Description
Object description
British officer served with 73rd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, No 104 Beach Sub-Area, Chief Royal Engineers (CRE) in Normandy, France, 6/1944; served with 73rd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, Chief Royal Engineers (CRE), British Second Army in North West Europe, 7/1944-5/1945; served with 23rd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1945-1947; served with 18th Field Park Sqdn, Royal Engineers on Cyprus, 1957-1959; served with Cyprus Working Party for Cyprus Treaty of Establishment on Cyprus, 1959-1960
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Kasauli, India and GB, 1924-1942: family; education. Recollections of operations as officer with No 3 Platoon, 73rd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, No 104 Beach Sub-Area, Chief Royal Engineers (CRE) on Jig Green West, Gold Beach, Normandy, France, D-Day, 6/6/1944: joining unit, 1943; proposed beach obstacle clearing role of unit; types of beach obstacles used by Germans; use of demolition charges to clear beach obstacles; his degree of confidence about landings; arms and equipment carried by unit; attempt to use of canvas boats to transport equipment; crossing English Channel; morale prior to landing; sight of Duplex Drive (DD) Amphibious Tanks being launched off Gold Beach; nature of his landing and beach clearance work on Jig Green West.
REEL 2 Continues: marking of cleared lane on beach; defusing mines on beach and use of Churchill Tanks to drag obstacles out of beach. Aspects of operations as officer with No 3 Platoon, 73rd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, Chief Royal Engineers (CRE), 2nd Army in North West Europe, 1944-1945: mine clearance work with No 104 Beach Sub-Area at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy from 7/6/1944; building by-pass at Bayeux, Normandy, France; occasion when he ordered a bayonet charge in France; duties during Operation Market Garden in Netherlands, 9/1944; role keeping roads open in Netherlands, winter 1944-1945; reaction to visit to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 4/1945; bridging duties in Germany; reaction to VE Day, 8/5/1945. Aspects of operations as officer with 23rd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1945-1947: unit duties; sabotage of telegraph poles; inexperience of his sappers; character of Jewish illegal refugee ships; work Royal Engineers did aboard illegal refugee ships.
REEL 3 Continues: attitude to having to deal with refugee ships; mine clearance work including dealing with faked milestone packed with explosive. Recollections of period as officer with 18th Field Park Sqdn, Royal Engineers on Cyprus, 1957-1959: reasons why Limassol was a quiet area; searches in caves; tensions between Greek and Turkish communities; shooting of unit officer. Aspects of period as officer with Cyprus Working Party on Cyprus Treaty of Establishment, Cyprus, 1959-1960: his administrative role on demarcation of British bases; impressions of Cypriot leaders.