McPhail, James (Oral history)

British NCO served as signaller with 11 Troop, E Bty, Raiding Support Regt in Italy, Yugoslavia and Albania, 3/1944-5/1945; served with 300th Airlanding Anti-Tank Unit, 6th Airborne Div in Palestine, 1945-1947

REEL 1 Background in Nairn, GB, 1924-1943: family; education. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Artillery in GB and Egypt, 3/1943-1/1944: attitude towards joining British Army; call-up for military service, 18/3/1943; direction into Royal Artillery as signaller; posting to Kinmel Park Camp, Abergele near Rhyl; period at Royal Artillery Depot, Woolwich, 1943; posting to Royal Artillery Base Depot, Almaza Camp, Heliopolis, Egypt, 1/1944; camp regime. Aspects of period of training as NCO with 11 Troop, E Bty, Raiding Support Regt in Palestine and Italy, 1/1944-3/1944: reasons for volunteering for unit; move to Palestine; role of unit; character of intensive training; parachute training at No 4 Parachute Training School, RAF at RAF Ramat David; sudden move to Italy, 3/1944; parachute jump training at Brindisi, Italy; memories of commanding officer Captain Desmond Ross. Recollections of operations as NCO with 11 Troop, E Bty, Raiding Support Regt in Yugoslavia, Albania and Italy, 4/1944-5/1945: move to Vis Island, Yugoslavia, 4/1944; occasion when unit's guns taken up steep slope; Allied forces on Vis Island, Yugoslavia. REEL 2 Continues: Allied and Yugoslav Partisan forces on Vis Island, Yugoslavia, 4/1944; opinion of Yugoslav Partisans; female element of partisans; reasons for change in relations between British troops and partisans; question of wish of partisans to play down western contribution to liberation of Yugoslavia; raid on Mljet Island, Yugoslavia, 4/1944; reasons for raid on Brac Island, Yugoslavia, 1/6/1944; his experiences during raid; partisan girl who died of shrapnel wounds during raid on Brac Island, Yugoslavia, 1/6/1944; return from Brac Island, Yugoslavia, 5/6/1944; attempt to recapture Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Churchill, 6/6/1944; attempted raids on Hvar Island, Yugoslavia, 8/1944; state of German Army troops' morale on Yugoslav islands. REEL 3 Continues: treatment of captive Croatian Ustashe by Yugoslav Partisans; treatment of German prisoners of war by Yugoslav Partisans at Trebinje, Yugoslavia 12/1944; reasons for move to Korcula Island, Yugoslavia, 8/1944; clearing of Brac Island, Yugoslavia, 9/1944; move to Albania via Italy; reasons for need to capture Sarande, Albania; landing in Albania, 9/1944; capture of Sarande, Albania, 9/1944; opinion of Albanian Partisans; parachute course in Italy, 10/1944-11/1944; return to Dubrovnik area, Yugoslavia, 12/1944; move to Zadar, Yugoslavia, 2/1945-3/1945; lack of German resistance during liberation of Pag Island, Yugoslavia, 3/1945. REEL 4 Continues: question of Yugoslav Partisans wish to be rid of Allied troops, 4/1945; airborne forces concentration on Ravenna, Italy, 4/1945. Recollections of operations as NCO with 300th Airlanding Anti-Tank Unit, 6th Airborne Div in Palestine, 1945-1947: background to posting to unit; duties on road blocks; horse-whipping of Major Paddy Brett by Irgun, 28/12/1946; question of lack of danger in Palestine. Aspects of period as Chairman of North Western Branch of British Southern Slav Society in GB, 1992-1993: background to founding of British Yugoslav Society, 1947 and reasons for its name change, 1992; his expedition to take aid to Mostar under Croatian control, 11/1992.