Description
Object description
British officer served with No 5 Independent Coy in Norway, 4/1940-5/1940; served with No 2 Commando during Operation Chariot, the commando raid on Saint-Nazaire, France, 28/3/1942; prisoner of war in Oflag IV-C, Colditz, Germany, 8/1943-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of operations as officer with No 5 Independent Coy in Norway, 4/1940-5/1940: background to volunteering for unit; degree of training and physical fitness; character of operations; relations with Norwegians; opinion of German Army troops; lessons learnt from service in Norway; embarkation on destroyer. Recollections of operations as officer with No 2 Commando during Operation Chariot, the commando raid on Saint-Nazaire, France, 28/3/1942: character of commando recruits; condition and morale of unit prior to raid; briefing and training for Operation Chariot; opinion of intelligence available for raid.
REEL 2 Continues: attitude of commandos to forthcoming raid; selection of protection party from his troop; Bill Gibson's premonition of death; approach to French coast; effects of gunfire on his protection troop and mine layer transporting them; sight of HMS Campbeltown; crossing docks; blocking position on bridge; personal weapons carried; attempt to pass through German sentries to escape; role of second in command during raid; brief capture by German patrol and escape; wounding by Germans; story of hitting German soldier on head with pistol; orders to escape to Spain; discovery by German search party whilst hiding in boiler room of ship; making V sign to German photographer; behaviour of German captors and interrogation.
REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of period as prisoners of war in Oflag IV-C, Colditz in Germany, 8/1943-4/1945: reasons for transfer to camp, 8/1943; investigation by other prisoners of war; giving lectures on Marxism; question of number of prisoners of war who wanted to escape; aiding escape schemes and taking news from secret radio; relations between different prisoner of war nationalities in camp; camp organisation; conditions in camp; character of castle; degree of contact with Germans and black market; behaviour of German guards; insight into German morale during journey across Germany to camp, 8/1943; impact of murder of Royal Air Force officers by Germans; attitude of Lieutenant Michael Sinclair to captivity; coping with prisoner of war life and frustrations; importance of intellectual interests; question of Germans knowing of existence of illicit radio; comparison between Oflag IV-C, Colditz and other prisoner of war camps; arrival of liberating American troops, 15/4/1945; acting as interpreter for German surrender; lessons learnt from incarceration in Oflag IV-C, Colditz.