Proctor, Frank (Oral history)

British private served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Palestine, Palestine Command, 1938-1940; NCO served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 16th Infantry Bde, 5th Indian Infantry Div in North Africa, 1940-1941; served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 14th Infantry Bde, Creforce on Crete, Greece, 5/1941; prisoner of war in Stalag III-A, Luckenwalde, Stalag III-D, Rudow, Berlin, Arbeitskommando Z118, Zwickau, Arbeitskommando C118, Chemnitz and Stalag III-D/357, Genshagen in Germany, 7/1941-4/1945

REEL 1 Background in Accrington and Todmorden, GB, 1920-1938: family; education; employment; reasons for wanting to join British Army; his father's opposition to his joining British Army; volunteering for 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Recollections of operations as private with D Coy, 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1938-1940: landing at Haifa, 6/1938; on outpost duty in Jenin area; counter-insurgency operations; attitude towards potential of contracting venereal disease; patrols in Tel Aviv including facing hostile mob in railway marshalling yards; question of Jewish and Arab civilians combining to agitate; coping with mined roads. REEL 2 Continues: search of kibbutz near Lydda which turned up copies of 'Mein Kampf', winter 1939-1940; attitude of Arabs and Jews towards British authorities; degree of threat experienced; role attached to 8th Railway Coy, Royal Engineers escorting troop trains to Jerusalem. Recollections of operations as NCO with D Coy, 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 16th Infantry Div in Western Desert, 1940-1941: casualties from Italian Air Force attacks at Sidi Barrani, Egypt, 1940; start of British advance against Italians during Operation Compass, 7/12/1940; destruction of unit's transport by artillery fire; unit casualties, 12/1940; bayonet charge to capture Sidi Barrani, Egypt; reactions to initial experience of action. REEL 3 Continues: behaviour of troops after Battle of Sidi Barrani; night after the battle and the playing of the lament for the dead; withdrawal from Sidi Barrani, Egypt; amusing story of Italian Air Force attack on latrine at Sollum, Egypt; firing from Italian gun nicknamed 'Bardia Bill'. Recollections of operations as NCO with D Coy, 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 14th Infantry Bde, Creforce on Crete, Greece, 5/1941: embarkation of unit in Egypt; German Air Force attacks on olive groves; stories of Cretan atrocities against German airborne forces and German response; killing German paratroopers with Bren Gun near Agios Thomas; capture by German paratroopers; attitude to being made prisoner of war; firing squad incident and his reprieve from execution. REEL 4 Continues: escape to join Cretan guerillas; several days spent with guerrillas harassing German communications; heavy German counter-attack; circumstances of recapture by German Army troops. Aspects of journey as prisoner of war from Crete, Greece to Germany, 6/1941: arrival in Athens, Greece and German filming of prisoners of war; German beating of Australian prisoner of war; removal of prisoners of war from Greece to Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag III-A, Luckenwalde, Stalag III-D, Rudow, Berlin, Arbeitskommando Z118, Zwickau, Arbeitskommando C118, Chemnitz and Stalag III-D/357, Genshagen in Germany, 1941-1945: arrival at Stalag III-A, Luckenwalde; living conditions at Stalag III-D, Rudow, Berlin; work prisoners of war expected to do; arrival of Red Cross parcels and British battledress, early 1942; coal loading with Arbeitskommando Z118 at Zwickau; separation of British and Irish prisoners of war; his escape attempt; liberation by United States Army troops, 1945. REEL 5 Continues: sight of concentration camp inmates; aiding concentration camp inmates in Chemnitz Marshalling Yard whilst with Arbeitskommando C118, Chemnitz, late 1943; occasion when German guard shot prisoner of war after Allied air raid at Stalag III-D/517, Genshagen, 4/1944.