Hood, David Linley Smith (Oral history)

British private served with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 19th Infantry Bde, 6th Infantry Div on Western Front, 1915-1916; served as officer's batman with Headquarters, Fourth Army in France, 1916; served as aircraftman with No 2 Royal Flying Corps Repair Depot in France, 1916-1918; officer served as engineer aboard RFA Cairndale in Atlantic, 9/1939-5/1941 including sinking, 30/5/1941; served as chief engineer aboard RFA Gray Ranger in North Sea and Arctic, 7/1941-9/1942 including sinking 22/9/1942; served aboard RFA Dingledale in Atlantic, Mediterranean and Far East, 11/1942-8/1945

REEL 1 Background in Falkirk and Glasgow, GB, 1898-1914: family; education; employment. Aspects of enlistment and training with Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in GB, 1914-1915: background to enlistment, 8/1914; failure of friend's father to get him out of the army; reception at Stirling Castle; training in Plymouth, 1914-1915; interest of Lady Astor in troops; how he was befriended by experienced soldier. REEL 2 Continues: crossing to France, 3/1915; different regimental marching rates. Recollections of operations as private with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 19th Infantry Bde, 6th Infantry Div on Western Front, 1915-1916: joining B Coy; orders to move into front line at Loos; manning front line; burial parties; first use of gas masks; incident of being affected by own gas, late 1915; mining and counter mining; attachment to Royal Engineers' mining company. REEL 3 Continues: alert for German spies; narrow escape from group of Middlesex Regiment troops looking for spies; listening post duties in mine with canary; his rescue from asphyxiation in mine; sight of unit casualties from Festubert during hospitalisation; effects of sudden thaw, 3/1916; incident in which he was under shellfire. Aspects of period as officer's batman with Headquarters, Fourth Army in France, 1916: appointment as officer's batman; sight of Prince of Wales; his officer's duties at headquarters; attitude towards luxury at headquarters. REEL 4 Continues: background to transfer to Royal Flying Corps; plans for post-war employment; story of what happened to his commanding officer from 1916; leave in Scotland; news of death of relative on Western Front. Aspects of period as aircraftman with No 2 Royal Flying Corps Repair Depot in France, 1916-1918: training as mechanic; types of aircraft worked on; contact with aces; obtaining parts of Manfred von Richtofen's aircraft; capabilities of Royal Flying Corp's aircraft; memories of the 'Mad Major'; news of Armistice, 11/11/1918; further details of contact with aces. Aspects of demobilisation and return to civilian life in Clydeside, GB from 1919: demobilisation, 1/1919; obtaining marine engineering employment on Clydeside, 1919. REEL 5 Continues: apprenticeship on Clydeside, 1919; post-war interest in British Legion; his political opinions after First World War. Reflections on service with 2nd Bn Argyll of Sutherland Highlanders, 19th Infantry Bde, 6th Infantry Div on Western Front, 1915-1916: problems of lice in kilts; case of soldier arrested for desertion. Recollections of operations as engineer aboard RFA Cairndale in Atlantic, 9/1939-5/1941 including sinking 30/5/1941: his position with Royal Fleet Auxiliary; transport disruption, 2/9/1939; problems joining ship in Glasgow, GB, 3/9/1939. REEL 6 Continues: convoy to Freetown, Sierra Leone, 9/1939; oiling duties in Freetown, Sierra Leone; last sight of HMS Jervis Bay leaving Freetown, Sierra Leone; electrical storms in Freetown, Sierra Leone, late 1939; problems with barnacles at Freetown, Sierra Leone; return to GB via Caribbean, early 1940; problems getting hospital treatment for chronically ill wife; attachment of oiler to Force H in Gibraltar; previous experience of oiling HMS Ark Royal during her trials; attempt to decoy German battlecruiser Scharnhorst, 4/1941; rescue of survivors of sunken merchantman. REEL 7 Continues: news of wife's death, 5/1941; belief of wife's Scandinavian relations that Germans would win the war in 1939; story of wife's escape from Denmark to GB early during the Second World War; second attempt to decoy German battlecruiser Scharnhorst, 5/1941; preparations for emergency at sea; torpedoing of ship by Italian submarine Guglielmo Marconi, 30/5/1941; abandoning ship; rescue of survivors; return to Gibraltar, 31/5/1941; return to GB. REEL 8 Continues: character of Glasgow's Ghost Train; his declining to give up berth to female American officer. Recollections of operations as chief engineer aboard RFA Gray Ranger in North Sea and Arctic, 11/1941-9/1942 including sinking, 22/9/1942: joining ship; sea trials; prior recollection of instructing American personnel in oiling, autumn 1941; plan to interfere with German shipping off Norway; his opinion of Free Polish forces; prior recollection of pre-war exercises in Bemuda. REEL 9 Continues: joining Convoy PQ 17, 6/1942; collision with iceberg; orders to return to GB for repairs; fitting of new bows in North Shields, GB; joining Convoy PQ 18; fate of Convoy PQ 18; start of return Convoy QP 14; plan for ship to break from convoy and head for Scapa Flow; torpedoing of ship by German submarine U-435, 22/9/1942; provisions in ship's lifeboat and preparations for emergency. REEL 10 Continues: abandoning ship and rescue by HMT Northern Gem; return of survivors to GB; provision of public lunch for survivors in Glasgow, GB; condition he was in on his return from Arctic; his opinion of wartime decorations and awards; conversation with newly appointed officer in charge of oiling at the Admiralty. Aspects of operations as chief engineer aboard RFA Dingledale in Atlantic, Mediterranean and Far East, 11/1942-8/1945: joining ship in Glasgow, GB; oiling work off West African coast; contact with civilians in West Africa; arrival in Tokyo Bay, Japan. REEL 11 Continues: state of Hiroshima, Japan; Japanese preparations for naval defence of Kure, Japan; opinion of Japanese; participation in North African landings, 1942; second hand story of torpedoed MV San Demetrio and his encounter with the tanker's Second Officer Arthur Hawkins; work oiling HMS Ajax; rescue of casks of unfermented wine from the harbour at Algiers, Algeria.