Description
Object description
British private served with 1/5th Bn Queen's Royal Regt (West Surrey), 131st Infantry Bde, 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Div in North Africa, 1942; prisoner of war in North Africa, Campo PG 70, Monteurano, Italy and Stalag IV-B, Mühlberg, Germany, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of operations as private with 1/5th Bn Queens Royal Regt West Surrey), 131st Infantry Bde, 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Div in Egypt, 7/1942-9/1942: joining Territorial Army in GB, 1939; voyage from GB to Egypt, 6/1942-7/1942; move into front line and relieving 2nd New Zealand Infantry Div; start of Operation Braganza at Deir el Munassib, Egypt, 29/9/1942; reaction to being under fire; capture by German troops of Deutsches Afrika Korps, 29/9/1942. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in North Africa, 1942: initial treatment by captors; German belief in brutality of New Zealand Army Maori troops; conduct of interrogation.
REEL 2 Continues: privations of everyday life in desert; journey in lorries to Benghazi, Libya; death of prisoners of war in trench latrines in Benghazi Prisoner of War Transit Camp, Libya; impressions of Italian captors; life in Tripoli Prisoner of War Transit Camp, Libya; story of prisoner of war shot by guard in barbed wire; morale of prisoners of war; description of voyage from Tripoli to Italy. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Campo PG 70, Monteurano, Italy, 1942-1943: how he remonstrated with South African prisoners of war for speaking Afrikaans language; suffering from cold and lice; how his wound became lice infested.
REEL 3 Continues: suffering from cold and hunger; Red Cross parcels; story of prisoner of war whose stomach exploded after eating figs; use of prisoner of war money and Italian canteen; story of sum of money sent to home after German surrender; reasons for not being bored; access to news of progress of war; promotion of Roman Catholicism in camp; contact with home; how he discovered that he had been reported 'missing, presumed killed'; censoring of letters; lack of insignia on uniform to denote prisoner of war status; lack of contact with Italian civilians; observance of rank by prisoners of war; role of NCOs in camp; camp entertainment.
REEL 4 Continues: method of making complaints; confiscation of 'offensive weapons'; making and use of brewing cans; use of cigarettes as currency; lectures; how argument was settled by formal fight amongst prisoners of war; punishment of prisoner of war who stole food; attitude of prisoners of war towards Italian guards; opinion of German guards; Italian guards' mistreatment of Sikh captives; further details of prisoner of war attitude towards Italian guards; relations with guards; degree of knowledge of Geneva Convention; story of how he was nearly shot by German guard after argument over battledress.
REEL 5 Continues: German Army takeover of camp, 9/1943; transfer from Italy to Germany by train. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Prisoner of War Transit Camp at Werdau, Germany, 1943: conditions of Soviet Prisoners of War and their treatment. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag IV-B, Mühlberg, Germany, 1943-1945: story of prisoner of war shot dead for breaking curfew; volunteering for work party outside camp; delousing of prisoners of war; story of how prisoner of war got away with insulting Adolf Hitler's picture; how young pro-Nazi was influenced against the regime by prisoners of war; story of how 'love letter' from German got him into trouble with guard.
REEL 6 Continues: story of occasion when he was bombed by United States Army Air Force at station and how he assisted German civilian casualties in aftermath, 1945; character of workplace at Vollbrechthausen; work as labourer; amorous contacts between British prisoners of war and German women; his relations with German woman.
REEL 7 Continues: story of how Norris was unable to prevent impending rape of German woman by United States Army troops; story of meeting between British prisoner of war and German woman which had a thwarted ending; prisoners of war who had relations with German women; reasons for not seriously considering escape; method of obtaining war news; hearing news of D-Day landings and how it was received, 6/6/1944.
REEL 8 Continues: how prisoners of war came to be removed from Vollbrechthausen; demoralised condition of American prisoners of war; how cooks exploited black market; how American intended to make British prisoners of war scramble for gift of cigarettes; how Norris was allowed to take cigarettes to sick prisoners of war; comparison between Soviet and American prisoners of war; abortive scheme by American prisoners of war to mark their hut with United States flag due to threat of air attack; difference between 'vertraunsmann' and 'deutmetscher'; contact with teenage Ukrainian forced labourers; story of warning Ukrainian girl not to get German woman to fill her jug; incident in which he was offered naked Ukrainian girl; German attempts to recruit prisoners of war to British Free Korps; German attempts to exploit Irish opposition to GB.
REEL 9 Continues: story of German woman who cursed Allied bombing; story of prisoners of war singing with German civilians. Recollections of liberation in Germany, 1945: liberation by United States Army troops; description of atrocity committed against three Germans; story of murder of German prisoner of war camp commandant by American soldier; instances of assertion of superiority by prisoners of war over German population; prisoners of war commandeering transport.
REEL 10 Continues: how prisoners of war flaunted Red Cross cigarettes to German civilians; prior recollection of how German officer punched German guard for accepting cigarette from prisoner of war; further details of how prisoners of war commandeered transport; how he was nearly shot by American military policeman; United States Army troops display of dead German officer as trophy; his saying farewell to his German friends; journey from Germany to GB via France; long term effects of captivity.
REEL 11 Continues: reflections on German and British national characteristics; belief in ultimate British victory.