Description
Object description
British private served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1939-1940; served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 16th Infantry Bde, 4th Indian Infantry Div in Western Desert, 1940-1941; served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 14th Infantry Bde, Creforce on Crete, Greece, 5/1941; NCO served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Ethiopia, 1941-1942; served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 161st Indian Infantry Bde, 5th Indian Infantry Div in Western Desert, 1942; served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlands, Eighth Army in Egypt, Sicily and Italy, 1942-1943; various posting as officer with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in GB, British Guiana, Berlin, Germany, Cyprus and Suez, Egypt, 1946-1966
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Halifax, GB, 1922-1938: family; education; reasons for enlistment in British Army, 1938. Recollections of operations with D Coy, 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1939-1940: reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; duties of unit based at Jenin; role minesweeping for trains; capture of arms from Arab insurgents; cordon and search operations; aid given to shipwrecked Jewish immigrants; duties in support of civil power in Tel Aviv. Recollections of operations as private with D Coy, 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 16th Infantry Bde, 4th Indian Infantry Div in Western Desert, 1940-1941: move to Bagush Box from 8/1940; living conditions in desert; attempts to bluff Italians about numbers of British troops in Western Desert, 1940; nature of British advance, 12/1940; company bayonet charge on Italian positions; numbers of Italian prisoners of war taken; Italian Air Force use of anti-personnel bombs on Bagush Box; conditions in caves at Sollum, Egypt, Christmas 1940; duties in charge of Italian prisoners of war at Sollum, Egypt, 1940-1941.
REEL 2 Continues: capture of Italian Army prostitutes; withdrawal to Egypt, 1/1941. Recollections of operations as private with D Coy, 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 14th Infantry Bde, Creforce on Crete, Greece, 18/5/1941-29/5/1941: transport from Egypt to Crete, 18/5/1941; landing at Timbaki; under German Air Force attack at Moires; attempt to use armour against Germans on road to Heraklion, 21/5/1941; attack on German held ridge interrupted by German parachute drop; capture by Germans and expectation of being shot; treatment by German captors; mortaring of German column he was in by British troops, 26/5/1941; anticipations of British counter-attack; liberation by battalion.
REEL 3 Continues: new positions of taken outside Heraklion, 29/5/1941; evacuation in HMS Kimberley; use of Bren Gun against Junkers Ju 87 Stukas on board HMS Kimberley, 29/5/1941; arrival in Egypt. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Ethiopia, 1941: move to Ethiopia; effect of refusal of Italian general to surrender to 'colonial troops'. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 161st Indian Infantry Bde, 5th Indian Infantry Div in Western Desert, 1942: role during German advance into Egypt, 6/1942; arrival at unit on El Alamein Line; conditions on Ruweisat Ridge; sight of German final assault at El Alamein; role of unit holding central part of El Alamein line; visiting Kidney Ridge after battle; reasons for decision to stop smoking. Aspects of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Eight Army on Sicily and Italy, 7/1943-9/1943: landings at Cassibile, Sicily, 7/1943; landings at Reggio di Calabria, 9/1943; description of term Beach Reinforcement Invasion Column. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Egypt, 11/1943: guard duties during Cairo Conference at during Mena House, Cairo, 1943; Prime Minister Winston Churchill's insistence on wearing of Africa Star Medal. Aspects of period as instructor in GB, 1944: return to GB as sergeant instructor; role training infantrymen in Northern Ireland.
REEL 4 Continues: Aspects of varous postings as officer with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 1946-1966: commissioning in GB, 1/1946; posting to British Guiana; duties in Berlin, Germany, 1955-1956; role of battalion at Suez, Egypt, 1956; basing of battalion at copper mine on Cyprus, 1958; precautions to protect convoys in Cyprus; duties with 7th Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Territorial Army in GB, 1958-1962; second hand account of battalion's role during Indonesian Confrontation; including parachuting ice blocks to troops working in jungle.