Description
Object description
British NCO served with 70th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 1941-1943; served with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry in North Africa, Italy, Middle East and Austria, 1943-1946; served with 1st Bn Durham Light Infantry in Greece, 1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Sunderland and Seaham Harbour, GB, 1923-1939: family and social circumstances; divorce of parents and move to Seaham with father; 1935; education; recreations; father's short term lay-offs as miner; work as butcher's boy; work as boiler-smith's apprentice; father's First World War service; awareness of approach of war; outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; German air raids; Anderson shelter; fire watching duty.
REEL 2 Continues: effects of war. Recollections of volunteering at Sunderland Recruiting Office, GB, 8/1941: prior attempt to join Royal Navy; procedure; employer's reaction; family reaction; medical. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during period at Durham Light Infantry Depot, Brancepeth Castle, GB, 8/1941-10/1941: reception and first impressions; hut accommodation and cleaning; kitting out with uniform, webbing and equipment; preparing for kit inspections; question of stealing; relationship with recruits and NCOs.
REEL 3 Continues: washing and latrine facilities; early morning routine; breakfast; physical training; drill and question of Light Infantry pace; issue of Ross rifle; method of cleaning rifle; question of light infantry drill and pace; relationship with Sergeant Bates; route marches; lunch; training programme on detail board; canteens; inspections prior to being allowed out of camp; disciplinary offences and punishments.
REEL 4 Continues: disciplinary punishments; hand grenade training; gas mask training; inadequate recruit; question of gambling; nature of piquet duties; awareness of history of Durham Light Infantry; weapons training including Bren gun, Boyes anti-tank rifle and 2" mortar. Recollections of period with A Coy, 70th (Young Soldiers) Bn Durham Light Infantry based at School Aycliffe, GB, 11/1941-8/1943: detachments; accommodation in mental asylum at Aycliffe; officers, NCOs and unit organisation; potato picking for civilian farmers; Bren carrier course; detachments on defence duties at Middleton St George and Croft airfields.
REEL 5 Continues: detachments on defence duties at Middleton St George and Croft airfields; nature of routine; unit age range; officers; unit morale; drafts to active service units. Period attached to Battle School at Westwick Camp, Barnard Castle, GB, 6/1942-8/1943: role as demonstration battalion; officer casualty in live ammunition exercise, 8/1942; role of Bren Carriers on posting as driver to Carrier Platoon, Support Company; Bren Carrier crew, method of driving and question of protection; composition of Carrier Platoon; relationship with officers, NCOs and other ranks; sports activities; hut accommodation; initial problem with food rations; opinion of Colonels Fillingham and Peter Jeffreys; giving demonstrations to VIP visitors including Churchill; assault course.
REEL 6 Continues: role of Carrier Platoon in training demonstrations and nature of training; officer casualty in live ammunition exercise, 8/1942; fights with soldiers of other units in Barnard Castle; leave arrangements; question of active service. Period at Tow Law, 8/1942: embarkation leave; story of inspection after issue of khaki drill, detention as punishment for not shaving; escort under arrest during journey with draft to Greenock. Recollections of voyage aboard Durban Castle to Phillipeville, Tunisia, 9/1943: release from arrest; conditions and routine duties; recreations; convoy splitting at Gibraltar. Period at Infantry Reserve Training Depot, Philippeville, 9/1943: first impressions; prior inoculations; hygiene warnings. Selection for draft to 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry in Salerno area, Italy, 9/1943.
REEL 7 Continues: move inland into tomato field on landing, 9/1943; reception, state of unit and posting to Carrier Platoon, Support Company. Recollections of operations in Italy, 10/1943-2/1944: move towards Volturno, 10/1943; German policy of killing all farm animals; getting lost on patrol; opinion of various officers including Major Ballance, Captain Mynheer and Captain Arthur Pearson; crossing Volturno, 10/1943; story of Bren carrier being damaged and getting lost having fallen behind unit prior to crossing Garigliano, ca 12/1943; repair of Bren carrier; importance of cigarette ration; composition and food rations; reactions to German shell and nebelwerfer fire; Tiger tanks; air superiority; German infantry weapons; reactions to German shellfire and question of shell shock.
REEL 8 Continues: supply role of Bren carriers; German shell fire on supply routes; German use of mines; traffic control and role of Military Police; terrain; Italian muleteers; infantry attitude to Bren carriers; German POWs; evacuating wounded; reactions to burial party at Saravelli and subsequent collection by Graves Commission; death of Major Ballance; effects of winter conditions, 12/1943-1/1944; delayed Christmas celebrations; question of winter clothing.
REEL 9 Recollections of period in Middle East, 2/1944-7/1944: period at El Qassassin Camp, Egypt; leave in Cairo; question of stealing by Egyptian civilians; view of POW camps on journey to collect Bren carriers from Port Suez; climate; move to Nathaniyah camp, Palestine; internal security duties in Tel Aviv; period in Syria; question of safety of British troops; training; organised recreational trips; training; lack of contact with colonels and opinion of Colonels Denis Worrall and Johnny Preston; rumours of return to GB. Aspects of operations in Italy, 7/1944-12/1944: landing at Naples and signs of local typhus epidemic; move to Bastardo; German clearance of trees in front of Gothic Line for good observation.
REEL 10 Continues: supply role; treatment of German POWs; attitude towards Italian troops; relationship with Italian civilians; advance to San Marino; opinion of Gurkhas; news of progress of war; selling souvenirs to US soldiers; evacuating walking wounded; German policy of counter-attacks; story of deserter who managed to get back to GB from North Africa and subsequently rejoined unit in Italy; question of German booby traps and snipers; movements; rest period including monastery billets at Montefiori and replacement of uniform and equipment lost in battle.
REEL 11 Continues: rest periods; letter contact with GB; German propaganda leaflets; role of Padre Meek; importance of cigarette ration; composition rations; bartering food for laundry services from Italians; food rations; inspection by George VI and General Oliver Leece; advance. Recollections of period in Greece, 12/1944-4/1945: flight out and move into Athens; confused situation; move to Phaleron; sniper fire on Bren carrier patrol; confused situation, nature of ELAS activities and their capture of British personnel.
REEL 12 Continues: nature of ELAS activities; support bombardments form HMS Ajax; discovering section had been captured by ELAS; Greek civilian mass demonstration in support of ELAS; situation, stories illustrating nature of ELAS activities and question of their treatment of prisoners; inappropriate US food supplies for Greek civilians; visit from Churchill and Eden; move to Patras, 1/1945; surrender of ELAS forces; patrols into surrounding area in response to disturbances; return to Athens, story of Greek civilians cheering Churchill in cinema newsreels; relationship with Greek civilians; contact with Indian troops during return to Italy, 4/1945.
REEL 13 Period in Italy, 4/1945-5/1945: move towards front line; VE Day celebrations during detachment to workshops to have flame-throwers fitted to Bren carriers, 8/5/1945; passing German troops. Recollections of period in Austria, 5/1945-1/1946: Bren carrier track breaks and repairs necessitated by extra weight of flame-thrower attachment; story of being stopped by Yugoslav partisans; confused political situation; move to Bruckel sector, 5/1945; relationship with Austrian civilians; relationship with Kolonoff Cossack Brigade and forcible return to Soviet control; use of hoses, consequent accidents and abandoning course at riding school; German POWs attached to riding school.
REEL 14 Continues: question of non-fraternisation and relationship with Austrian civilians; move to Wildon area, 7/1943; Austrian civilians opinion of Russian troops; billets at Leibren; football activities; local leave; reaction to news of first atomic bomb and Japanese surrender, 8/1945; remaining with Bren Carriers in Wildon area during unit move to Vienna, 10/1945, assisting with Austrian civilians in Sergeants' Mess; relationship with Austrian civilians and question of liaisons with Austrian women; return of unit, 11/1945; journey back for GB leave, 12/1945-1/1946; question of extension of GB leave because of bad weather; disbandment of unit. Recollections of period with Carrier Platoon, Support Coy, 1st Bn Durham Light Infantry based at Xanthi, Greece, 2/1946-9/1946: reactions to posting.
REEL 15 Continues: journey out; reception; recreational visits to Kavala; role on border patrols; local leaves in Salonika. Return to GB, 9/1946. Demobilisation at Aldershot, 6/19/1946: issue of demob suit; gratuities and leave; question of staying in army. Post-war career: brief return to work as boiler smith at Seaham; move to work on railways in London; membership of Durham Light Infantry Association; reaction to army service.