Description
Object description
British private trained at Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Regimental Depot at Bodmin in GB, 1933-1934; served with 2nd Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in Gibraltar and GB, 1934-1935; private and NCO served with 1st Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in India, 1936-1941; NCO served with 1st Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, British Troops in Iraq and Tenth Army in Iraq, 9/1941-5/1942; served and 1st Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, Eighth Army in North Africa, 6/1942; prisoner of war in Egypt and Campo PG 116, Benghazi, Libya, 6/1942-12/1942; prisoner of war in Campo PG 75, Bari, Campo PG 454 Brindisi and Campo PG 59, Servigliano, Italy, 12/1942-9/1943; escaped and evaded capture in Italy, 1943-1944; NCO served as instructor with Light Infantry Depot at Colchester, GB, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Birmingham, GB, 1915-1933: family. Aspects of enlistment in Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in GB, 1933: reasons for joining British Army; selection process; train journey from Birmingham to Bodmin. Aspects of training as private with Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Depot at Bodmin in GB, 1933: reception on arrival; initial encounter with Cornish recruits; squad NCOs; terms of service; issue of fatigues; start of basic training; composition of squad; uniform worn; drill and runs; NCOs in charge of training; physical training; character of recruit badge competition; emphasis on agility; continuing education; arms drill and miniature range work; acceptance of discipline; deserters; inspections.
REEL 2 Continues: off duty activities; initial Sunday fatigues and attending church parades; saluting of memorial statue outside barracks; opinion of instructor Sergeant Vidler; current affairs lectures. Aspects of period as private with 2nd Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in Gibraltar, 1934-1935: posting to Gibraltar, 6/1934; conditions in Grand Casemate Barracks; range training; B Coy officers; nature of training on race course; training limited by space; off duty activities in Gibraltar; return to GB via Malta, 1/1935. Aspects of period as private with 2nd Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry at Blackdown Barracks, Deepcut, GB, 1935: duties in GB; shooting at Bisley; large scale exercise on Salisbury Plain including first flight in aircraft; use of slit trenches
REEL 3 Continues: construction of slit trenches; personal kit carried on exercise; importance of changing socks and care of feet; opinion of boots; daily foot inspection; degree of mechanisation in British Army; prior recollection of sight of military experiments with half-tracked vehicles in Smethwick, 1928; parade for Royal Jubilee, 1935; orders for posting to India; desertion from draft during embarkation leave; own reaction to posting. Recollections of period as private and NCO with 1st Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in India, 1936-1941: conditions on board troopship; initials impressions on arrival in Bombay; incident with fruit seller; train to Dimapur and long march to cantonment; posting to D Coy; reaction to arrival at Dimapur; heat and kite hawks; issue of khaki drill; move to hill station at Lebong Cantonment, Darjeeling; internal security role of battalion; deployment of machine guns during riot in Lahore; beheading of Indian Imperial Police officer during riot in Lahore; strength of Indian Imperial Police force in Lahore.
REEL 4 Continues: nature of internal security operations; lack of trouble and contact with civilians in Dimapur; question of large towns being centres of conflict; activities at Lebong Cantonment; character of machine gun company; composition of machine gun detachment; description of condenser for water and range finder on Vickers Machine Gun; encounter with jackals; targets used; attending cadre course for potential NCOs; promotion to lance corporal; role as lance corporal; undisciplined men; attending physical training courses and their content; health hazards; reasons why he was not allowed to transfer to Army Physical Training Corps; organising physical training in battalion; unarmed combat; presence of Indians on physical training course.
REEL 5 Continues: use of mules to carry Vickers Machine Gun; muleteers; move to Lahore on outbreak of Second World War, 3/9/1939; draft of NCOs sent to GB; higher levels of alertness and readiness; theft of arms in India and Iraq; formation of Carrier Platoon; duties as sergeant with Carrier Platoon; role of Bren Gun Carriers; disadvantages of Bren Gun Carriers; comparison between Bren Gun and Lewis Gun; effect of being shot at; question of impossibility to predict performance in combat; orders to move to Iraq, 1941; awareness of international situation. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, British Troops in Iraq and Tenth Army in Iraq, 9/1941-5/1942: voyage to Basra; initial impressions of Iraq; move to camp in desert; degree of contact with Iraqi civilians; organised raid by thieves on company weapons.
REEL 6 Continues: desert training in Iraq; station keeping and control; formation on move; distance between vehicles; tactics employed; principles of fire and movement; rapid departure from Iraq; construction of defensive lorry bays in Northern Iraq; rations; nature of drive from Iraq to Tobruk, Libya. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, Eighth Army in North Africa, 6/1942: collection of Universal Carriers in Tobruk, Libya; carrier crews; character of Sergeant Michael Moore; question of troops arriving on draft; artillery barrage prior to advance in desert; rapid change in command structure and nature of actions.
REEL 7 Continues: debussing and enbussing drills; character of transport; use of armoured wheeled carriers in Iraq; comparison between armoured wheeled carriers and tracked carriers; description of armoured wheeled carriers; personal weapon carried; degree of awareness of situation south of Tobruk, Libya; sight of artillery barrage and orders to move towards Bir Hakeim; Universal Carrier patrol and sight of Axis column; retirement of carrier patrol; left standing carrier patrol at wire; commanding officer's reaction to Sergeant Michael Moore's report; encounter with Axis vehicle column.
REEL 8 Continues: opening fire on Axis vehicle column; method of withdrawal; discovery that battalion headquarters had withdrawn; retreat following quartermaster-sergeant's vehicle towards Tobruk, Libya; how vehicles were caught between minefield and wadi; role directing column; check points on road to Tobruk, Libya; promotion to company sergeant-major with headquarters company; threat of mines; duties at check point; guard duties at airfield at El Adem, Libya; in defensive positions at Sollum, Libya; story of spending night next to corpse.
REEL 9 Continues: deployment at Sollum, Egypt; rations, fuel and water supply; effects of fatigue; climate in desert, 6/1942; destruction of gas capes; sight of distance aerial activity; evacuation of Sollum to Mersa Matruh, Egypt including journey across desert; removal of battalion Universal Carriers; presence of prisoner of war camps at Mersa Matruh, Egypt; capture of Sergeant Michael Moore; defensive positions near Mersa Matruh, Egypt; orders to breakout and make for El Alamein, Egypt; ambush of convoy heading towards El Alamein, Egypt; dismounting to aid wounded; encounter with officers whilst walking up column; German Deutsches Afrika Corps firing on ambulances in column.
REEL 10 Continues: stalking and killing German light gun detachment; joining group repairing vehicle; capture by Germans near El Alamein, Egypt. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Egypt and Campo PG 116, Benghazi, Libya, 6/1942-12/1942: initial treatment; removal to prisoner of war cage at Mersa Matruh, Egypt; in work party unloading petrol on airfield at Mersa Matruh, Egypt; sabotage attempt; abortive attempt to escape from truck; move to Tobruk, then Benghazi, Libya; water situation in Campo PG 116 at Benghazi, Libya; description of conditions in Campo PG 116, Benghazi, Libya; death rate in camp; lack of command structure amongst prisoners of war and behaviour of senior NCOs.
REEL 11 Continues: actions to restore order in camp including creation of unofficial camp police; numbers in compound; lack of officers in Campo PG 116, Benghazi, Libya; methods employed by camp police; acceptance of regime; attempts to counter dysentery; digging latrines; rations; move to Tripoli, Libya; medical facilities provided by Captain Edwar Gilbert, Royal Army Medical Corps; death of Sergeant Guy Archer aboard SS Scillin sunk by submarine HMS Sahib in Mediterranean, 14/11/1942; disposal of dead; opinion of rations and cooking facilities; lack of utensils; removal of prisoners of war for transport to Italy and how he was held back; torpedoing of Italian merchant vessel SS Scillin by submarine HMS Sahib whilst transporting prisoners of war in Mediterranean, 14/11/1942; Italian guards.
REEL 12 Continues: character of Italian commandant; arrival of captured troops from Essex Regiment; effects of capture on troops; his escape plans; embarkation at Tripoli, Libya. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Campo PG 75 POW Camp, Bari, Italy, 12/1942-2/1943: voyage from Tripoli, Libya to Naples, Italy, 12/1942; march through Naples; train journey to Bari; accommodation; Red Cross parcels; bedding and rations; size of transit camp. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Campo PG 454, Brindisi, Italy, 2/1943-3/1943: camp football pitch; condition of prisoners of war; contracting malaria, 2/1943; treatment for malaria; daily roll call.
REEL 13 Continues: Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Campo PG 59, Servigliano, Italy, 3/1943-9/1943: removal to camp by train; mixed with other warrant officers; effects of infantry training in comparison with NCOs from other branches of the services; expectations of new camp and reality; roll call and organisation in barrack blocks; evasion of roll call; rations and cooks; prisoner of war control of camp; search of barrack blocks by Italians; accommodation in barrack blocks; ablutions and shaving; daily routine; importance of Red Cross parcels; card schools; description of camps wire fencing; effects of captivity on prisoners of war energy levels; physical condition of Italian guards; reasons for escape a minority interest.
REEL 14 Continues: lack of escape committee; escape from camp disguised in concert party costume, 4/1943; recapture after two days on run; state of countryside around camp; how he walked into Italian Police roadblock; return to camp cells; return to camp compound, 4/1943; canteen; mail; duration of stay in prisoner of war camps in Italy; formation of warrant officers' club; plans to escape from hospital; question of degree of warning of Italian capitulation and orders to stay in camp, 9/1943; arrival of Germans, 9/1943; prisoner of war mentality.
REEL 15 Continues: hiding under straw used for palliasses in order to escape. Recollections of escape and period of evasion in Italy, 1943-1944: escape from camp, 9/1943; walking cross-country and living off the land; routine during walking days; coast road congested with Axis troops; means of navigation and rate of movement; avoiding villages and encounter with civilian; invitation from Italian family to stay in stable; moving on; attitude of Italian civilians towards escaped Allied prisoners of war; dispersal of prisoner of war evaders in farms in area; encounter with trooper of Special Air Service; plan to move evaders across River Marecchia; air supplies dropped to evaders; maintaining contact with other evaders
REEL 16 Continues: chances of being recaptured in areas congested with Axis troops; how officers ignored advice not to press on; observing and reporting Axis traffic on coast road; attempt to cross River Marecchia; use of observation post above coast road; story of evacuation by ship of escaped prisoners of war during Allied raid on Porto San Giorgio; voyage to Termoli; reception on arrival at Termoli; move to Naples for debriefing; reasons for refusing Military Medal and accepting Mentioned in Dispatches; period in Naples; voyage to GB; reaction to return to GB.
REEL 17 Continues: description of leave on return to GB. Aspects of period as instructor with Light Infantry Depot at Colchester Garrison, GB, 1944-1945: posting to Colchester to train Y Coys; duration of course; how he was asked if he was prepared to serve in North West Europe and reasons why other NCO sent; contrast between attitude of single and married men; instructional duties; quality of recruits and their attitude towards training; question of discipline. Aspects of demobilisation and return to civilian life, 1945-1946: process of demobilisation.
REEL 18 Continues: return to Colchester; purchase of butcher's shop; reasons for leaving British Army; lack of problems adjusting to civilian life; work in ration stores to refresh skills; problems acquiring meat; stories of how he acquired meat supplies; lessons learnt from military service.