Private Papers of H L George OBE

Privately published word-processed transcription (487pp) of his well-written contemporary diaries, and later letters to his mother and step-father, illustrated with photographs and with introduction and notes by him and his family, starting as a Fusilier, later Lance Corporal, with the Royal Welch Fusiliers (RWF), and then as a Sergeant, later WOII, instructor of flame throwers, and WOI (Sergeant Major) in the Army Educational Corps (AEC), beginning after being called-up and training with the RWF and leaving the UK on a draft (January 1940), sailing to Cherbourg, France, impressions of France, a train journey to Marseilles, boarding SS ETTRICK, the cramped conditions, sleeping in hammocks, the journey through the Mediterranean, the routines, weather, travelling down the Suez Canal from Port Said, being impressed with the canal, heat in the Red Sea, boxing and concerts, sports, pilfering on board, landing in Bombay, India, a troop train to Lucknow (February 1940), the relaxed life in barracks, thoughts on Indian servants, training with 'D' Squad Training Company, 2nd Battalion RWF, meeting other lads from Shotton, Flintshire, training schemes against Punjabi regiments, Battalion sports days, guard duty, his photography, coming down with dysentery (March 1940), 'D' Squad 15 Platoon moving to 'C' Company, applying for an NCOs cadre (April), his platoon splitting up and going to different companies, rifle ranges, riot practice, becoming an unpaid Lance Corporal, trench building practice, death of a fellow soldier, packing to move to the hills, but the hill move being cancelled, rumours and confusion about where they might go, worry at the situation in Europe (May 1940), moving to Bombay, boarding the troopship SS ASKA (June 1940), sailing to the UK via South Africa, orderly work for the CQMS, being shown round Durban by the wife of the editor of the Daily News and others, being treated as honoured guests by the citizens, stopping in Cape Town, with more hospitality, stopping in Takoradi, Ghana (July 1940), and Freetown, Sierra Leone, sport and singing on board, passing an exam to be made up to paid Lance Corporal, arriving in Liverpool, the train to Aldershot, home leave, transcriptions of 11 letters (no dates but 1942 – 1943) sent from the Army Gas School at Salisbury Plain, staying on and acting as a Sergeant Instructor specialising in flamethrowers, largely speaking of personal and family matters, but with brief details about teaching a Home Guard squad, seeing Winston Churchill on a train, staff at the AGS, making model tanks and planes, films he had seen, being sent to Italy to a new training school being set up (October 1943), the diary transcriptions resuming from October 1943, leaving Winterbourne, reporting to an Assembly Centre in London with his CO Major Carrington, boarding the HMT AORANGI, rotten conditions, having to wait for repairs, better food, passing Gibraltar (November 1943), landing in Algiers, Algeria, attached to Allied Force HQ as an instructor at the Chemical Warfare School, first impressions of Algeria, rain, moving to a Royal Engineers camp near Chateau Neuf, moving around Algeria including Bone, Constantine and Philippeville, promotion to Warrant Officer (Sergeant Major), seeing de Gaulle, a trip to Italy via Tunis (December 1943), based in Barletta, having to wait over a month for a ship carrying Chemical Warfare wing, learning Italian from some boys, light duties and boredom, befriending an Italian family, Christmas, balancing books, investigations into thefts of petrol, raids on suspects with Special Investigation Branch, a trip to Benevento (February 1944), investigating reports of Fascists still in Trani, parties and dances with CMP and 715 Company RE friends, finally moving to the new Central Mediterranean Training Centre (CMTC) in Benevento, his new accommodation, setting up the flamethrower wing with Major Carrington, working with flamethrowers mounted on Bren gun carriers again (March 1944), runs out to Naples, demonstrations for the top brass, getting more carriers, football matches, starting a new course (April 1944), hearing the barrage at the start of the Battle of Monte Cassino (May 1944), friendship with an American Sergeant, rumours of moving to a new camp, excitement of the news of the second front (June 1944), illness, a spell of leave, trips to Naples and Anzio for parts, exercises, and leisure, scare when another clerk lost a diary found by MP and fears for his own forbidden diary, preparations to move (July 1944), promotion to war-substantive WO II (August 1944), the unit moving to Rome, then to other camps, a storm flooding his jeep near Assisi, delivering 'lifebuoy' portable flamethrowers to a frontline brigade that needed them, his sub-unit being near the front during a big push, passing corpses from earlier fighting (September 1944), constantly moving to and from Corps and Eighth Army HQs in foul weather, teaching courses for Indian troops (September – October 1944), his 25th birthday, a move to the Canadian Corps where they were attached to the New Zealanders, inspecting equipment at an AOD at Ancona, then to Rimini, teaching Maori troops, more moves, working with Mark II flamethrowers, leave in Benevento (November 1944), seeing the devastated remains of Cassino, his anger that the Canadian drivers in his unit were to be made front-line infantry troops, being billeted in a filthy factory, a dive bombing attack on his unit (December 1944), a white Christmas, the war hitting home when a friend was posted 'missing' (January 1945), delays in hearing about his promotion to Company Sergeant Major (CSM), secondment touring different units to instruct and inspect, 25th New Zealand Battalion (New Zealand Division) near Faenza (February 1945), moving to a British Battalion (56th Division), crossing the country to near Florence to instruct Guards Battalions, moving to an Indian Brigade, returning to his unit, constructing a mobile lavatory (March 1945), problems over how to turn down a local girl who became fond of him, injuries of students in courses, disliking teaching with lifebuoys, moving to a new site on the banks of the Montone (April 1945), seeing the start of the Spring offensive in Italy, moving to Feno, good news from other fronts, re-joining his unit at Cesena, the end of the war in Italy (May 1945), still instructing, sombre reactions to the end of the war, spending VE Day with an Italian family, hearing of reprisals against Italian Fascists, the journey to Venice, then Udine, a beautiful billet with an Italian family, assisting Major Carrington in writing the history of flame warfare in Italy by collecting accounts from various units, time in Trieste, an interview with the Army Educational Corps, turning down a commission but preparing to transfer as a WOII (June 1945), the plane back to Caserta, leaving 10 Mobile FWTT (Flame Warfare Training Team[?]) to join the AEC at Perugia University, lectures, training, dismay at some of the instructors, a return to Army discipline bordering on 'dictatorship', the General Election results and his annoyance that Flintshire remained Conservative (July 1945), news of the atomic bombing of Japan (August 1945), VJ Day, a long journey to Naples, meeting his old unit at Taranto, posting to be an honorary instructor at a 42nd Division Team School to be started in Greece, sailing to Greece, stationed with 23rd Armoured Brigade at Loutraki, difficulties in setting up an education scheme with regiments disbanding, promotion to WOI (Sergeant-Major) (September 1945), thoughts on Greece, and preparations for LIAP, the diary ending 7 October 1945, and a brief post script by his daughter, with throughout details of his daily life, sights and sounds, conditions, descriptions of the places he visited, wildlife, weather, training, Sergeant Roberts, Sandes Soldiers Home, morale boost from letters, duties, daily routines, thoughts of news of the war on other fronts, news of friends and family, pay, food, flame throwers, his CO Major Carrington, films, leisure time, sport, incidents where Italians had been in fights with Allies, losing his hair, dramas among the local Italian families, casualties, thoughts about teaching post-war, post-war life in Italy and Greece, dances, his near tee-total stance, learning about watch mending, and some amused editorial comments from him as he looks back at some of the flowery language he used.

Cataloguer SJO