Description
Object description
British private and NCO served as nursing orderly with 1st Light Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1st Armoured Div in GB and France, 5/1940-9/1941; NCO served as nursing orderly with 1st Light Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1st Armoured Div in North Africa, 11/1941-6/1943; served aboard hosptial ship HMHS Dorsetshire during landings on Sicily, Italy, 7/1943; served with 1st Light Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1st Armoured Div in Tunisia and Italy, 8/1943-6/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in London, GB, 1917-1939: family; education; membership of St John's Ambulance Brigade in Hampstead; attitude towards declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of training with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1939-1940: chaos at Fleet with influx of new recruits, 9/1939; pattern of training in GB, 1939-1940; importance of his experience with St John's Ambulance Brigade. Recollections of operations as nursing orderly with 1st Light Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1st Armoured Div in France, 14/5/1940-16/6/1940: arrival in Cherbourg, 5/1940; German Air Force attacks on roads, 5/1940; reaction to lack of Royal Air Force presence, 5/1940; first experienced of amputation near Arras, 5/1940; narrow escape from Germans near Arras, 5/1940; handling causalities; sight of French Army colonial troops swimming River Somme with their horses; retreat to Saint-Nazaire and Brest, 6/1940.
REEL 2 Continues: escape from Brest, 6/1940; reception in Plymouth, 6/1940. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Light Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1st Armoured Div in GB, 6/1940-9/1941: in camp on Salisbury Plain, summer 1940; collection of German pilot from crashed bomber in Warminster area, summer 1940; organisation of medical facilities in action; transfer to 11th Armoured Division in Scarborough. Aspects of voyage aboard SS Clan Lamont from GB to Egypt, 9/1941-11/1941: embarkation, 9/1941; voyage from GB to Egypt via Freetown, Sierra Leone; ship's separation from convoy.
REEL 3 Continues: story of tooth extraction on board ship; reception ashore in Cape Town, South Africa; manual unloading of armour from convoy at Alexandria, Egypt, 11/1941. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Light Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1st Armoured Div in North Africa, 11/1941-5/1943: reaction to rejoining unit in Egypt, 11/1941; Italian use of SRCM Mod 35 'Red Devil' Grenades for booby traps; dealing with immobilised vehicles in desert sand; effects of shock on badly wounded casualty; advance to Tripolitania, Libya, 12/1941-1/1942; start of retreat from Germans, 1/1942.
REEL 4 Continues: sight of Brigadier Harold Briggs drawing fire towards himself during action, 1/1942; retreat towards Benghazi, Libya, 1/1942; sight of German Air Force attack on light anti-aircraft unit retreating along wadi, 1/1942; use of leaguering in desert during retreat towards Gazala Line, 2/1942; formation of Gazala Line, 2/1942; medical duties at El Adem, Libya; handling of case with severe abdominal wounds from 4th Indian Infantry Div; visit by Duke of Gloucester at El Adem, Libya, 5/1942; how sandstorm sparked of fear of gas attack; start of German attack on Gazala Line, Libya, 27/5/1942; treatment of patient with leg blown off.
REEL 5 Continues: relative strengths of Axis and Allied armour; handling of casualties from Battle of Knightsbridge Box, Libya, 6/1942; use of different splints on leg wounds; prior recollection of presentation of Parker Pen for winning Thomas Splint competition on Salisbury Plain, GB, 1940; attending dying soldier in ambulance to Tobruk, Libya, 6/1942; helping out in hospital in Tobruk, Libya, 6/1942; attempt to get newly arrived 6 Pounder Anti-Tank Guns into action at Tobruk, Libya, 6/1942; retreat into Egypt, 6/1942.
REEL 6 Continues: work with 51st (Highland) Infantry Div casualties in hospital in Cairo, Egypt; handling of Mauritian with severe dysentery; relations between Arab cleaner and Jewish Auxiliary Territorial Service personnel in Cairo, Egypt; handling of typhoid case in hospital in Cairo, Egypt, 1942; dressing Major-General Harold Briggs' leg wound, 1942; re-equipping of Eighth Army, 8/1942-9/1942; sight of dummy leaguer used for El Alamein deception, 10/1942; handling casualties from German Air Force attack, 23/10/1942; artillery barrage at start of Battle of El Alamein, Egypt, 23/10/1942; receiving first casualties, 23/10/1942; opinion of Deutsches Afrika Korps; inspirational character of General Bernard Montgomery.
REEL 7 Continues: breakthrough at El Alamein, Egypt, 11/1942; sight of Axis prisoners of war, 11/1942; handicap of sudden downpour, 5/11/1942; rescue of section of unit from Germans by 9th Lancers; hepatitis outbreak at Timimi, Libya, 1942; promotion to corporal; treatment of scabies outbreak at Headquarters, 2nd Armoured Bde; low incidence of venereal disease; treatment of burns cases; outflanking of Mareth Line, Tunisia, 1943.
REEL 8 Continues: sight of mass of locusts during outflanking of Mareth Line, Tunisia, 1943; narrow escape from exploding German S-mine at El Hamma, Tunisia, 1943; handling New Zealand casualties at El Hamma, Tunisia; work handling civilian casualties and nature of injuries at El Hamma, Tunisia, 1943.
REEL 9 Continues: advance northwards to Medjez-el-Bab, Tunisia, 4/1943; sight of undamaged crucifix on ruined church; giving blood for casualty from 5th Bn Hampshire Regiment, 1943; his shielding German prisoner of war appendicitis case under artillery fire in Tunisia, 1943; final advance into Tunisia, 1943; instance of German unit that would only surrender to Eighth Army and not First Army, 5/1943; friendly gesture to his unit from surrendering Germans; mutual respect between Deutsches Afrika Korps and Eighth Army; victory parade in Tunis, Tunisia, 20/5/1943.
REEL 10 Continues: inspection by King George VI in Tripoli, Libya. Aspects of period as nursing orderly aboard HMHS Dorsetshire during landings on Sicily, Italy, 7/1943: joining hospital ship for landings; damage to hospital ship from German bombing off Syracuse, Sicily, 11/7/1943; return to Tripoli, Libya. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Light Field Ambulance, 1st Armoured Div in Tunisia, 8/1943-5/1944: move to Tunisia; suicide case, 9/1943; incident of theft at brigade headquarters at Thibar; burial of dead French civilian in Tunisia; relations with French civilians in Béja.
REEL 11 Continues: treatment of Arab civilian, late 1943. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Light Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1st Armoured Div in Italy, 5/1944-5/1945: treatment of brawl case on ship during voyage from Algiers, French Algeria to Naples, Italy, 5/1944; handling South African casualty; conditions in Altamura; dealing with Italian civilian stab victim; move into front line; nature of Italian campaign; dealing with foot wound; narrow escape from artillery shell burst; crossing River Po on pontoon bridge, 4/1945; question of possible competition with Soviets to get to Vienna, Austria, 4/1945; return to GB, 6/1945; classification of shell shock as anxiety neurosis; case of Gordon Highlander who lost his brother in action.
REEL 12 Continues: attitude of troops towards anxiety neurosis; lack of malingering in Eighth Army; incidence and cases of venereal disease in British Army.