Description
Object description
British officer served with 5th (Ski) Bn Scots Guards in France and GB, 1940; officer served with 1st Bn Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regt), 15th Infantry Bde in Norway, 4/1940-5/1940
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as officer with 5th (Ski) Bn Scots Guards in France and GB, 1940: motivation for joining battalion; reverting to rank of guardsman; training at Chamonix, France; move to Glasgow, GB for proposed participation in Soviet-Finnish War; attitude to active service; ski-ing experiences; instructors; use of sledges; duration of ski patrols; character of battalion. Recollections of operations as officer with 1st Bn Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regt), 15th Infantry Bde in Norway, 4/1940-5/1940: posting to battalion; training for landing operation; embarkation on destroyer at Rosyth Dockyard, GB; convoy from GB to Norway; confidence in success of operation; relations with platoon; lack of support; issue of special clothing; landing at Åndalsnes; train journey to Dombås; devastated state of Dombås; deployment into woods.
REEL 2 Continues: German Air Force activity and lack of Royal Air Force support; lack of intelligence as to location of Germans; train journey to Otta; in defensive positions at Otta; orders to advance; long march up mountain track; selection of platoon position; reluctance of men to carry stores up mountain track; improvement in morale; sight of German mechanised column advancing on road below; nature of company deployment; positions at Otta; layout of fieldworks; in positions forward of Otta; cooking of rations; lack of need for maps; dealing with troops' discontent.
REEL 3 Continues: state of physical fitness; German use of creeping barrage and Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers; terrain around positions; effect of bombing on troops' morale; outflanking of positions by German troops; attempt to move section position; taking up new position in snow line; withdrawal to hut after dark; Norwegian troops in hut; march to Dombås with Norwegian Army troops; Norwegian Army troops decision to give up; journey on skis over mountains and aid from Norwegians; journey by boat to Narvik; decision of his troops to go to Sweden.
REEL 4 Continues: reservist nature of Norwegian Army troops; aid from Norwegian civilians; movement up the coast by boat; question of collaboration amongst Norwegians; voyage from Norway to GB aboard HMS Zulu; lessons learnt from Norwegian campaign; bunching of his troops under fire; reliance on old principles of mountain warfare; glimpse of Germans during evasion; German advantages during campaign.