description
Object description
British civilian served as officer with Wolverton Works Home Guard in Wolverton, GB, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of operations with 1st and 5th Bns Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on Western Front, 1914-1917: memory of outbreak of war, 8/1914; enlistment; training; uniform; wounded and POW in Germany, 1917-1918. Recollections of period as officer with Wolverton Works Home Guard in GB, 1944-1945: story of joining Wolverton Works Home Guard; guard duties; role as section leader; armoury; issued with uniform; question of ranks; age range and physical condition of recruits; ; discipline; drill; organisation; commissioned as 1st Lieutenant with No 4 Platoon D coy; description of training; weapons; machine gun section; drill; musketry training; bombs and mortars; tactical exercises.
REEL 2 Continues: officers' mess; lectures; description of guard duties at night; pay; Sunday morning parade; training exercises; route marches with military band; various amusing stories of Home Guard life; demobilised; question of retaining rank after war. Post-war life and employment: story of being re-commissioned and training with regular army, 1952; role in contingency plans for Wolverton in case of invasion or civil emergency.