Description
Object description
British sapper served with 23rd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, 1st Infantry Div in Italy, 1943-1944; prisoner of war in Dulag 132, Laterina, Italy, 2/1944-3/1944 and Stalag VII-A, Moosburg and Stalag 344-B, Lamsdorf, Germany, 3/1944-1/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as sapper with Royal Engineers in GB and North Africa, 1943: background to call-up for military service, 1942; transfer to Royal Engineers in GB, 1943; opinion of German engineering skill; clearing minefields in North Africa, 1943; youthfulness of some troops; use of earth moving equipment. Recollections of operations as sapper with 23rd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, 1st Infantry Div in Italy, 1943-1944: effect of experience of landing at Salerno on later landings at Anzio, 1/1944; state of Naples and behaviour of Italian civilians; effect of delayed action explosive charges in Naples; character of Anzio landings, 1/1944; change in American attitudes towards British; importance of digging in; night fighting techniques; American respect for Grenadier Guards.
REEL 2 Continues: vulnerability of M4 Sherman Tank; German assault on Anzio beachhead; accuracy of German artillery; air war over Anzio; Allied attempt to breakout of beachhead; cutting cards for participation in risky operation; action at Caracetto; opinion of bravery of stretcher-bearers; ill treatment of German prisoners of war; loss of Ordnance QF 17 Pounder Anti-Tank Guns; reticent attitude of regular soldiers; opinion of officers from South Africa.
REEL 3 Continues: attempt to halt German tank attack. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Italy, 2/1944: capture by German Army troops in Anzio beachead, 2/1944; impressions of German captors; German respect for Grenadier guardsmen; state of battlefield; German attentiveness to prisoners of war; attack by Allied aircraft; German reaction to demand to respect Geneva Convention; character of German rations; rapid recovery of Germans from bombing.
REEL 4 Continues: pride and formality of German Army officers; German respect for dead; his removal to Rome; hostility of Italian civilians towards prisoners of war in Rome; treament of prisoners of war and Allied air attacks in prisoner of war transit camp. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Dulag 132, Laterina, Italy, 2/1944-3/1944: bartering; formation of prisoner of war combines; work parties; sharing of rations.
REEL 5 Continues: contact with home; train journey from Italy to Germany. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag VII-A, Moosburg and Stalag 344, Lamsdorf, Germany, 3/1944-1/1945: change of clothing; British prisoner of war organisation; problems after eating Red Cross parcel food; potato supply swindle; leaving Stalag VII-A, Moosburg by train; German appreciation of British discipline; sight of Dachau Concentration Camp; physical state of German guards; Red Cross parcels issue; transfer to Stalag 344, Lamsdorf; work of 'men of confidence'; transfer to railway work party; sight of German military casualties from Eastern Front; example of Nazi repression.
REEL 6 Continues: power of Nazi party; march of prisoners of war through town; investigation of dead bodies in Royal Air Force aircraft by female civilians; United States Army Air Force raids on oil refinery; hostility of Poles towards British; repair of oil refinery; instances of friendliness of guards; fear of air raids; bombing and ground defence techniques; ill treatment of captured airmen.
REEL 7 Continues: reception of news of D-Day, 6/1944; importance of oil to Germans; sight of aerial warfare; bomb disposal work carried out by Jewish camp inmates; question of high proportion of faulty American manufactured bombs; hearing news of German V1 Flying Bomb; evasion of air raids; news of plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, 7/1944; prisoner of war protest at Nazi salute requirement; German announcement of policy of 'total war'; interruption of Red Cross parcel supply; conditions for Soviet prisoners of war; German efforts to protect oil refinery; memories of Company Sergeant-Major Charles Coward.
REEL 8 Continues: Company Sergeant-Major Charles Coward's work for prisoners of war; hearing news of German V2 Rocket attacks on GB, 9/1944; reaction of prisoner of war to war news; prisoner of war hopes for arrival of Soviet Army; German tight control of area around oil refinery; exhaustion of British prisoners of war; Christmas, 12/1944; hearing news of German Ardennes Offensive; state of prisoner of war morale; approach of Soviet forces; sight of Auschwitz Concentration Camp inmates including German shooting of stragglers.
REEL 9 Continues: evacuation of oil refinery. Recollections of march away from Stalag 344, Lamsdorf in Germany, 1/1945-4/1945: march westwards; German scorched earth policy; German civilians marching westwards; resignation of German Army troops heading east; Soviet Air Force attacks; German guards' care for prisoners of war; organisation of march; sight of civilians frozen to death; forcing of civilians to move by Schutzstaffel (SS); reception for British prisoners of war by Czech civilians on arrival in Czechoslovakia.
REEL 10 Continues: sympathy shown to prisoners of war by German women; medical treatment for his foot injury; how German military equipment was useless for want of fuel; signs of approaching end of war; reception from prisoner of war airmen in Stalag XIII-D, Nuremberg-Langwasser; contrast between of Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force bombing techniques; march away from camp; sight of Schutzstaffel (SS) court martial; nature of march; suffering from foot injury; German last stand arrangements; survival on march.
REEL 11 Continues: decision to leave column and hide in barn; his discovery by German and sustenance received; arrival of German deserter; his evasion of Hitler Youth member; aid received from German family; United States Army attack on village. Recollections of liberation by United States Army and return to GB, 1945: arrival of Americans; American orders for no fraternisation with Germans.
REEL 12 Continues: his farewell to German woman; German interest in black American military policeman; American treatment of captured officer; objection of German aristocrat towards his treatment by Americans; his mediation on behalf of German civilians; hospitality of American troops towards him; American troops behaviour towards German prisoners of war; German reaction to waste of food by American troops; flight of German Air Force pilot from advancing Soviets.
REEL 13 Continues: arrival of German Air Force aircraft escaping Soviet advance; German attempt to prevent skilled men being captured by Soviets; Royal Air Force provision of flattened German towns; journey from Germany to GB; reception by Women's Voluntary Service. Reflections on prisoner of war experience, 1944-1945: psychological impact on Germans of prisoner of war receipt of parcels from home; lessons learnt from experience of Nazism.