Description
Object description
British officer served with 228th (Sussex) Bty (Howitzer), 57th Field Bde, Royal Artillery in GB, 1929-1939; served as staff officer with Headquarters, 12th (Eastern) Infantry Div in GB and France, 8/1939-6/1940; served as staff officer with Headquarters, Coastal Defence Artillery, Royal Artillery in Portsmouth, GB, 7/1940-8/1940
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as officer with 228th (Sussex) Bty (Howitzer), 57th Field Bde, Royal Artillery in GB, 1929-1939: background to joining Territorial Army, 1929; membership of Officers' Training Corps at Brighton Grammar School and University of Cambridge including gun drill, tactical schemes and summer camps; question of joining regular army; organisation and deployment of 57th Field Regt (Sussex Yeomanry); opinion and description of Ordnance QF 4.5 Inch Howitzer; gun crew; firing Ordnance QF 4.5 Inch Howitzer; attending firing camps and summer camps; tactical exercises; opinion of quality of other ranks in unit.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of period attending staff course for Territorial Army officers at Staff College, Camberley in GB, 1939: quality of instruction; syllabus; method of handling infantry division; exercises; use of tanks for training; air co-operation; expectations of coming war and impressions of Maginot Line. Recollections of period as staff officer with Headquarters, 12th (Eastern) Infantry Div in GB and France, 8/1939-5/1940: initial mobilisation, 8/1939; formation of division; role as GSO II (Operations); lack of equipment; training in Kent.
REEL 3 Continues: move with advance party to France, 4/1940; proposed role of division in France; condition of Gort Line defences; composition and role of divisional advance party; crossing English Channel, 14/4/1940; deployment to chateaux in Forges-les-Eaux, 4/1940; equipment; billeting duties; initiative shown by Royal Army Service Corps officer during Battle of France; arrival of main body of division, 4/1940; visit to Maginot Line; visit to French Army divisional headquarters; impressions of French Army troops and operation of Maginot Line.
REEL 4 Continues: plans to extend Maginot Line including pillboxes, field artillery positions, lack of tank traps, anti-tank guns, barbed wire and absence of mines. Recollections of operations as staff officer with Headquarters, 12th (Eastern) Infantry Div in France, 5/1940-6/1940: confused situation on German attack, 10/5/1940; problems with communications; acquiring wireless truck; listening to French radio broadcasts; contrast in state of British and French morale; orders to act as reinforcement division; formation of scratch artillery battery.
REEL 5 Continues: confused situation south of River Seine; reconnaissance patrol in Arras area; sight of aftermath of German Air Force dive bombing attack on refugees; line of communications duties; formation of Petreforce and occupation of defensive positions on River Seine; narrow escape from mortar fire; encounter with Germans during reconnaissance patrol towards Dunkirk; encounter with German motorcycle troops; reconnaissance patrol to Arras.
REEL 6 Continues: further details of formation of Petreforce; commanding scratch artillery battery; confused situation; German light reconnaissance tactics; description of using Ordnance QF 25 Pounder Field Gun in anti-tank role; German dive bombing and casualties; state of morale; handling of casualties; transmission of orders from divisional headquarters; use of artillery tractors; reconnaissance by map; siting of guns; presence of refugees and question of sabotage.
REEL 7 Continues: use of sentries; sense of isolation of scratch artillery battery; extent of Petreforce deployment and expectation of reinforcements; factors in siting of guns; duration of battery actions and types of targets engaged; living conditions; German flank attack and subsequent retreat; German air attacks on refugees at Abbeville; nature of defensive positions on Somme line; withdrawal to River Bresle; German attack on junction between 12th (Eastern) Infantry Div and 51st (Highland) Infantry Div; handing over scratch artillery battery; journey to Cherbourg; sight of tugs carrying gas shells in English Channel and question of British Expeditionary Force policy on use of gas.
REEL 8 Continues: journey to Saint-Nazaire; sight of bombing of HMT Lancastria off Saint-Nazaire, 17/6/1940; move from Saint-Nazaire to Rouen, 19/6/1940; listening to British Broadcasting Corporation and morale; rear guard actions on journey from Bayeux to Cherbourg; destruction of equipment at Cherbourg; embarkation under German artillery fire and cover of HMS Penelope's gun; sight of barges carrying gas shells in English Channel; prior gas training; reception on arrival in Southampton; move to Hexham; question of time taken to recover from campaign.
REEL 9 Continues: disbandment of 12th (Eastern) Infantry Div at Hexham; story of being nearly arrested whilst delivering divisional codebook to Headquarters, Northern Command; problems with individual staff officers during campaign in France. Aspects of period as staff officer with Headquarters, Coastal Defence Artillery, Royal Artillery in Portsmouth, GB, 7/1940-8/1940: posting to Portsmouth; co-ordination of coastal anti-invasion measures including using anti-aircraft guns in ground role; expectation that Germans would seize a port; sight of German guns firing on Dover; use of railway guns at Dover; German air activity; resistance of anti-aircraft gunners to fire on ground targets; question of threat of German invasion; plan to use grounded monitor as inshore battery.