Swanson, James (Oral history)

198128057
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Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
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Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
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Description

Object description

British private served with No 11 (Scottish) Commando in GB and Middle East, 7/1940-8/1941; trooper served with A and B Sqdns, Long Range Desert Group in North Africa, 9/1941-5/1943; NCO served with G Patrol, Long Range Desert Group on Dodecanese Islands, Greece, 9/1943-11/1943; served with M2 Patrol, Long Range Desert Group in Italy and Greece, 1944

Content description

REEL 1 Aspects of period with 5th Bn Seaforth Highlanders in GB, 1939-1940: joining Territorial Army, 1939; reasons for volunteering for Commandos, 7/1940. Aspects of period as private with No 11 Commando in GB and Middle East, 7/1940-8/1941: joining commando; company organisation of unit; training on Isle of Arran; voyage aboard HMS Glengyle from GB to Egypt via South Africa; reasons for missing only action of No 11 (Scottish) Commando. Recollections of period as trooper with A and B Sqdns, Long Range Desert Group in North Africa, 9/1941-5/1943: volunteering for service, 9/1941; interview with Captain David Lloyd Owen; allocation as driver with A Sqdn; types of vehicles used; establishment of supply dumps; transfer from A to B Sqdn; contrast in New Zealand and British discipline; difference between inter-rank relations in Long Range Desert Group and other army units; types of terrain driven over. REEL 2 Continues: driving techniques in desert; navigation by sun compass; incident of getting lost in desert; danger of Axis air attack in desert; limited contact with nomads; reasons why he found desert to be a healthy place; withdrawal to Palestine, 1943. Aspects of operations as NCO with G Patrol, Long Range Desert Group on Dodecanese Islands, Greece, 9/1943-11/1943: move to Dodecanese Islands; German attack on Leros Island; effect of German Air Force dive bombing on artillery emplacements on Leros Island; firing on German paratroopers landing on Leros Island; treatment of Greek civilians by occupying Italians in Dodecanese; evacuation from Leros Island. REEL 3 Continues: reforming in Palestine. Aspects of operations as NCO with M2 Patrol, Long Range Desert Group in Italy, 1944: promotion to sergeant in M2 Patrol; plans for reconnaissance parachute drop north of Rome, summer 1944; parachute drop; calls by Germans for his group to surrender; walking back to Allied lines; fears that Italian Partisans intended to execute him as a suspected German; crossing Allied lines and first contact with Free French troops; reasons for failure of parachute drop; problems of operating in Italy; reconnaissance patrols by motor boat from Rhondi, Italy towards Yugoslavian coast. Aspects of operations as NCO with M2 Patrol, Long Range Desert Group in Greece, 12/1944: reasons for move to Athens, 12/1944; his wounding by Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) partisans in Athens. REEL 4 Continues: nature of wounds and details of ambush; questioning by Greeks of British presence in Greece, 1944.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1990 to the present day (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Wood, Conrad (Recorder)
Swanson, James (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 1990-07-09
Dimensions: whole: Duration 120, Number Of Items 4
Catalogue number: 11385

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Swanson, James (Oral history)

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