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Object description
British private served with D Coy, 2nd Bn King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 1st Burma Bde Group, Burma Div in Burma, 1940-1942
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Barnsley, GB, 1921-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of enlistment and service as private with King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in GB, 1939-1940: enlistment, 1939; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; sight of destroyer HMS Gipsy blown up in Harwich Harbour, 11/1939; journey from GB to Burma, 1940. Recollections of period as private with D Coy, 2nd King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 1st Burma Bde Group, Burma Div in Burma, 1940-1941: joining unit at Maymyo; character of recruits; barracks at Maymyo; bugle calls for D Coy; weather conditions at Maymyo; troops' disobeying out of bounds order on red light area, Maymyo; venereal disease problem in unit; social contact with civilians; policing towns for riots and clearing towns of bubonic plague; nature of town riots; expectation of Japanese attack; watching Burmese carpenter. Recollections of operations as private with D Coy, 2nd King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 1st Burma Bde Group, Burma Div in Burma, 1941-1942: receiving news of attack on Pearl Harbor whilst training in Taunggyi, 12/1941; move to Martaban; unit signaller killed by Japanese.
REEL 2 Continues: withdrawal to River Bilin area and skirmishing with Japanese; success of mortar attack on Japanese ammunition dump; devouring of soldier's body by wild dogs; death of Sergeant Major Harry 'Bull' Housley' on River Bilin; retreat to Sittang Bridge; Japanese shelling of troops drawing water; wounding by mortar fire at Sittang Bridge, 22/2/1942; question of brigade making a stand on wrong side of River Sittang and premature blowing of railway bridge; Imperial Japanese Air Force attacks; rafting across River Sittang and bulloch cart journey to Pegu; rescue from pursuing Japanese armoured car by elements of 7th Armored Bde; reamputation of his stump at Pegu; journey to Rangoon for trans-shipment to Madras, India; arrival in Madras General Hospital and reamputation of stump; opinion of Japanese troops; question of leadership during Sittang Bridge operation; question of lack of information given to British troops; how his leg was amputated with anaesthetic, 22/2/1942; nature of bullock cart journey to Pegu. Recollections of period of medical treatment in South Africa, 1942-1944: journey to South Africa via Bangalore and Sialkot, India; weight loss on reaching hospital at Pietermaritzburg.
REEL 3 Continues: move to Paradise Halt; conditions at Paradise Halt; recreational activites at Paradise Halt; voyage from South Africa to GB, 1944; medical discharge from army, 1944; problems of obtaining suitable employment after Second World War; opinion of modern counselling and story of counselling he received from Indian medical officer at Sialkot, India; attitude towards Japanese; reaction to disarmament, 1994.
