Description
Object description
British private served with Durham Light Infantry Depot in GB, 1940; NCO served with 14th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 1940-1943; served with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, North Africa, Italy, Middle East, Greece and Austria, 1943-1946; served with 1st Bn Durham Light Infantry in Greece, 1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Felling, Gateshead, GB, 1919-1939: death of father and consequent straitened family circumstances; council house accommodation; local community; recreations; education; church; Boy Scouts activities; various jobs and passing driving license; work at coke works, 1936-1939; recreation including playing double bass in dance band and football; question of approach of war; failed attempt to join RAF; call up, 15/1/1940; war preparations; reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; mother's situation on call up. Recollections of conditions of service and lifestyle during training with Durham Light Infantry at Willington and Usher Moor, GB, 1/1940-5/1940: prior kitting out at Durham Light Infantry Depot at Brancepeth Castle; reception.
REEL 2 Continues: chapel hall billets; opinion of platoon sergeant; relationship with recruits, complaints over food rations; cleaning uniform and equipment; kit inspections; question of stealing; reaction to army lifestyle; drill; relationship with civilians; question of swearing; drill and introduction of light infantry pace; weapons cleaning and inspection; rifle drill; weapons training at Whitburn Range including rifle, hand grenades, Bren gun and 2" mortar.
REEL 3 Continues: route marches; fieldcraft and tactical training; physical training; question of home sickness; advice from squad sergeant; guard duties and inspection; puttees; guard duties; gas mask training; food rations; daily routine; evening visits to Willington pubs, including relationship with civilians and standards of dress expected by regimental police.
REEL 4 Continues: attending NCO cadre course at Brancepeth Castle, 3/1940; opinion of Colonel Hasted; role on posting as lance corporal in charge of squad at Usher Moor, ca 4/1940; relationship with Sergeant Fitzpatrick; relationship with other ranks; story if paying respects with squad on passing funeral; rota of duties; Salvation Army canteen van; duties as orderly corporal; posting with advance party to form 14th Battalion, ca 6/1940. Recollections of period with 14th Bn Durham Light Infantry in various postings in GB, 6/1940-2/1943: tent accommodation at Duddington Camp, Edinburgh; wet weather and issue of rum ration; promotion to corporal in C Company; reception of untrained drafts, 7/1940; wet weather and state of morale; prior assisting with reception of Dunkirk veterans, 6/1940; reactions to Dunkirk; treatment of conscientious objectors; training future officers; situation.
REEL 5 Continues: origins of recruits; basic training; move to Kent; officers; posting to Regimental Police, Headquarters Company; role as motorcyclist; varied training; role of Regimental Police; investigation after murder of soldier's wife; question of training as Regimental Police; acting as prisoner's escort to military prison; punishment of soldiers caught looting; assisting with civilian casualties after German air raid on Folkestone; watching aerial dogfights; playing double bass in dance band; question of problems with drunken soldiers; disciplinary punishments and daily routine of prisoners; motorcycle role of Regimental Police during exercises; accommodation at Sir John Moore Barracks, Shorncliffe; composition of Regimental Police; importance of appearance in Regimental Police.
REEL 6 Continues: sporting activities; question of drafts; state of unit morale; opinion of various officers and NCOs including Majors Dryden and Sebag-Montefiore; convoy discipline and role as motorcyclist during move to Paignton; billets; relationship with civilians; dance band performances; role as Regimental Police during exercises on Dartmoor; question of contacts with Home Guard; move to Hornsea area; reactions to draft on overseas service, 2/1943. Voyage aboard Capetown Castle to Port Tewfik, Egypt, 2/1943-3/1943: conditions.
REEL 7 Continues: conditions; routine duties; recreations; bumboats at Freetown, Sierra Leona; promotion to sergeant; visits ashore at Durban, South Africa; send off from woman singer; effects of hot climate and question of punishment for sunburn. Period in transit camp at Geneifa, 3/1943: first impression; visits to Bitter Lakes; training; afternoon break; diarrhoea and dysentery problem; prior warning lectures; daily routine; recreations including Shaftoe's Cinema, dances and sergeants' mess; question of active service and strategic situation. Period with Durham Light Infantry drafts in Middle East, 1943: train journey to Damascus; warnings of Arab civilians stealing.
REEL 8 Continues: conditions of service; story of escorting prisoner to detention centre; move into Palestine; formation of 18th Bn Durham Light Infantry at Bizerta, Tunisia, ca 6/1943. Recollections of period in Catania area, Sicily, 7/1943-8/1943: follow up role as beach brick unit; medical treatment after finger wound from sniper; relationship with Sicilian civilians; return to Bizerta; attached personnel. Period in Bizerta, Tunisia, 8/1943-9/1943: relationship with US and Canadian troops. Recollections of landing at Salerno harbour and docks, 9/1943: briefing; German fire during approach; nature of fighting during capture of harbour and street fighting; role holding perimeter; casualties; situation and move into Cava; meeting friend; weapons; breaking up of unit. Recollections of joining C Company, 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry in rest camp in Salerno area, Italy, 9/1943: reactions; reception and meeting friends from 14th Bn Durham Light Infantry including Captains Ronnie Sherlaw and Pat Casey; state of unit; opinion of various officers.
REEL 9 Recollections of operations in Italy, 9/1943-2/1944: reception; nature of fighting against German rearguards; opinion of German Schmeisser and warning given by click of mechanism; method of clearing houses of German snipers and machine gun teams including treatment of POWs and warning of their presence from Italian civilians; personal weapons; company tactics controlled by wireless; food rations; stand to; artillery and armoured support; difficulties in hilly and rocky terrain; method of moving into action and role of officer; patrol activity; use of binoculars; question of treatment of German POWs; treatment of casualties; reaction to German shellfire.
REEL 10 Continues: crossing River Volturno, 12/10/1943; advance towards Garigliano area; opinion of Colonel Johnny Preston; relationship with Italian civilians; cold weather; importance of hot food rations; state of morale and treatment of soldiers who lost their nerve; value of band during rest periods; treatment of soldiers who lost their nerve; rest periods including issue of new uniforms and billets, effects of fatigue; Allied air attack on German positions in close proximity to forward units; German booby traps and mines; officers; effects of winter weather during fighting in Garigliano area, 12/1943-2/1944.
REEL 11 Continues: delayed Christmas celebrations; letter contact and pen pal arrangements with GB; investigation and pastoral arrangements for soldiers with problems at home; role of padre; advice from NCO during training; question of religious beliefs; role of stretcher bearers; personal morale including reaction to casualties, treatment of German POWs and importance of comradeship; relationship with other ranks. Recollections of period in Middle East, 2/1944-7/1944: voyage; issue of khaki drill; leave in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt; internal security role in Palestine; training. Various aspects of operations against Gothic Line in Egypt, 8/1944-12/1944: reactions to return to Italy; nature of fighting in Gemmano area; reactions of Italian civilians on capture of Madonna del Morte monastery and street fighting in Cesena, 19/10/1944.
REEL 12 Continues: back wounds from German mortar shell. Period in hospital in Ancona, Italy, 11/1944: medical treatment; relationship with wounded German soldier and his subsequent death; conditions. Period in transit camps at Taranto, Italy, 12/1944: departure of unit to Greece; attending diseases course. Recollections of period in Athens and Patras, Greece, 12/1945-4/1945: voyage out to rejoin unit; situation; booby traps during house to house searches; nature of ELAS activities including capture of platoon; casualties from sniping and success in locating and killing ELAS sniper; clearing cheese factory; question of treatment of ELAS POWs; military burials; ELAS weapons; question of ELAS treatment of Greek civilians; relationship with Greek civilians; move to Patras; return to Italy.
REEL 13 Period in Italy, 4/1945-5/1945: preparations for moving into line; celebrations on VE Day, 8/5/1945; journey into Austria. Aspects of period at Bleiburg and Wildon in Austria, 5/1945: patrols and road blocks looking for Nazi partisans and SS personnel; relationship with Austrian civilians including question of non-fraternisation and enforcing curfew; learning to ride and horse patrols in woods looking for Nazi partisans; ignorance of repatriation of Croatian and Cossacks; sporting activities; relationship with Austrian civilians on end of non-fraternisation, 7/1945; organising concert parties for Austrian civilians; period at rest camp; dance band activities; injury in road accident; nature of sergeants' mess; officers; role as mess sergeant; GB leave, 10/1945.
REEL 14 Continues: story of meeting future wife during GB leave, 10/1945; question of award of medals and mentions in despatches; injury and posting as mess sergeant; Christmas celebration, 25/12/1945; church parade; daily routine duties and standard of appearance expected; cancellation of leave for soldiers with VD; question of soldiers' liaisons with Austrian women; story of trying to find locate Austrian family's soldier son; relationship with Austrian civilians; reactions to disbandment of unit. Period with 1st Bn Durham Light Infantry in Xanthi, Greece, 3/1946-4/1943: situation; question of becoming regular; journey back to GB; relationship with Greek civilians; story of theft of personal possessions by NCO. Demobilisation at Aldershot, 5/1946: procedure; demob suit; medical and question disability pensions; paperwork. Post-war career: return to work at coke works and parcels received during wartime service; question of effects of war.
