MacAuslan, John Mechan (Oral history)

British officer served with 5th Reconnaissance Regt, Reconnaissance Corps, 5th Infantry Div in Italy, Palestine and North West Europe, 1944-1945

REEL 1 Background in GB, 1916-1939: family; education. Recollections of operations as officer with 5th Reconnaissance Regt, Reconnaissance Corps, 5th Infantry Div in Italy, 1944: role of Reconnaissance Corps; duties as intelligence officer; under mortar fire on River Gargliano; reconnaissance of German minefield; military policeman who found himself in wrong place; opinion of inexperienced American 36th Infantry Div; move to Casoli; reception for escaped POWs; unit casualties; situation at Anzio; eruption of Mount Vesuvius; opinion of attitude of senior officer at Anzio. REEL 2 Continues: narrow escape from German shelling; location of unit; visit to dentist; importance of not raising dust; threat of malaria; two harsh court martial decisions; memories of Bill Alexander; abortive raid along culvert; personal morale; daily routine; narrow escape from machine gun fire; break out from Anzio, 6/1944; advance towards Rome; entry into Rome, 6/1944; stopping troops firing at statues. Aspects of period as officer with 5th Reconnaissance Regt, Reconnaissance Corps, 5th Infantry Div in Palestine, 1944: attitude towards posting to Palestine; duties. Recollections of operations as officer with 5th Reconnaissance Regt, Reconnaissance Corps, 5th Infantry Div in North West Europe, 1944-1945: voyage to Marseilles, France; train journey to Ghent, Belgium, late 1944. REEL 3 Continues: crossing River Elbe, Germany; belief of German using gas; German air attacks and degree of vulnerability of vehicles; contact with former British POWs; attitude of German civilians towards British; German attempt to negotiate surrender; sight of RAF attack on SS Cap Ancona and SS Deutschland in Baltic; entering Neustadt; condition of concentration camp survivors in Neustadt; German massacre of concentration camp inmates on beach; national characteristics of concentration camp survivors; German attitude towards concentration camp survivors; end of war. REEL 4 Continues: occupation of German castle; production of alcohol; contact with Soviet troops; arguments over demarcation of Soviet Zone; Russian attitude towards Germans; accidental shelling of German school; opinion of German troops faced; method of advancing in armoured cars through North West Europe; conditions for civilians in former occupied Europe; use of farm equipment for fuel by British troops in Germany, 1945; attitude towards end of the war.