Description
Object description
British officer served with 425 Bty, 107th Regt, <South Notts Hussars> Royal Artillery in GB, Palestine and North Africa, 1938-1942; POW in North Africa, Italy and Germany, 1943-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Haddington area, 1920-1936: education; attitude to army. Work as tenant farmer at Hardwick Grange, Clumber Park, Worksop, 1936-1939. Recruitment as officer with B Troop, 425 Bty, 107th Regt, <South Notts Hussars> Royal Artillery at Derby Road Drill Hall, Nottingham, ca 1938-1939: influence of Peter Birkin at Nottingham Rugby Club; interview and impromptu medical with Colonel Holden; kitting out and question of adequacy of grant; opinion of Lieutenant Geoffrey Neale; gunnery lessons; period instructing specialist gunners, ca 1939-1940; attending Redesdale Camp including mess games, drinking habits, expense of guest nights, map reading exercises and visits to pub; delaying call up due to harvest; reaction to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939.
REEL 2 Recollections of initial period at Nottingham, 9/1939: reprimand for reporting in late on mobilisation; situation; air raid alarm; officers' billet in pub; shortage of equipment. Period at Rillington, 9/1939-11/1939: personal morale; billets; question of quality of food; opinion of Captain Wellesley-Colley; relationship with owner of billet; mess uniform; story illustrating necessity of caution in relationship with ORs. Period at Wragby, 11/1939-1/1940: billets; overnight visits home. Recollections of journey to Palestine, 1/1940: special kit; military police guard; rejecting offer to claim reserved occupation status as farmer; train journey to Marseilles; story of nearly missing HMT Devonshire sailing due to night out in Marseilles.
REEL 3 Continues: conditions aboard HMT Devonshire. Aspects of period in Palestine, 1/1940-6/1940: prevailing smell; horse deaths during voyage; officers' riding school; hiring horses for riding; riding motorbike; story of threatened court martial concerning loss of single round of Boyes ammunition; opinion of Arab and Jewish civilians; problem of driving on sand; opinion of Medical Officer J Finnegan; opinion of Australian troops and question of cause of riot in Cairo, Egypt. Recollections of period at Mersa Matruh, 6/1940-1/1941: reaction to high level Italian air raids; role in recording and attempting to correct existing co-ordinates of prospective targets using directors as command post officer at Headquarters, 425 Bty; dugout and personal equipment.
REEL 4 Continues: shooting game to supplement diet; swimming; question of personal appearance; desert sores; fleas and flies; latrines; survey and gun drill training; story of taking surrender of Italian POWs, 12/1940. Period in Suez Canal area, 1/1941-4/1941: teams spotting for mines dropped in canal; recreations; opinion of new 25pdrs and Quad towers. Hospitalisation and convalescence with appendicitis at Cairo, 4/1941. Recollections of conditions of service and lifestyle during period at Tobruk, Libya, 4/1941-12/1941: landing during Stuka attack on Tobruk Harbour; policy of retaliating after Stuka raids; circumstances of appointment to command A Troop; opinion of Captain Charles Bennett.
REEL 5 Continues: role as troop commander; RAF defences; Stuka air raids; food and water rations; state of unit morale and avoiding confrontation with ORs; opinions of various officers and NCOs; role as observation post officer including 15ft OP pole, OP team, restrictions on firing, letting signaller fire guns, story of rescue of NCO from top of 60ft scaffolding OP pole and method of firing and ranging guns.
REEL 6 Continues: role as OP officer including method ranging guns, mirages and conversations with ORs, shoots from forward gun positions, opinion of Australian troops; personal morale whilst accompanying Australian reconnaissance patrols into No Man's Land; breakout operations 11/1941-12/1941, including briefing, forward OP, preliminary bombardment, difficulty maintaining communication, Black Watch piper, difficulty in ranging, close escape from shell at command post, German success in salvaging abandoned guns and success of operations; reactions to continued role in advance west.
REEL 7 Period at Tmimi, 12/1941. Aspects of period in Egypt, 1/1942-3/1942: movements; question of posting to command E Troop, 425 Bty on formation of 520 Bty; effects of expansion of SNH on efficiency; recovery of vehicles from minefields at Tobruk, 1941; question of training with 3rd City of London Yeomanry; opinion of Honey light tank used as OP vehicle. Recollection of operations in Knightsbridge sector, Gazala area, 27/5/1942-6/6/1942: situation; policy of holding fire until tanks at close range; conference with Colonel William Seely over possibility of withdrawal, 5/6/1942; necessity of changing radio equipment between OP tanks and necessity of matching vehicle to surrounding units; story of breakdown of Honey tank whilst on advanced OP duty with 3rd CLY during advance on German artillery positions, 5/6/1942.
REEL 8 Continues: story of breakdown of Honey tank whilst on advanced OP duty with 3rd CLY during advance on German artillery positions, 5/6/1942; opinion of Cauldron gun positions, 5/6/1942-6/6/1942; comparison of effectiveness of HE and armour piercing shells against tanks; opinion of divisional command view of situation and conference with Major Peter Birkin and Seely concerning shortage of ammunition supplies and threat posed by encircling German tanks, 5/6/1942; opinion of Cauldron gun positions; question of supporting units; opinion of relationship between Seely and divisional command; state of E Troop morale; shortage of ammunition; gradual approach of German tanks, 6/6/1942; failure of attempt by Daniel to 'form square' using E Troop; death of Lieutenant Alan Chadburn and story of incident in Palestine, 1940, illustrating his character.
REEL 9 Continues: death of Chadburn and story of incident in Palestine illustrating his character; question of death of Seely; question of activities of various officers; overrun of gun positions, destruction of guns and surrender, 6/6/1942. Initial period as POW in Libya, 6/1942: separation of officers from ORs; reaction to being POW; personal kit carried; move west fatigue. Air flight to Italy, ca 6/1942: instructions from senior officers not to try and take over aircraft; difficulty in taking off due to overloaded plane. Aspects of initial period as POW in Italy, 1942-1943: question of interrogation; relationship with Italian women civilians; question of escape during train journey to Retzenelo. Aspects of periods at Retzenelo and Parma POW Camps, ca 6/1942-9/1943: conditions; recreations; leaving camp after Italian surrender, 9/1943.
REEL 10 Period behind German lines in Italy, 9/1943-10/1943: friend; relationship with Italian civilians; disguising uniform; food poisoning; meeting British ORs and subsequent recapture by German troops; failed attempt to escape from Parma Prison, 10/1943. Failed escape attempt and consequent frostbite precautions during train journey to Munich, Germany, ca 10/1943. Period in Munich POW Camp, 1943-1945: question of willingness to assist Russian and British POWs; arrest of former Italian guards. Period at Maristrubau POW Camp, Czechoslovakia, ca 1943-1944: question of escape; emergency move following discovery of plan to organise mass breakout with assistance of Czechoslovakian resistance movement. Period at Brunswick POW Camp, Germany, ca 1944-1945: prior dispute; with Red Cross whilst in Italy; effects of Allied bombing raids; law classes.
REEL 11 Continues: illustrations of declining standards as POW; personal morale; changing attitude of German guards, 1945; reaction to arrival of US troops. Journey back to GB, 1945: differing attitude of US and British officers to urgency of repatriating POWs; air flight; reaction to beaurocracy of evacuation process; successful efforts to avoid posting to Far East; stories of demobilisation illustrating desire to return home, 1945. Question of origin of Pringle's Parkinson's Disease in restricted diet during periods at Tobruk, 1941 and as POW, 1943-1945. Question of contacts with South Notts Hussars Regimental Association, 1994.
