressing station in Catania (August 1943), working in hospitals treating malaria, in Taormina, returning to the UK via Algeria, (October – November 1943), based in Thetford, Norfolk, moving to Beccles, Suffolk (February 1944), invasion preparation, driving up to Invararay, Scotland, supplying units, back down to Romsey, Hampshire (March 1944), invasion exercises in LSIs and LCTs (April 1944), boarding LCT 2555 for the invasion (June 1944), landing on 'Gold Beach' on D-Day (6 June 1944) at H-Hour +90, the sights and sounds of the crossing, the chaos on the beaches, acting as the unit landing party and setting up the medical area in Ver-sur-Mer, resting in Bayeaux, moving round Normandy, with brief details of places he passed through, crossing into Belgium (September 1944), crossing in to Holland with Operation Market Garden, setting up a Dressing Station in Nijmegen, crossing and re-crossing the border, the disbanding of 50th Division and his transferring to 25th Field Dressing Station RAMC as Orderly Room Clerk in Calais (January 1945), until his demobilisation in April 1946, with throughout anecdotes, details of places, movements, leave and leisure time, thoughts of the civilians he met, casualties, daily routines, shelling and strafing, and Christmas dinners. Together with: his Soldier's Service and Pay Book (AB 64); a letter written to his mother after his arrival back in the UK following the Dunkirk evacuation (June 1940) descibing his experience as 'Perfect Hell' and saying old soldiers from the last war said they would prefer four years of that to one week of this; two field service postcards; a ms letter (2pp) to his mother (November 1943) following his return to England from the Mediterranean; three silk postcards to his mother from France (1940 and 1945); a silk card souvenir from France with a poem; a screen shot from a documentary called "As it happened D Day" using original footage showing Copeland on the LCT [taken from Film Archive, catalogue number A70 37-4].
History note
Cataloguer SJO
