Interview with Allan Beckett

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Accepted Non-commercial Use

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Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
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Description

Object description

British sapper served with No 13 War Party, Royal Engineers at Folkestone, GB, 1940; officer served with Royal Engineers School of Bridging, King's Newton, GB, 1941-1942; served with Royal Engineers as designer of Whale Floating Bridge for Mulberry Harbour attached to Transportation 5 Department (TN5D), War Office in London, GB, 1942-1944; served with Royal Engineers as technical advisor to 21st Army Group in North West Europe, 6/1944-5/1945

Content description

REEL 1 Aspects of period as sapper with No 13 War Party, Royal Engineers in GB, 1940: enlistment in Royal Engineers, 10/1939; duties in charge of beach light at Folkestone Harbour; contingency plans to demolish Folkestone Harbour. Aspects of period as officer with School of Bridging, Royal Engineers in King's Newton, GB, 1941-1942: working for Chief Bridging Instructor to the War Office, Lieutenant-Colonel William Everall; Prime Minister Winston Churchill's orders for work on piers for flat beaches, 30/5/1942; pre-war acquaintance with Lieutenant-Colonel William Everall; pre-war engineering career. Recollections of period as officer with Royal Engineers attached to Transportation 5 Department (TN5D), War Office at County Hall, London, GB, 1942-1944: ideas for piers for flat beaches; testing of his Whale Floating Bridge design in storm at Cairn Head; problem with speed of tanks using Whale Floating Bridge; testing of anchors to use with floating bridges. REEL 2 Continues: naming anchor chosen as Kite Anchor; laying system developed for Kite Anchor; solving problems of joining Whale Floating Bridge; question of use of steel plate or concrete; visit to Mulberry assembly area at Selsey; work with United States Army Corps of Engineers on floating harbours on Isle of Wight; testing equipment with tidal range at Richborough; use of Motor Towing Launches. REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of period as technical advisor with Royal Engineers, 21st Army Group in Normandy, France, 6/1944-9/1944: crossing to Arromanches-les-Bains in American manned Motor Towing Launch, 7/6/1944; hazards during crossing English Channel; arrival at Arromanches-les-Bains; setting up of transits on beaches; arrival of floating Whale bridges; his concern with fixity of moorings of roadways; reaction of Americans of success of getting tanks ashore by Whale roadway; use of roadways at Mulberry B; shortage of tugs; failure of Phoenix Caisson floating breakwaters during Great Storm; damage caused by adrift floating breakwater. REEL 4 Continues: salvaging Mulberry A units after storm; use of DUKWs; reasons for different fates of Mulberry A and Mulberry B. Aspects of period as technical advisor with Royal Engineers, 21st Army Group in North West Europe, 9/1944-5/1945: situation at Antwerp Harbour, Belgium, 10/1944; discovery of German bridging equipment near Brussels, Belgium, 9/1944; his work aiding Dutch to reclaim Walcheren Island, Netherlands after dykes were breached by bombing, late 1944; damage done to reclamation work by storm, 9/1945; use of German torpedo netting in reclamation work.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1990 to the present day (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Wood, Conrad (Recorder)
Beckett, Allan Harry (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 1997-10-25
Dimensions: whole: Duration 114, Number Of Items 4
Catalogue number: 17642

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Interview with Allan Beckett

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