Description
Object description
British boy soldier served with 2nd Bn Manchester Regt in GB, 4/1936-1/1937; boy soldier served with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, British Troops in Egypt in Egypt, 1/1937-2/1938; boy soldier and private served with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, Palestine Command in Palestine, 2/1938-10/1938; private served with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, 2nd Malaya Bde, Malaya Command in Singapore, Malaya, 12/1938-2/1942; prisoner of war in Changi and Havelock Road Camps in Singapore, Malaya, on Burma-Thailand Railway and Uttaradit Camp, Thailand, 2/1942-8/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Stockport, GB, 1920-1936: family; education. Aspects of enlistment and training as boy soldier with 2nd Bn Manchester Regt in GB, 4/1936-1/1937: reasons for enlistment, 4/1936; basic training; comrades' sporting abilities; stick drill. Aspects of period as boy soldier with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, British Troops in Egypt in Egypt, 1/1937-2/1938: disciplined regime for boy soldiers; duties as bugler; relations with Egyptians; pay; delivering drugs for civilian pusher; conversion of battalion to machine gun regiment and improvised mobile machine gun, 12/1937. Recollections of operations as boy soldier and private with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, Palestine Command in Palestine, 2/1938-10/1938: posting to Palestine; accommodation in Tiberias; first encounter with Arab insurgents; issue of rifles to boy soldiers; receiving mysterious Aldis Lamp signal whilst standing in for duty signaller.
REEL 2 Continues: failure to act on signal and learning of consequent Jewish massacre; move to Acre, 5/1938; home-made cinema; an isolated sniper shot aimed at unit; increasing Arab violence and military tactics; Arab ambush using landmines; use of captured insurgents to protect escorts and their treatment; skirmish with insurgents whilst aiding ambushed convoy; treatment of captured insurgents by troops; comrades' violent release of tension after ambush.
REEL 3 Continues: further details of treatment of insurgents; public executions of tried and convicted insurgents; rackets run by troops; accounting for ammunition used; story of accidental fatal shooting of NCO; troops' attitude towards insurgents; battalion casualties caused by insurgents; Captain Orde Wingate's lectures and idea of 'flying picket'; dealing with Arab women in village; memories of Captain Orde Wingate; attitude towards Arabs and Jews.
REEL 4 Continues: collective fining of villages. Recollections of period as private with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, 2nd Malaya Bde, Malaya Command in Singapore, Malaya, 12/1938-11/1941: move to Singapore, 12/1938; opinion of defences; inter-battalion brawls; his punishment for fighting; antipathy towards Royal Navy and Soviet Navy personnel; attitude towards Australians troops; opinion of inability of different nationalities to cooperate as fighting force; European civilian's attitude towards ordinary soldiers; attitude of troops towards local civilians. Recollections of operations as private with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, 2nd Malaya Bde, Malaya Command in Singapore, Malaya, 12/1941-2/1942: outbreak of war in Far East, 12/1941; Japanese air attack on Singapore, 12/1941.
REEL 5 Continues: defensive preparations; rest period at time of invasion; problems preparing defensive positions; story of involvement in road accident, 2/1942; state of recently arrived 18th Infantry Div; Japanese use of observation balloon; aiding Royal Artillery personnel in bombed building; disposal of battalion effects and supplies; Fifth Column sabotage and problems identifying them; accidental shooting of Chinese woman and child; Fifth Column activity.
REEL 6 Continues: narrow escape of Chinese child from unit machine gun fire; Fifth Column activities; contact with friendly Chinese schoolteacher; thwarted Japanese ploy; firing on Japanese; death of Chinese schoolteacher and comrade's shooting of officer as consequence; Japanese mortar attack; news of surrender, 15/2/1942; laying booby traps and destruction of equipment; withdrawal to pineapple warehouse; opinion of calibre of officers.
REEL 7 Continues: sortie to destroy supplies and killing of individual Japanese soldiers, 2/1942; drunkenness and looting; escorting Australian Major-General Gordon Bennett to seaplane, 14/2/1942; opinion of Prime Minister Winston Churchill; demoralised state of Allied troops in Singapore, 2/1942; opinion of inexperienced 18th Infantry Div; presence of drunken troops; surrender, 15/2/1942. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Changi Camp, Singapore, Malaya, 1942: march to camp; living conditions in camp; witnessing massacre of Chinese civilians by Japanese on beach; rescue of two survivors from massacre.
REEL 8 Continues: reflections on massacre of Chinese civilians; working parties in Singapore; collection of identification tags of British dead; prisoner of war injuries sustained from collection live ammunition; clearing of former Royal Army Service Corps depot at Nee Soon village; accidental burning of camp and Japanese accusation of sabotage. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Havelock Road Camp, Singapore, Malaya, 1942: working parties on docks; second Japanese accusation of sabotage; witnessing Japanese beheading of Chinese civilians; Japanese torture of Chinese boy. Recollections of period as prisoner of war on Burma-Thailand Railway, 1942-1944: volunteering to work on railway, 5/1942; train journey to Thailand; stealing of prisoners of war kit by Thais; building huts and latrines at Ban Pong Camp; monsoon floods; move to Chungkai Camp, 9/1942.
REEL 9 Continues: railway construction work; refusal of officers to work and subsequent punishment at Chungkai Camp; obtaining work in cookhouse; trading with Thais and his punishment when caught; description of 'kennel' punishment; how British officer and NCOs curried favour with Japanese guards by acting as camp police; his treatment by camp police and subsequent 'kennel' punishment; prisoner of war rackets including selling water during cholera outbreak at Chungkai Camp; promotion to corporal with bugling and cremation duties; witnessing execution of escaped prisoners of war.
REEL 10 Continues: story of killing Japanese guard and how prisoners of war covered up for him; subsequent attachment to Japanese engineers' section; learning to swim in river at Chungkai Camp; humorous incident of saving prisoner of war and unpredictability of Japanese behaviour. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Uttaradit Camp, Thailand, 1945; fraternisation with Thais; hearing news of atomic bombs being dropped on Japan and refusal of Japanese to believe war was over, 8/1945. Aspects of liberation and return from Thailand to GB via Rangoon, Burma, 1945: leaving camp, 9/1945; commandeering train to Bangkok, Thailand, 9/1945; temporary blindness in camp in Bangkok, Thailand; leaving Thailand.
REEL 11 Continues: his list of prisoner of war deaths; his declining to take revenge on Japanese prisoners of war at airport; reception at airfield in Rangoon, Burma; hospitalisation in Rangoon, Burma; return of his bugle; his desertion at Christmas in GB, 12/1945; transfer to Royal Corps of Signals; reasons for leaving British Army, 9/1948. Reflections of period as prisoner of war in Singapore, Malaya, on Burma-Thailand Railway and Thailand, 2/1942-8/1945: psychological effects of imprisonment; memories of Selarang Square Incident in Singapore, Malaya, 8/1942-9/1942; attitude towards Japanese; opinion of Prime Minister Winston Churchill's role in fall of Singapore, Malaya, 2/1942.