Description
Object description
British officer served with 2nd Motor Bn King's Royal Rifle Corps, Support Group, Mobile Div and 1st Armoured Div in GB, 8/1938-4/1940; served with 2nd Bn King's Royal Rifle Corps, 30th Motor Bde at Calais, France, 23/5/1940-26/5/1940; prisoner of war in Oflag VII-C Laufen, Fortress VIII, Stalag XXI-D, Posen and Oflag IV-C, Colditz, Germany, 6/1940-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as cadet at Royal Military College, Sandhurst in GB, 1937-1938: reasons for joining British Army; choice of King's Royal Rifle Corps; opinion of training received. Recollections of period as officer with 2nd Motor Bn King's Royal Rifle Corps, Support Group, Mobile Div and 1st Armoured Div in GB, 8/1938-4/1940: taking command of Scout Platoon on joining battalion, 25/8/1939; nature of training and opinion of Bren Gun; effects of Munich Crisis, 9/1938; reaction to outbreak of Second World War, 3/9/1939; training; wireless communications; move of division to Dorsetshire on outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; absorption of reservists; state of unit and role as motorised rifle battalion; uniform; gas warfare equipment; attending gas warfare course and subsequent training.
REEL 2 Continues: troops' attitude towards gas training; defence duties in East Anglia; reaction to German invasion of Belgium, 10/5/1940; road journey to Southampton, 21/5/1940-22/5/1940. Recollections of operations as officer with 2nd Bn King's Royal Rifle Corps, 30th Motor Bde at Calais, France, 23/5/1940-26/5/1940: voyage aboard MV Royal Daffodil from Southampton via Dover to Calais, 22/5/1940; disembarkation at Calais, 23/5/1940; deployment and defence plans, 23/5/1940; French artillery support; presence of French troops and civilians; infiltration of German snipers; withdrawal of 3rd Royal Tank Regt and 1st Bn Queen Victoria's Rifles, King's Royal Rifle Corps into the Old Town, 24/5/1940; German shelling; destruction of Carrier Section; development of German attack; receiving naval gunfire support.
REEL 3 Continues: German assault formation; effect of small arms fire on German attack; German use of tanks; platoon casualties, 24/5/1940; character of German fire; deployment of Ordnance QF 2 Pounder Anti-Tank Guns; nature of battalion positions and use of snipers; liaison between companies; control of platoon; German infiltration; fire control; situation, 24/5/1940; orders to withdrawal to canal line, 25/5/1940; German air attack, 25/5/1940; description of positions on canal line; morale; under German shell and mortar fire, 25/5/1940; halting of German attack on bridges, 25/5/1940.
REEL 4 Continues: German use of propaganda leaflets dropped by aircraft; hour long ceasefire followed by heavy artillery bombardment; brigade casualties; German night-time bombing, 25/5/1940-26/5/1940; morning visit to 1st Bn Rifle Brigade, 26/5/1940; officer casualties in unit, 26/5/1940; supply and ammunition situation; under German mortar fire; activities night, 25/5/1940-26/5/1940; situation early afternoon, 26/5/1940; wounding by mortar fire, 26/5/1940; move to company headquarters; German breakthrough and attacks from rear; wounding by machine gun fire, 26/5/1940; German infantry and tank co-operation during breakthrough; question of surrender; nature of wounds; capture and initial treatment as wounded prisoner of war.
REEL 5 Continues: initial medical treatment for wounds. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Oflag VII-C Laufen, Germany, 6/1940-3/1941, Fortress VIII, Stalag XXI-D, Posen, Germany, 3/1941-5/1941 and Oflag IV-C, Colditz, Germany, 3/1942-4/1945: move from France to prisoner of war transit camps in Germany, 5/1940-6/1940; move to Oflag VII-C Laufen, 6/1940; reasons for removal from Oflag VII-C, Laufen, Germany to Fortress VIII, Stalag XXI-D, Posan, 3/1941; conditions in Fortress VIII, Stalag XXI-D, Poznań, Poland; escape from Fortress VIII, Stalag XXI-D, Posan, 5/1941; period with Polish Resistance in Warsaw, Poland, 5/1941-2/1942; recapture by Germans, 3/1942; removal to Oflag IV-C, Colditz, 3/1942; escape and recapture, 9/1943-10/1943; return to Oflag IV-C, Colditz; question of escape prior to liberation, 4/1945; prisoner of war morale.
