Hooper, Eric Neville (Oral history)

British NCO served with 410 Searchlight Coy, 5th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers in GB, 1938-1940; served as officer cadet with 168 Officers Cadet Training Unit in GB, 1940; served as officer with 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, Cyprus, Iraq and Libya, 1940 and North Africa, 1942-1943; officer served with 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB and North West Europe, 1944-1945

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Sandiford area, Newcastle upon Tyne, GB, 1911-1939: father's military service; education and OTC activities at Dame Allen's School, 1922-1927; work in antique business; Boy Scouts activities. Recollections of service with 410 Searchlight Coy, 5th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers at West Avenue Drill Hall, Gosforth, Newcastle, GB, 1/1938-9/1939: Masonic unity influences in company recruited from business community; role of members of searchlight team and operation of sound locator; promotion to lance corporal; Lewis gun training; call up during Munich Crisis, 9/1938, including equipment and searchlight stations at Merton and Seaton Sluice; relationship with other ranks and officers; organisation of sections. REEL 2 Continues: recruiting route marches; question of approach of war; call up, 8/1939. Recollections of period as NCO with 410 Searchlight Coy, 5th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers at Shotton Colliery, GB, 9/1939-1/1940: construction and layout of searchlight position; conditions of service; practice call outs; success in spotting German aircraft; application for commission. Recollections of training at 168 Officers Cadet Training Unit at Farnborough, GB, 1/1940-7/1940: organisation of cadets; weapons training; opinion of weapons including rifle grenades; tactical training and exercises; practice in taking drill parades; assessment reports; origins of cadets. REEL 3 Continues: field engineering practice and acclimatisation; background to application to join Durham Light Infantry; ordering uniform and kitting out; posting to Durham Light Infantry Depot, Brancepeth Castle, 7/1940. Recollections of period as officer with D Coy, 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 1940-1941: move to Bridport, reception; accommodation; problems in coastal defence role and weapons available; story of German aircraft crashing on beach; period at Maidon Newton, 7/1940-10/1940; training and absence of new methods; role of officer's servant; gas drill; period at Tiverton, 10/1940-5/1941; billets; mess protocol. REEL 4 Continues: opinion of Colonel Percy and senior officers; duties as adjutant, intelligence and entertainments officer; opinion of training films; signals training; training exercises including exercise abandoned due to weather conditions; rum ration; question of adequacy of training; relationship with other ranks and NCOs; route march test to asses fitness for overseas service; kitting out and embarkation leave. Recollections of voyage aboard Ordona from GB to Port Tewfiq, Egypt, 5/1941-7/1941: accommodation; inspection tours; seasickness; lectures and dispute over nature of training. REEL 5 Continues: steering problem; effect of Bismarck operations; crash of Walrus aircraft; period at Durban, South Africa including shore leave, meeting Danish consul and parade; officers' shore leave at Aden; sinking of Georgic; disembarkation and story of military policeman shooting Arab civilian. Period as officer with 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry at El Qassassin Camp in Egypt, 7/1941: tent accommodation; fly problem. Recollections of period as officer with 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry at Lakatamia, Cyprus, 7/1941-11/1941: situation; rushed nature of crossing aboard HMS Leander; establishing defensive positions and camouflage; daily routine; relationship with Cypriot civilians; effects of troops and officers' drinking habits. REEL 6 Continues: route marches and water discipline; liaison officer course at Headquarters, 151 Brigade; reconnaissance duties. Aspects of period as officer with 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry in Iraq, 1941-1942: move to Eski Kelig, Iraq, 11/1941; acquiring local transport during stop at Haifa, Palestine; efforts to prevent Iraqi civilians stealing rifles; visit to RAF Habbaniyah; relationship with Iraqi civilians; effects of cold weather; promotion to lieutenant. Recollections of operations as officer with 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry in Gazala Box, Libya, 2/1942: move to box; original destination; nature of 'box' defence system including trenches and dugouts. Recollections of operations as camouflage staff officer at Headquarters, 151 Bde in Gazala Box, 3/1942-6/1942: superior conditions of service; story of Brigadier Nicholas' inadequately camouflaged tent. REEL 7 Continues: camouflage course at Tobruk including use of scrim netting, decoy artillery batteries and avoidance of tracks visible from air; brigade staff; opinion of Brigadier Nicholas; role as camouflage officer advising battalions and Brigadier Nicholas' inadequately camouflaged tent; role as liaison officer including situation reports and reporting battalion improvements to box defences; role organising guard rota of defence platoon; slit trenches; role of Brigade Major James, Staff Captain Harry Sell and Motor Transport Officer Cuthbert Ridley; role as staff officer; German movements and attack on 151 Brigade Box; plans for breakout; refusal of Colonel Percy of 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry to accept map reference of breakout point, consequent running into Italian lines and alternative route through desert to Tobruk, 14/6/1942-15/6/1942. REEL 8 Continues: question of alternative route taken by 9th Battalion Durham Light Infantry; Junkers Ju 87 Stuka bombing attack; preference for driving own vehicle; move via Mersa Matruh; rejoining brigade headquarters near Fort Madelina; collections of stragglers from desert. Aspects of period as staff officer with 151 Bde at Mariopolis, Alexandria, 6/1942-9/1942: opinion of newly promoted Brigadier Percy; story of passing through German vehicles whilst carrying situation report from 74th Field Regiment Royal Artillery during retreat from Gazala; attending supplies administration course at Gaza. Recollections of operations as staff officer with 151 Bde in North Africa and Sicily, 1942-1943: period in Ruweiset Ridge sector, 9/1942-10/1942; brigade headquarters defences; opinion of Montgomery; preparations and rehearsals for offensive; preliminary barrage at El Alamein; role as staff officer; background to dismissal of Brigadier Percy; opinion of Brigadier Beak; nature of headquarters and officers' mess. REEL 9 Continues: use of unit vehicles to move forward supplies during rest periods; 'O' groups; 3/1943: reconnaissance with Beak of Wadi Zigzaou sector at Mareth, 3/1943; background to dismissal of Beak; opinion of Brigadier Ronnie Senior; combined operations training at Kabrit Camp, Egypt, 5/1943-6/1943; limited role as staff officer during operations in Sicily, 7/1943-12/1943 lack of promotion prospects and decision to return to 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry; reception of Montgomery during his inspection of 151 Brigade; role as president of mess committee; lack of promotion prospects. Aspects of period as officer with 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 1/1944-6/1944: role as acting Quartermaster; opinion of Colonel Humphrey Woods. REEL 10 Continues: move to Southwold; absence of civilians; move to Nightingale Woods Camp, Southampton; sand table exercises including one overseen by Montgomery; camp security precautions; posting as motor transport officer; system of routine vehicle maintenance; drivers; personal transport; opinion of Major John Mogg; cases of officers losing nerve; embarking and disembarking from landing craft. Aspects of crossing English Channel in Landing Craft Infantry and landing at Gold Beach, Le Hamel, France, 6/1944: self-heating soup cans; rough sea conditions; problem with gas proof trousers on landing at Gold Beach. Recollections of operations as officer with 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry in North West Europe, 6/1944-5/1945: move to assembly area; story of meeting French civilians attempting to rescue children; reporting to battalion headquarters; later arrival and concealment of transport; situation; role as motor transport officer in taking lorry convoys carrying food rations up to forward positions. REEL 11 Continues: death of Woods and replacement by Colonel John Mogg; fluctuating personnel of unit; relationship with company quartermaster sergeants; emergency rations; foraging for food; Tommy cooker; compo food rations; view of German casualties in Falaise Gap; relationship with French and Belgian civilians; story of taking rations forward across Nijmegen bridge; situation in Nijmegen sector; reactions to break up of 50th Division and transfer of unit to 7th Armoured Div; period training at Weert, 2/1944-3/1944; success of Motor Transport Sergeant Joe Maddison in maintaining vehicle strength by recovering and repairing vehicles abandoned by other units; quality of replacement officers; pontoon crossing of Rhine, 26/3/1944; importance of role as quartermaster and promotion to captain; relationship with German civilians and their reaction to film of concentration camps. REEL 12 Continues: story of taking surrender of German senior officer during standing patrol outside Hamburg; situation on entry into Hamburg; nature of standing patrol; restoring vehicles to peacetime condition; orders to hand in captured German vehicles; VE Day celebrations at Lubeck, 8/5/1945. Aspects of period as officer with 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry in Berlin, 5/1945-11/1945: return to GB on 'Leave in Lieu of Python'; war damage; question of black market activities; reaction to demobilisation, 12/1945. Aspects of post-war career: return to antique business; aspects of service in re-joining unit on reformation as 17th Bn Parachute Regiment; recruitment problems as non-Durham Light Infantry unit; links between 7th Battalion Light Infantry and Durham Light Infantry.