Description
Object description
British NCO served with Recovery and Repair Section, 3rd Field Army Workshop, Royal Army Ordnance Corps in France, 7/9/1939-30/5/1940
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB and Gibraltar, 1914-1929: family; education. Aspects of period as apprentice with Army Technical School (Boys) at Chepstow, GB, 1929-1932: educational standard required; production of tools; discipline; instructors; trade and education standards; training for role as artificer. Aspects of period as NCO with Recovery and Repair Section, 3rd Army Field Workshop, Royal Army Ordnance Corps in GB, 3/9/1939-7/9/1939: problems locating mobilisation unit, 8/1939-9/1939; own and public reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; expectation of immediate hostilities; role and strength of unit; presence of supplementary reserve personnel and militiamen in unit.
REEL 2 Continues: unit equipment; move to France, 7/9/1940; billeting at Loos-en-Gohelle; relations with French civilians in Loos-en-Gohelle; troops' reaction to listening to William Joyce 'Lord Haw Haw' radio broadcasts; recreational activities; duties; fear of German gas attacks; awareness of German campaign in Norway. Recollections of operations as NCO with Recovery and Repair Section, 3rd Army Field Workshop, Royal Army Ordnance Corps in France, 10/5/1940-30/5/1940: firing on German reconnaissance aircraft, 10/5/1940; story of encounter with suspicious Royal Artillery officer at Loos-en-Gohelle, 19/5/1940; move to hamlet in Hazebrouck area, 20/5/1940; disappearance of despatch rider.
REEL 3 Continues: sight of retreating French Army troops; commanding officer's orders not to fire on German reconnaissance motorcyclists, 23/5/1940; officer's use of Carden-Lloyd Carrier for reconnaissance of escape route; purposes; skirmish with German armoured cars; decision to evacuate hamlet; account of escape from ambush by German armoured cars during evacuation of hamlet.
REEL 4 Continues: regaining British lines; orders to retreat northwards towards coast; German use of reconnaissance motorcyclists; presence of refugees on roads, 25/5/1940-26/5/1940; decision to leave road; suspicions of Fifth Column activity; arrival at Cassel, 27/5/1940; lack of command structure for corps troops; medical treatment in Royal Army Medical Corps hospital at Bergues, 27/5/1940; evacuation towards Dunkirk; identification checks on arrival in Dunkirk Perimeter, 28/5/1940; impossibility of sleep; second identification check.
REEL 5 Continues: taking cover during German air raid; story of being blown into water after embarkation on board ship; German damage to East Mole at Dunkirk; division of beaches into colour coded areas by Royal Navy; discipline and manifestations of psychological stress witnessed on beaches; determination to get back to GB; embarkation via scrambling net onto Royal Navy destroyer, 30/5/1940; crossing English Channel; reception on arrival at Dover, GB; awareness of casualties caused by ambush of German armoured cars only on return to GB; question of plan to return unit back to France; question of officers' behaviour during evacuation; French attitude towards British Expeditionary Force during retreat; question of attitude of French and Belgian civilians to veteran pilgrimages to Dunkirk.
REEL 6 Continues: opinion of British Broadcasting Corporation and French radio news received during campaign; question of British civilians' ignorance of campaign.