Description
Object description
British private served with Durham Light Infantry Depot in GB, 1941; NCO served with 70th Bn, Durham Light Infantry in GB, 1941-1943; served with 16th Bn, Durham Light Infantry in North Africa, Italy and Middle East, Greece and Austria, 1943-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Ryhope, GB, 1923-1941: family circumstances; nature of local community; reduced circumstances on father's death, 1932; childhood friend; education; Boy Scouts activities; church; work as chemist's delivery boy, 1937; work as building labourer and loss of job due to approach of war, 1938; work as part of Juvenile Transfer Scheme in factory in South Staffordshire, 1938-1941; pay and various lodgings; enlistment at Recruiting Office, Sunderland, 12/9/1941. Recollections of conditions of service and lifestyle during training with Durham Light Infantry at No 4 Infantry Training Centre at Brancepeth Castle, 9/1941-11/1941: collection of section of volunteers; kitting out with uniform; mother's reaction and her allowance; opinion of NCOs; beds; story of creasing trousers under mattress.
REEL 2 Continues: example of Regimental Sergeant Major Jamieson; hut accommodation; question of action to stop bullying and attitude of NCOs; cleaning hut; kit inspections; corporal's ruse to re-sell iron to successive drafts; drill at light infantry pace; opinion of Lieutenant Short; drill; route marches; opinion of Boyes anti-tank rifle and 2" mortar; guard duties and inspection by officer; gas mask training; weapons training including Vickers machine gun, Bren gun and comparison with German weapons; story of training in bringing Vickers machine gun team into action; leave; relationship with civilians; officers. Period with 70th (Young Soldiers) Bn, Durham Light Infantry at School Aycliffe and attached to School of Infantry, Barnard Castle, GB, 11/1941-6/1943: opinion of officers; quality of other ranks and question of commission; theatre performances to raise money for Victoria Cross winner Adam Wakenshaw's family; conditions of service; opinion of Colonel McBain; detachment on airfield defence duties; opinion of Lieutenant Freddie Strothard.
REEL 3 Continues: daily routine training; question of awareness of German Army; VIP visitors; effects of arrival of Colonel Peter Jeffreys; volunteering to join Parachute Regt, question of qualification as parachutist by making jumps and subsequent return to unit; minimal transport; detachment on airfield defence duties; story of decoration of soldier for helping in rescue men from crashed aircraft; issue of specialist equipment on move to Barnard Castle; promotion as sergeant with Anti-tank Platoon equipped with 6pdr anti-tank gun including prior training course, gun drill and opinion of gun; drill exercises as demonstration battalion in training officers; VIP visitors; live ammunition exercises and casualties; route marches; acting as Germans in exercises with Lovat Scouts; story of attack at Saludecio, Italy, 2/9/1944; exercises with tanks; use of sangars on moors; use of camouflage and smoke; reaction to disbandment of unit. Recollections of period 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry in Italy, 10/1943-2/1944: decision to revert to corporal on posting to 21 Platoon, D Coy; origins of other ranks; draft of Londoners whilst with 70th Bn Durham Light Infantry; personal morale and role as section leader during first action at Santa Grosse, ca 10/1943; question of taking German POWs and origins of German troops.
REEL 4 Continues: situation on joining unit at Santa Grosse; question of treatment of Salerno mutineers, 9/1943; opinion of various officers and NCOs; importance of humour during rest periods; position of married soldiers; opinion of German machine guns; personal morale during first action at Santa Groce, ca 10/1943; opinion of various officers; role as section leader; story of training and first action of former anti-aircraft personnel ca 10/1944; method of attacking German fortified farmhouses including use of petrol bombs and incidents of not taking POWs; discussing Jewish question with German POWs; cases of German war crimes; rest period at Cessa di Arunca including learning Italian, fatigue and question of German and British treatment of Italian civilians; food rations; relationship with US troops and Italian civilians; milking cows; German mines and method of clearance.
REEL 5 Continues: German mines including methods of location, clearance and defusing; comparison of British and German weapons including mines; half tracks and Bren Carriers; Schmeissers and Thompson gun and mortars; story of coming under fire of German 210 mm shellfire and their faulty ammunition; German booby traps in houses; question of treatment of German POWs of Polish origins; question of Churchill's family origins; question of refusal to take German POWs after losing casualties; terrain; opinion of 56th Division; retreat of B Company from Calabritto Basin, 4/12/1943; use of smoke screens; question of leading section in action; reaction to soldiers who lost their nerve through battle fatigue; opinion of various generals including Major General Hawkesworth; opinion of soldier losing nerve and alerting Germans whilst crossing River Volturno, 12/10/1943; opinion of Nazi elements amongst German troops and story of post-war visit to Germany; advance to River Garigliano, 11/1943; effects of wet weather; absence of rum ration; promotion to sergeant and posting to Pioneer Platoon, Support Company; role of pioneers in clearing mines.
REEL 6 Continues: accidental detonation of cleared mines; effects of artillery bombardment on German positions; story of effect on personal morale of discovering mutilated corpse; question of artillery preparatory bombardments; operations on Mount Camino, 12/1943; role assisting stretcher bearers; opinion of Lieutenant Ronald Elliott; burial of corpses; operations in Garigliano sector 1/1944; use of sangars; formation of ad hoc platoon for front line service; dispute with base officer over billets; patrol activity; nature of fighting; opinion of German paratroopers., Period in Middle East, 2/1944-7/1944: internal security duties in Palestine including Arab/Jewish situation and question of Jewish soldiers; reactions to D-Day, 6/6/1944; reinforcements drafts and question of treatment of Salerno mutineers, 9/1943; question of attacks by Scottish troops on Military Police during voyage back to Italy, 7/1944; question of role of Military Police and reaction to executions of war criminals in Austria, 1945; question of deserters and personal morale.
REEL 7 Recollections of operations against Gothic Line, Italy, 8/1944-12/1944: prior rest period at Bastardo, 7/1944-8/1944; casualties; opinion of Royal Army Medical Corps at Saludeccio. 2/9/1944, use of German POWs to clear mines; treatment of wounded; ineffectiveness of German Stukas; support from Allied air forces; story of German air attack, ca 10/1943; state of health and treatment for boil; vaccinations; operations at Gemmano, 10/9/1944-15/9/1944, including situation and platoon buried in church hit by shell; German paratroopers units; weather conditions; story of Polish troops knifing German POWs; corpses at Gemmano; relationship with Italian civilians during rest period at Montefiori; stories of German and British treatment of Italian civilians; move to San Marino; personal morale; relationship with Italian civilians during rest period at Montefiori; reports of progress of war; terrain and climate; state of German troops, 11/1944; methods of dealing with different types of German mines. Aspects of period in Athens and Patras, Greece, 12/1944-4/1945: flight out; withdrawal to Phaleron; situation including internal security role supporting royalists against ELAS and feeding Greek civilians.
REEL 8 Continues: stories illustrating internal security role; withdrawal to Phaleron; situation; subsequent advance into Athens, 1/1945; surrender of ELAS forces on move to Patras, 1/1945; relationship with Greek civilians; story of ELAS blowing up battalion headquarters at Phaleron; clearing German mine fields; visits to Greek bars and question of presence of ELAS insurgents; VD problem; Greek attitude to Greek royal family; officers; treatment of soldiers captured by ELAS: ELAS weapons; situation; reaction to mass graves; reaction to casualties; use of fishhooks on string to enforce curfew; relationship with Greek civilians and children in billets; story of taking rifle from young ELAS soldier; ELAS POWs taken during advance, 1/945. Return too Italy and advance through Alps into Austria, 4/1945-5/1945. Recollections of period in Austria, 5/1945: meeting Soviet troops; acting as ceremonial guards in Vienna, 10/1945-11/1945; story of Churchill visit to Greece; activities of Yugoslavian partisans; position of Cossack Divisions who had fought for German Army in Austria.
REEL 10 Continues: contacts with Cossack troops; position of Cossack Divisions who had fought for German Army in Austria; view of transport of Cossacks by lorry back to Soviet control; witnessing accidental fatal shooting and consequent dislike of firearms; reports of difficulties in returning Croatian troops to Yugoslavia; attitude of Cossack troops and reports of their subsequent execution by Soviet forces; question of celebration of Inkerman Day in Vienna and relationship with Soviet troops; relationship with Austrian civilians; VD problem; execution of war criminals in Vienna; patrols in attempt to capture Nazi war criminals; billets and story of special bath; troops' relationships with Austrian women; hidden valuables of Austrian civilians; question of behaviour and relationship with Soviet troops; lack of leave; problem with corpses in Vienna; attitudes of Austrian civilians including anti-Semitism; story of visit to gypsy camp. Recollections of period with 1st Bn Durham Light Infantry at Xanthi, Greece, 2/1946-7/1946: story of dispute over correct dress for patrol, subsequent arrest and demotion to private illustrating conflict between national servicemen, hostilities only personnel and regular ex-POW personnel; subsequent conversation with brigadier on situation; reading books to illiterate soldiers.
REEL 10 Continues: attempts to teach illiterate soldiers to read and write; building tennis court and reaction to its confiscation for officers only use; open complaints to colonel over conditions of service; journey back to GB. Demobilisation and issue of demob suit at Aldershot, 7/1946. Post-war career: difficulty in getting work prior to decision to work as coal miner; regrets at having killed Germans; opinion of various officers and NCOs; difficulty in adjusting to civilian life.
