Description
Object description
British private served with 11th Light Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB and North West Europe 1939-1945 including liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 4/1945-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in London, GB, 1919-1939: family circumstances; education. Recollections of period as private with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1939-1944: call-up to Royal Army Medical Corps 1939; nature of training, 1940; posting to 11th Light Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1941; character of light field ambulance units; preparations for landings in Normandy attached to 27th Armoured Bde. Aspects of period as private with 11th Light Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in North West Europe, 6/1944-4/1945: crossing English Channel, 5/6/1944-6/6/1944; landing on Sword Beach, Normandy, France, D-Day, 6/6/1944; movements in beachhead; administrative role in orderly room; advance from Normandy, France into Belgium.
REEL 2 Continues: relations with Dutch civilians in Heeze, Netherlands; reputation of unit; crossing River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945. Recollections of period as private with 11th Light Field Ambulance at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 4/1945-5/1945: initial news recieved of camp; move to camp; environment around camp; sight of big typhus warning signs; setting up unit in field; strafing of Red Cross identification signs by German Air Force, 21/4/1945; initial impressions of camp; effects of typhus; treatment of local German civilians; rescue programme and human laundry system; description of unit mess tent; driving camp commandant Josef Kramer around manacled in jeep to allay inmates fear; signs of cannibalism; attitude towards Germans; inadequate German feeding system for inmates.
REEL 3 Continues: how inmates died of eating solid food; disposal of dead bodies; protective clothing issued; typhus cases amongst British units; variations amongst physical appearance of inmates; scouring Germany to find medical equipment; crate of lipstick which heightened morale of former female inmates; question of inmates will to survive; ceremonial burning of camp, 21/5/1945; VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; memories of individuals in camp; meeting future wife who was nurse at camp; opinion of conscientious objectors; administration role.
REEL 4 Continues: reaction to leaving camp; role of alcohol in aiding troops relax off duty at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp; question of justifiable nature of Second World War; lack of long-term effects of experience. Aspects of period as private with 11th Light Field Ambulance in Norway, 1945: reasons for move to Norway; relations with Norwegian civilians; story of being first post-war tourists to Norway on honeymoon.