Description
Object description
British officer served with 693rd Artisan Works Coy, Royal Engineers in France, 3/1940-6/1940; served with Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate in Middle East, 1941-1943; served with No 5 Beach Group, 3rd Infantry Div and 6th Airborne Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, 1914-1939: family; education; employment; recruitment to Royal Engineers, 1939. Aspects of operations as officer with 693rd Artisan Works Coy, Royal Engineers in France, 1940: period in cellars in Calais, 5/1940; arrival of trainload of wounded; German shelling of ship from Sangatte; destruction of equipment; abandoned transport in Boulogne, 5/1940; method of returning from Boulogne to Calais; sight of refugees on roads; prior recollection of reaction to declaration of Second World War, 9/1939. Aspects of period as officer with Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate in Middle East, 1941-1943: pattern of service with PAI Force.
REEL 2 Continues: return to GB, 1943. Recollections of operations as officer with No 5 Beach Group, 3rd Infantry Div in GB and Normandy, France, 1944: posting to unit; amphibious landing exercise at Elgin; move into tented camp at Emsworth; problem of planning for D-Day; postponement of D-Day; role and composition of beach group; German bombing of beach dump; his camouflage role with unit; landing on Queen White Beach, Sword Beach, D-Day, 6/6/1944; German obstacles on beach; advance towards strongpoint 0880; construction of German trenches.
REEL 3 Continues: acquiring personal weapon; extent of penetration inland on D-Day, 6/6/1944; degree of German opposition; German sniping and long range shelling; his camouflage work; problems laying down smokescreen; posting to 6th Airborne Div; collection of German prisoners of war; erection of camouflage screen. Aspects of period as officer with 6th Airborne Div in Normandy, France, 1944: camouflage work with division.
REEL 4 Continues: contact with French civilians; story of Frenchman who had sabotaged German mines; attitude of civilians towards Allies. Aspects of operations as officer with 5th Beach Group in GB and Normandy, France, 1944: impressions of strength of Atlantic Wall prior to D-Day; morale of invasion forces; work after D-Day dispersing stores dumps; his guess prior to D-Day that invasion would take place near Caen, France.