Description
Object description
British officer served with 2nd Bn Cheshire Regt, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1936-1937; served as staff officer with Headquarters, 6th Airlanding Bde, 6th Airborne Div in GB and Normandy, France, 5/1943-7/1944; commanded 9th Bn Parachute Regt, 3rd Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in North West Europe, 7/1944-5/1945 and Palestine, 10/1945-10/1946; served as staff officer with Malaya Command in Malaya, 1952-1954
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, 1915-1936: family; education. Aspects of operations as officer with C Coy, 2nd Bn Cheshire Regt, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1936-1937: railway protection duties; clash with Arab insurgents at Afuleh; degree of disruption achieved by insurgents; question of attitude of two of his soldiers under fire; opinion of role of Palestine Police Force. Aspects of operations commanding 9th Bn Parachute Regt, 3rd Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Palestine, 10/1945-10/1946: contrast between experiences during Arab Revolt, 1936-1937 and counter-insurgency operations, 3/1946-9/1946; penetration of Palestine Police Force by Jewish insurgents; character of Jewish civilians in Tel Aviv; curfew in Tel Aviv; behaviour of Yemeni Jews in Tel Aviv; cordon and search operation in Jerusalem after blowing up of King David Hotel, 7/1946; rescue work at King David Hotel, Jerusalem, 7/1946; theft of arms and clothing by Arabs from his tent.
REEL 2 Continues: opinion of British Government policy 1946. Aspects of period as staff officer with 6th Airlanding Bde, 6th Airborne Div in GB, 5/1943-6/1944: background to becoming an airborne officer, 1943; formation of 6th Airlanding Bde; lack of gliders available prior to Operation Overlord; airsickness in gliders; initial preparations for Operation Overlord move into transit camp and briefing; visit by Major General Richard Gale; character of German anti-glider defences. Recollections of operations as staff officer with Headquarters, 6th Airlanding Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Normandy, France, D-Day, 6/6/1944: buying newspapers to take to Normandy at lunchtime, 6/6/1944; take off from RAF Brize Norton, 18:00, 6/6/1944; nature of his landing, 6/6/1944; assembling at rendezvous point; construction of command post in orchard; Royal Artillery Forward Observation Officer (FOB) attached to unit.
REEL 3 Continues: staff officers who had places in his glider. Recollections of operations as staff officer with Headquarters, 6th Airlanding Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Normandy, France, 6/6/1944-18/7/1944: reaction to being under German shellfire, 7/6/1944; failure of 1st Bn Royal Ulster Rifles' attack on Saint-Honorine-la-Chadonne; Brigadier Hugh Kindersley's method of removing German tanks attacking 1st Bn Royal Ulster Rifles' positions; routine at brigade headquarters; effect of German counter-attack on 51st (Highland) Infantry Div during attack on Sainte-Honorine-la-Chardonne, 12/6/1944; his narrow escape from German mortaring at Château Saint-Come; 2nd Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry use of snipers in bocage country, 6/1944; Major General Richard Gale's decision to attack Bréville, 6/1944.
REEL 4 Continues: nature of attack on Bréville; wounding of Lord Lovat and Brigadier Hugh Kindersley at Bréville; arrival and performance of new brigade commanding officer, Brigadier Edwin Flavell. Recollections of operations commanding 9th Bn Parachute Regt, 3rd Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Normandy, France, 7/1944-8/1944: taking command 9th Bn Parachute Regt, 19/7/1944; role of unit in River Dives area during breakout from Normandy, 8/1944; an instance of battle shock; return to GB after visit to Merville Battery; reburial of battalion dead including the battalion dog Glen; Major General Richard Gale's attitude to proper handling of dead. Recollections of operations commanding 9th Bn Parachute Regt, 3rd Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in North West Europe, 1944-1945: rapid move to the Ardennes, Belgium, 24/12/1944.
REEL 5 Continues: eye wounds in Belgium, 12/1944; discovery of bodies from German massacre of civilians at Bande, Belgium, 1/1945; role holding line on River Maas at Horn, Netherlands, 1/1945; handling of German prisoners of war; return to GB to prepare for Operation Varsity, 2/1945; incident of NCO with self-inflicted wound during embarkation, 3/1945; character of Operation Varsity, the airborne crossing of the River Rhine, Germany, 24/3/1945; encounter with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery on battlefield and postcard to his father Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Crookeden.
REEL 6 Continues: use of Locust Light Tank; youthful German casualties at Recklinghausen, Germany, 4/1945; orders from General Matthew Ridgway to forestall Soviet forces on the Baltic, 4/1945; entry into Wismar, Germany, 2/5/1945; nature of contacts with Soviet Army in Wismar area, Germany, 5/1945; British arrest of Soviet Army soldier who raped and shot German woman; attempt of German wounded to escape Soviet Army at Wismar, Germany, 5/1945; suicide of Germans civilians on hearing that Wismar was to become part of the Soviet Zone of Occupation. Recollections of operations as staff officer with Malaya Command in Malaya, 1952-1954: posting as Chairman of Joint Services Planning Staff; General Gerald Templer's method of operating; organisation of states and districts; method of organising resistance to insurgents.
REEL 7 Continues: degree of personal danger; opinion of General Gerald Templer and his method of dealing with village of Tanjong Malim after killing of Chinese resettlement officer; attitude of planters to General Gerald Templer's attempts to modernise conditions for rubber tappers; comparison between performance of 1st Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt and 1st Bn Suffolk Regt in Selangor; importance of building relations between military and police; prevalence of friendly fire incidents; attitude of National Servicemen to serving in Malaya.