Holmes, Edward (Oral history)

British gunner served with 425 Bty, 107th Regt, <South Notts Hussars> Royal Artillery in GB, Palestine and North Africa, 1939-1942; served with 107 Bty, <SNH> 7th Medium Regt, RA in North Africa, Sicily, GB and North West Europe, 1942-1944; served with 425 Bty, 107th Medium Regt, <SNH> RA in GB and North West Europe, 1944-1946

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Chesterfield, 1918-1939: parents' employment; part time jobs; education; work as farm labourer, paper boy and window cleaner, 1932-1939; recreations; question of joining army; medical prior to call up, 15/9/1939; question of awareness of international situation; reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939. REEL 2 Recollections of period with 11th Field Training Regt at Kinmel Park, Rhyl, 9/1939-11/1939: call up, 15/9/1939; conditions of service; relationship with ORs, NCOs and officers; drill and PT; gun drill and lectures; relationship with civilians. Recollections of period with A Troop, 425 Bty, 107th Regt, <South Notts Hussars> Royal Artillery at Wragby, 11/1939-1/1940: circumstances of posting; reception and enforced wearing of acorn cap badge; billet; relationship with ORs and question of social status of pre-war territorials. REEL 3 Continues: food rations; training; cookhouse duties; billets; duties in quartermaster stores including issue of new webbing; guard duties; inoculations. Journey to Palestine, 1/1940: impressions of Southampton; crowded crossing; story of visit into Cherbourg; train journey across France; conditions during voyage aboard HMT Devonshire. Recollections of period in Palestine, 1/1940-6/1940: quarantine period for meningitis; swimming; temporary posting to regimental police. REEL 4 Continues: regimental police duties; story of dispute with Lieutenant Ivor Birkin and period confined to barracks at Asluj Firing Camp; dust storms; move to Mersa Matruh, Egypt, 6/1940. Aspects of period at Mersa Matruh, 6/1940-1/1941: reactions to first air raid; return to A Troop; situation; operations with 'Dummy' Troop, Composite Bty against Maktilla Camp, 12/1940; Italian POWs. Period spotting mines in Suez Canal area, 1/1941-2/1941: assignment to Bren gun team; story of seeing mine dropped from aircraft and its explosion. Period at Tahag Camp, 2/1941-4/1941: re-equipment with 25pdrs roles of gun team members. REEL 5 Continues: roles of gun team members; drive to Tobruk, Libya, 4/1941. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine at Tobruk, 4/1941-12/1941: story of encounter in sandstorm; digging in guns and vehicles; outpost duty with Boyes rifle during initial German tank attacks; moving gun positions; counter-battery fire; Bren gun duties during Stuka raids and effect on personal morale; question of continuation of gun fire during Stuka attacks; digging gun positions, camouflage and covering wheel tracks. REEL 6 Continues: attachment to Signals Section repairing telephone lines to observation posts; story of shell fire whilst repairing lines near front line; story of mortar shell hitting Bashwell OP; repairing lines at night and causes of breaks; use of captured Italian artillery; setting up temporary advanced OP in No Man's Land with infantry covering party; question of guns in forward positions; question of relationship with infantry; slit trenches; food and water rations. REEL 7 Continues: water rations; uniform and personal appearance in absence of washing; lice problem; latrines; question of dysentery; desert sores; insect bite swelling; scorpions and snakes; nickname 'desert rats'; radio broadcasts; recreations at rest camp and story of being machine gunned by aircraft whilst sea bathing; question of recreations; letter contact with GB; operations leading to breakout, 11/1941. Aspects of period in Egypt, 1/1942-5/1942: effects of prolonged absence of women; leave in Cairo; assignment as loader to Sergeant Ray Ellis's No1 gun; composition of gun team; role of No1 gun. REEL 8 Continues: re-equipment with gun towers; training in overnight laagers and dropping into action; move to Gazala area, Libya. Recollections of operations in Knightsbridge sector, 27/5/1942: noise of attack on 520 Bty; digging in; attack by German tanks; arm wound, initial medical treatment and evacuation. Period at Tobruk Hospital, 5/1942: bladder problem; medical treatment; air raids; evacuation to Mersa Matruh by American volunteer ambulance. Periods in hospital and convalescent camp in Egypt and Palestine, 5/1942-7/1942. Rejoining unit now 107 Bty, <SNH> 7th Medium Regt, RA at El Alamein, ca 7/1942. Recollections of period in coastal positions in El Alamein area, ca 7/1942-10/1942: inability to lift heavier 5.5in shell due to arm wound and initial assignment as Bren gunner and officers' batman; relationship with officers; assignment as loader to gun team; comparison of 25pdr and 5.5in gun; loading method. Recollections of bombardment for Alamein offensive, 10/1942. REEL 9 Continues: problem caused by faulty shell; question of German counter-battery fire and air raids; beginning of advance towards Tripoli, 11/1942. Jaundice attack and air flight back to Cairo hospital, 12/1942. Period at Royal Artillery Base Depot, Almaza, ca 1/1943: treatment for hammer toes; duties with demonstration gun team; story of dispute with Egyptian shoe shine boy. Various aspects of advance into Tunisia, 2/1943-7/1943: reactions to rejoining unit; role as loader of ammunition trucks. REEL 10 Movements prior to invasion of Sicily, Italy, 4/1943-7/1943: rest period in Sfax area; period in Malta; waterproofing vehicles. Various aspects of operations in Sicily, 7/1943-10/1943: landing; baling out of trucks during air attacks; role of ammunition trucks; driving in mountains; story of close escape from shell fire in Messina; firing blast damage to houses; duties as sanitary orderly; speeches by Montgomery; reaction to news of return to GB. Journey back to GB, 10/1943-12/1943: duties on Oerlikon gun; camp in Forest of Ferdinand, Algeria. REEL 11 Continues: tug of war competition on voyage back; reception at Liverpool. Movements during period in GB, 12/1943-7/1944: billets at Felixstowe; leave; posting to 425 Bty on formation of 107th Medium Regt, <SNH>, RA, 3/1944; marriage leave; training at Shipley; parade in Nottingham; 13/5/1944; civilian reaction whilst passing through London; reactions to V1s whilst in Tilbury Docks. Various aspects of operations in North West Europe, 7/1944-5/1945: landing, 14/7/1944; situation and nature of fighting; battery transport; air attacks; closure of Falaise Gap; accidental bombing by US aircraft. REEL 12 Continues: heavy accidental bombing by Allied aircraft at Quesnay Woods, 14/8/1944; news of death of brother in action; mobile baths; comparison of conditions of service with North Africa; personal morale; close escape from V1; relationship with Dutch civilians and story of false alarm over German parachutists; illustration of cold conditions during Battle of Bulge, 12/1944; crossing pontoon bridge over Rhine; VE Day at Gescher, Germany, 8/5/1945. REEL 13 Continues: stories illustrating high number of faulty German shells. Recollections of detachment to guard Displaced Persons Camp at Lette, 1945: situation; cleaning huts; dispute with Russian inmates over food parcels; question of black market. Period at Gescher, 1945-1946: duties as sanitary orderly; delayed leave in GB; demobilisation, 2/1946. Post-war career: collapse of pre-war window cleaning business; work as labourer for railway, building sites and council. Recollections of work as grave digger at Hasland Church, 1952-1982: plan of graveyard and allotment of grave sites. REEL 14 Continues: method of digging grave and preparing graveside for burial; assisting at burial service; method of filling in grave; conversion of cemetery to lawn pattern; erection of headstones; method of reopening family graves. REEL 15 Continues: method of re-opening family graves; children and stillborn graves; story of disinterring corpses from old graveyard due to encroaching cinema development; assisting at other cemeteries and conditions of work. REEL 16 Continues: conditions of work; story of being suspected as body snatcher; comforting grieving relatives; conditions of work; positive reaction to introduction of cremation; mechanisation of grave digging; story of being injured whilst coffin bearing at funeral.