Description
Object description
British NCO served with C Troop, 193rd Bty, 64th Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 52nd Light Anti-Aircraft Bde in GB, North Africa, Italy and Greece, 4/1941-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Hills Town, Bolsover and Chesterfield in GB, 1911-1940: family; education; employment as apprentice joiner on leaving school; father's trouble with police during General Strike, 5/1926; further details of employment after 1927; marriage, 1935; reasons for leaving council house shared with brother, 1938.
REEL 2 Continues: employment working on newly constructed aerodrome. Aspects of enlistment and training as gunner with Royal Artillery in GB, 12/1940-4/1941: call-up to Brigstock Camp, 12/1940; reception on arrival; pattern of basic training; treatment by NCOs; passing out parade; continuation training at Bulcote Farm Camp; selection for promotion to lance bombardier; guard duties; amusing story relating to guard duties. Recollections of period as NCO with C Troop, 193rd Bty, 64th Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 52nd Light Anti-Aircraft Bde in GB, 4/1941-11/1942: move to Spital Hill, Sheffield; training on Lewis Gun; sight of German Air Force night intruder at Spital Hill, Sheffield.
REEL 3 Continues: incident of officer ignoring his salute; move to Corby; description of Oerlikon Gun; move to Sutton Bridge; description of Bofors Gun; composition and various roles of Bofors Gun crew; degree of understanding needed by crew of how the gun fired; move to Yarmouth; procedure for dealing with misfire; reliability of Bofors Gun; description of Bofors Gun site; explanation of term 'scarecrows'; method of setting down Bofors Gun.
REEL 4 Continues: description of Kerrison Predictor and it's operation; training on predictor; skilled nature of operating Kerrison Predictor; organisation of getting gun into action; targeting aircraft; start of training for overseas service, summer 1942; story of cutting towing line of drogue, 18/8/1942; training in anti-tank role; crash of Bristol Beaufighter into tented camp; move to Birmingham; story of being moved from firing position by officer; reaction to refusal of promotion; domestic situation at time of posting; embarkation aboard HMT Empire Pride at Liverpool, 11/1942.
REEL 5 Continues: Recollections of operations as NCO with C Troop, 193rd Bty, 64th Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 52nd Light Anti-Aircraft Bde, 1st Army in North Africa, 11/1942-5/1943: conditions on board HMT Empire Pride during voyage from GB to French Algeria, 11/1942; arrival in French Algeria, 11/1942; initial impressions of French Algeria; sleeping on groundsheet; taking up positions protecting Bone Harbour, French Algeria; description of vulnerable point; need for aircraft to use recognition signals; move into mountains; duties as clerk with troop office; contact with home, 12/1942; effect of hearing news of wife's illness, 12/1942; move to Tingley Airfield; nature of duties; maintenance routine of guns; daily routine.
REEL 6 Continues: further details of daily maintenance; character of rations; water supply; accidental use of Arab graveyard and cork trees; relations with Arabs; visit to gun site using radar and searchlights; successful night shoot against German aircraft; move to camp near airfield; sight of pilot bailing out of aircraft and aircraft crashing on airfield; incident of NCO setting himself on fire; courses attended including anti-malarial.
REEL 7 Continues: contracting sunstroke; degree of anti-aircraft firing done; attitude towards promotion; contact with sick wife at home; amusing story of imaginary elastic; friends in troop; sleeping on groundsheet. Aspects of operations as NCO with C Troop, 193rd Bty, 64th Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 52nd Light Anti-Aircraft Bde in Italy, 1943-1944: arrival in Naples; contracting malaria and subsequent hospitalisation; return to unit; duties guarding American airfields.
REEL 8 Continues: leaving guns in Naples. Recollections of operations as NCO with C Troop, 193rd Bty, 64th Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 52nd Light Anti-Aircraft Bde in Greece, 12/1944-5/1945: move to Piraeus, 12/1944; duties guarding power station; discovery of unexploded mortar bomb in ablutions area; start of fighting in Athens; effects of national strike; artillery shelling of area surrounding power station; cutting off of troop in power station; firing on hut near power station; move from Piraeus towards Athen; house to house searches; firing on barricade; discovery of mutilated bodies in factory courtyard; ration trip on 'Suicide Mile' in Athens; visit by Prime Minster Winston Churchill, 12/1945.
REEL 9 Continues: incident of getting drunk on cherry brandy at Christmas, 12/1944; relations with Greek civilians; problems with illicit alcohol; return to GB via Italy on compassionate leave, 5/1945; return to family home and going Absence Without Official Leave (AWOL); duties until demobilisation, 6/1945-10/1945; attitude towards military service.