Leakey, Arundell Rea (Oral history)

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Description

Object description

British officer served with 1st Royal Tank Regt in Egypt, 1938-1939; served as intelligence officer with Mobile Force (Egypt) and 7th Armoured Div in North Africa, 1939-1940; served with 1st Royal Tank Regt, 7th Armoured Div and 32nd Army Tank Bde in North Africa, 1940-1942; served as staff officer with 7th Armoured Div in North Africa, 1942; served as staff officer in Baghdad, Iraq, 1942-1943; commanded 5th Royal Tank Regt, 22nd Armoured Bde, 7th Armoured Div in North West Europe, 1944

Content description

REEL 1 Background in Kenya, 1915-1938: family. Aspects of period as officer with 1st Royal Tank Regt in Western Desert, Egypt, 1938-1939: exploring desert in area from El Alamein to Siwa through Qattera Depression; mishap during expedition in desert; discovery of Leakey Route through Qattera Depression. Aspects of period as intelligence officer with Mobile Force (Egypt) and 7th Armoured Div in Egypt, 1939-1940: background to becoming intelligence officer; formation of 7th Armoured Div; exercise in desert and subsequent sacking of Major-General Percy Hobart by General Robert Gordon-Finlayson; his reaction to sacking of Major-General Percy Hobart. Recollections of operations as officer with 1st Royal Tank Regt, 7th Armoured Div and 32nd Army Tank Bde in North Africa, 1940-1942: General Archibald Wavell's opposition to imaginative use of armour, 1940. REEL 2 Continues: General Richard O'Connor's disobeying of General Archibald Wavell's orders; participation in advance, 1940; Italian opposition; aiding 2nd Royal Tank Regt at Bardia, Libya; arrival at start of siege in Tobruk, Libya, 4/1941; dealing with subaltern who refused to go into battle; disguising himself as Australian private with 2/23rd Bn Australian Army; patrol action he participated in on perimeter at Tobruk, Libya; award of Bar to Military Cross for actions at Tobruk, Libya, 9/8/1941; his ordering out of Tobruk, Libya. Aspects of period as student with Staff College, Haifa, Palestine, 1942: clash with senior officer at Shepherd's Hotel, Cairo, Egypt. REEL 3 Continues: going Absence Without Official Leave (AWOL) in Kenya after striking senior officer; encounter with Brigadier Eric Dorman-Smith, Commandant of staff college in Kenya and story of getting to staff college prior to his arrival. Aspects of operations as officer with 1st Royal Tank Regt in North Africa, 1942: refusal to become staff officer in Baghdad and return to unit in Western Desert, Egypt; encounter with General Erwin Rommel during search for unit; how he became gunner in Grant Tank; in action against German tanks; encounter with Dennis Coulson. Aspects of period as GSO II with 7th Armoured Div in North Africa, 1942: duties in command vehicle; orders for surrender of Tobruk, Libya, 6/1942; pursuit to Egypt, 6/1942. REEL 4 Continues: replacement of divisional commander; how Brigadier James Renton replaced him. Aspects of period as staff officer in Baghdad, Iraq, 1942-1943: background to removal to Baghdad; contracting malaria during mission to northern Iraq; posting to 3rd Royal Tank Regt in Tunisia, 4/1943. Recollections of operations commanding 5th Royal Tank Regt, 22nd Armoured Bde, 7th Armoured Div in North West Europe, 1944-1945: orders to join unit; landing on Gold Beach, Normandy, D-Day, 6/6/1944; taking command of unit, 7/1944; opposition to General Ivor Thomas order's to attack Hill 112; complaint to General Bernard Montgomery after loss of tanks at Hill 112; conversion of unit to infantry; orders to 1st Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade Group to bottle up Germans in Dunkirk, France, 9/1944. REEL 5 Restricted access.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1945-1989 (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Wood, Conrad (Recorder)
Leakey, Arundell Rea (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 1994-04-28
Dimensions: whole: Duration 150, Number Of Items 5
Catalogue number: 14024

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Leakey, Arundell Rea (Oral history)

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