Description
Object description
British private served with Durham Light Infantry Depot in GB, 1943; served with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry in Italy and Middle East, 1944
Content description
REEL 1 Background in North East and Benwell, Newcastle, GB, 1924-1939: parents' separation and frequent moves; education; work as butcher's boy; social conditions; question of bullying; recreations; work in grocers; work at porcelain manufacturers; begging for food. Work with Ministry of Supply at various Ammunition Dumps in GB, 1941-1943: stacking explosives; driving miniature railway train; farm billets; question of avoiding conscription; effects of German air raids on Newcastle. Recollections of period training at Durham Light Infantry Depot, Brancepeth Castle, GB, 1943: call up, 5/1943; reception.
REEL 2 Continues: uniform; haircut; relationship with NCOs; hut accommodation; relationship with other ranks; equipment issued; failing Bren carrier course; guard duty; cleaning rifle; drill; bayonet training; route marches; gas mask training; food rations; canteen; daily routine; recreational visits to Willington and Durham; reaction to army discipline and lifestyle; mother's advice not to join Paratroopers and to join infantry.
REEL 3 Continues: question of relationships with women; wounded friend and question of joining army; army humour. Period in Lincolnshire, GB, 1943: billets; street fighting training; assault course; relationship with NCOs; embarkation leave; refusal of compassionate leave despite mother's illness; issue of khaki drill. Seasickness during voyage to North Africa,12/1943. Period in transit camp in North Africa, 12/1943-1/1944. Voyage to Naples, Italy, 1/1944. Initial period in Italy, 1/1944-2/1944: German air raid whilst disembarking; conditions of service; drafts and story of NCOs threatening to desert. Joining 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry in Italy, 2/1944: reception; accidental injury; cinema show. Recollections of period in Middle East, 2/1944-7/1944: nature of climate.
REEL 4 Continues: first impressions of Egypt; hill training; relationship with Egyptian street traders; forcing dirty soldier to bath; camp cinema; internal security duties in Tel Aviv; story of drinking arak; story of visiting brothel and VD precautions; treatment for accidental injury; letter contact with GB; traumatic effect of news of death of mother; parcels from GB; relationship with officers and NCOs; special friend. Recollections of period at Bastardo, Italy, 7/944-8/1944: queues for food rations and cooking; sport; fatal accident in training.
REEL 5 Continues: recreations. Recollections of operations as Bren gunner with B Coy, 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry against Gothic Line, Italy, 8/1944-9/1944: move into line; German shellfire and story of soldier's loss of nerve; German corpse; German booby traps; entry into village and firing Bren gun; post-war visit to Italy; personal morale; story of Corporal William Virr capturing of German POWs at Il Poggio; close escape from German shellfire whilst occupying village; advance with tanks; story of advance under German shellfire and being forced to leave wounded soldier; carrying Bren gun and loss of cocking handle; reaction to German shellfire; story of being caught in German minefield and types of mines; story of soldier shooting of German POW; nature of fighting; story of drunken soldier on route march, 8/1944. Recollections of operations at Gemmano, Italy, 9/1944: corpses; knocked unconscious by German shell; sheltering in cellar; dysentery attack and evacuation by ambulance. Period in hospital and rehabilitation centre, 9/1944: shell shock symptoms; German POW patients; medical grading as B1.
REEL 6 Continues: helping in hospital. Various aspects of period in Italy, 1944-1947: guard duties; reaction to news of mother's death; moves; POW camps; news of end of war, 5/1945; question of Italian fascists; GB leave; anti-malaria duties; question of black market activities; story of being robbed during train journey; duties as guard at military prison including stories of suicide and prisoners' escape. Demobilisation, 1947. Post-war career: interest in former SS officer prisoner; difficulty in settling down after army service; question of claiming compensation for nervous breakdown.
