Description
Object description
British officer served as bomb and mine disposal officer with Royal Navy Bomb and Mine Disposal in GB, South Africa, Sicily, Italy and Corsica France, 9/1940-2/1944; served with Royal Navy Party 1500 in Normandy, 6/1944-8/1944; served with Royal Navy Party 1501 in Antwerp, Belgium and Nijmegen, Netherlands, 9/1944-12/1944; served with Royal Navy Bomb and Mine Disposal in GB, 1945-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, 1915-1939: family; education; employment; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Recollections of period as bomb and mine disposal officer with Royal Navy Bomb and Mine Disposal in Plymouth, GB, 9/1940-1941: appointment to Plymouth after bomb disposal and mine disposal training, 1940; organisation of bomb disposal work; dealing with Category A bomb; method of dealing with bomb in dry dock at Falmouth, 10/1941; methods of dealing with different types of bomb filling; description of German Eleckrischer Sonderzeunder EI.2 (50) Y Fuse with an anti-withdrawal device; attitude towards Germans; public morale; German use of explosive incendiary bombs and his demonstrations of how to deal with them; hospitalisation for wound recieved during demonstration; award of George Medal and Bar; performance of his men; effect of three narrow escapes. Aspects of period as bomb and mine disposal officer with Royal Navy Bomb and Mine Disposal at Scapa Flow, GB, 11/1941-3/1942: disposal of British mines washed ashore; problems with gales.
REEL 2 Continues: lecturing of dealing with unexploded bombs on ships. Recollections of period as bomb and mine disposal officer with Royal Navy Bomb and Mine Disposal in South Africa, 5/1942-6/1943: voyage aboard HMT Empress of Japan from GB to South Africa, 4/1942-5/1942; investigation of mine damage to HMS Hecla, 5/1942-6/1942; dealing with German mines washed ashore; teaching demonstrations on bomb disposal to South African officers at Cape Town; work destroying defective ammunition at Ganspan; reasons for learning to dive; attitude of white South African towards Second World War. Recollections of operations as bomb and mine disposal officer with Royal Navy Bomb and Mine Disposal in Messina Harbour, Sicily, Italy, 8/1943-9/1943: attitude to appointment to Malta, 6/1943; arrival in Sicily, 8/1943; investigating fatalities during bomb disposal incident at Messina, 23/8/1943; award of George Cross for his diving work during clearing of harbour; question of rate of work during mine clearance; relations between Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve officers and regular warrant officers.
REEL 3 Continues: method of carrying out his work in harbour; German use of fifty two day clocks; problems with unexploded Allied bombs at Messina; award of George Cross in GB, 6/1944; introduction to American rations; work on Corsica, France, 12/1943-2/1944. Aspects of operations as bomb and mine disposal officer with Royal Navy Party 1500 in Normandy, France, 6/1944-7/1944: arrival in Normandy, 7/6/1944; accommodation; role of unit at Arromanches-les-Bains; initiation to handling anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Aspects of operations as bomb and mine disposal officer with Naval Party 1501 in Antwerp, Belgium and Nijmegen, Netherlands, 9/1944-12/1944: dealing with mines in River Scheldt; use of portable pulsers to detonate magnetic mines; flight from Antwerp to Nijmegen; meeting with General Brian Horrocks; German underwater attacks on bridges at Nijmegen, 9/1944; role in defusing German charges at Nijmegen.
REEL 4 Continues: conditions for diving in River Waal; German V weapon attacks on Antwerp; leaving Antwerp, 12/1944. Recollections of mine clearance work as bomb and mine disposal officer with Royal Navy Bomb and Mine Disposal in GB, 1945-1946: area of mine disposal work in North West; memories of Harold Wilson speaking at Magull, 7/1945; nature of work; sinking of mine with rifle fire at Port St Mary, Isle of Man, 1/1946; mine clearing at St Bees and Maryport, 1/1946; method of sinking of mines by rifle fire.