Description
Object description
British officer served with Royal Artillery in GB, 1921-1937; staff officer served with Headquarters, Mobile Div and Headquarters, 1st Armoured Div in GB, 1937-1940; served with Headquarters, 1st Armoured Div in France, 5/1940-6/1940; commanded 26th Armoured Bde in North Africa 1942-1943; served as Assistant Chief of Staff to General George S Patton, United States II Corps in North Africa, 1943
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as officer with Royal Artillery in GB, 1921-1937: reasons for enlistment; training at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; training and manoeuvres with V Bde, Royal Horse Artillery at Bordon Camp; fixing of results during manoeuvres between Cavalry Div and Experimental Mechanised Force at Tidworth; attending Staff College, Camberley, 1935-1936, including mechanisation controversy, content and value of course; expectation of war; visit to Germany, 1936; Munich Crisis, 9/1938. Recollections of period as staff officer with Headquarters, Mobile Div and 1st Armoured Div at Andover, GB, 1937-1940: formation of unit and concept of role; organisation, training and manoeuvres; deficiencies in equipment.
REEL 2 Continues: mobile command arrangements; tactical concepts for pursuit role; effects of lack of equipment; visit to First World War battlefields and Maginot Line, France; integration of army reservists, 1938 and 1939; mobilisation, 8/1939; conversion to 1st Armoured Div, 9/1939; slow production of tanks. Recollections of operations as staff officer with Headquarters, 1st Armoured Div in France, 5/1940-6/1940: speed of deployment to France; lack of infantry and artillery units; voyage to Cherbourg and situation on arrival; status under command of General Marie-Robert Altmayer's French Tenth Army; attempt to advance beyond River Somme; refugees, scare of Fifth Column activities; German Air Force attack on headquarters; defensive line on River Bresle.
REEL 3 Continues: advance from River Bresle; action at Huppy; tanks lost due to mechanical breakdowns; demoralisation amongst senior officers of French Army; withdrawal from River Bresle; detachments from division; withdrawal across River Seine; loss of spare parts; gradual withdrawal to Cherbourg; failure of command structure; defensive positions across Cotentin Peninsula; opinion of quality of French Army troops; sleep; rations; destruction of tanks and port facilities at Cherbourg; troops' morale; voyage back to GB; lessons of campaign.
REEL 4 Continues: German motorcycle troops. Aspects of period as staff officer with Headquarters, 1st Armoured Div and Headquarters, Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 1940-1942: reformation and equipment of 1st Armoured Div in GB; counter-invasion force; posting as deputy to Lieutenant-General Gifford Martel in command of Royal Armoured Corps; question of civilian awareness of campaign in France, 1940. Aspects of operations commanding 26th Armoured Bde, 6th Armoured Div in North Africa, 1942-1943: organisation of unit; landings during Operation Torch, 11/1942; advance on Tunis, Tunisia; disruption caused by German Air Force attacks and muddy conditions; holding action at Thala after Battle of Kasserine, Tunisia. Aspects of period as Assistant Chief of Staff to General George S Patton with United States II Corps in Tunisia, 1943: relations with General George S Patton; wounding; holding action at Thala after Battle of Kasserine; deficiencies in basic tactics in corps; General George S Patton's methods of raising morale; British holding tactics at Thala after Battle of Kasserine.