Interview with Edward Paul Ratcliffe

British private served with 9th Bn Buffs (East Kent Regt) and 70th Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in GB, 1940-1942; sapper served with and Royal Engineers in GB, 1942-1944; served with 4th Parachute Sqdn, Royal Engineers, 1st Airborne Div in GB and during Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 9/1944; served with 241st Field Coy, Royal Engineers, 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Div in North West Europe, 1945; NCO served with 1st Airborne Sqdn, Royal Engineers, 6th Airborne Div in Palestine, 1945-1948

REEL 1 Background in Wellington and Dagenham, GB, 1924-1940: family; education; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; influence of British Broadcasting Corporation radio broadcasts, 5/1940-6/1940; story of attempts to join armed forces underage, 1940. Recollections of period as private with 9th Bn Buffs (East Kent Regt) in GB, 1940: German Air Force attacks on unit at Folkestone; coastal defence duties at Shakespeare Cliff; effect of careless use of Molotov Cocktail at Capel-le-Ferne; airfield defence duties at RAF Manston; German Air Force attacks on RAF Manston, 1940; anti-parachute defences; fear of presence of ghosts at Minster. REEL 2 Continues: defensive hedgehog positions at Thorn Farm, Stelling Minnis, summer 1940; use of Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway; background to discharge and re-enlistment into British Army; further coastal defence duties in Folkestone area; visit by General Charles de Gaulle; invasion scare on Folkestone Racecourse, C9/1940. Recollections of period as private with 70th Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in Northern Ireland, 1941-1942: transfer to battalion; hospitality of civilians in Belfast; training in Strabane area; how Royal Ulster Constabulary policeman thwarted attempt by anti-British civilian to lead him astray in Belfast, 1941; mixing of members of different faiths in Strabane; obtaining nationalist leaflet in cinema in Strabane. Aspects of period as sapper with Royal Engineers in GB, 1942-1943: transfer to Royal Engineers; sympathetic hearing of his disciplinary charge by commanding officer at Longmoor Camp; period with mobile railway workshop in Stranraer area. Aspects of airborne training with Royal Engineers in GB, 1943: reasons for volunteering for airborne forces, 1943. REEL 3 Continues: role assessing parachute equipment; brief attachment with Special Air Service; amusing story of parachute jump at RAF Prestwick, 1944. Recollections of operations as sapper with 4th Parachute Sqdn, Royal Engineers, 1st Airborne Div during Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 9/1944: preparations for operation in Uppringham and Gainsborough areas, GB; take off from airfield; sound of anti-aircraft fire in aircraft during flight to Netherlands; parachute jump; memories of Harry Goldsmith; mishap with red paint on drop zone; firing on his parachute stick in air; sight of dead German on railway embankment; digging in at Oosterbeek; reaction to not be allowed to fire at German Air Force aircraft. REEL 4 Continues: taking up positions at Sonnenberg Hotel, Oosterbeek; story of firing at German Army soldier; narrow escape from bullet at Sonnenberg Hotel, Oosterbeek; reaction to being under German artillery and mortar fire; German forces' use of indicator bullets to direct mortar fire; sight of body of German Army soldier blown up by his own grenade; craving of British airborne troops for tobacco; conditions in Sonnenberg Hotel, Oosterbeek; orders to evacuate; journey to River Nederrijn; crossing River Nederrijn; condition he was in after Operation Market Garden; roll call of survivors; sight of Dutch collaborators in Nijmegen; return to GB. Recollections of operations as sapper with 241st Field Coy, Royal Engineers, 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Div in North West Europe, 1945: joining field company; septic wound as a result of wounding during Operation Market Garden; story of wounded tank man in hospital at Bourg-Leopold, Belgium; German V1 Flying Bomb attacks on Antwerp, Belgium; advance into Germany; opinion of German Army troops; contents of German Army pay books; relations between British Army troops and German civilians; incident of helping deliver calf; crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; shell shocked state of German Army troops after crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; reaction to Allied bombing of Bremen, Germany; move to Magdeburg, Germany; working with German prisoners of war in Bremen, Germany after VE Day, 8/5/1945; story of orphan boy adopted by German prisoners of war; classification of German prisoners of war. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Airborne Sqdn, Royal Engineers, 6th Airborne Div in Palestine, 1945-1948: in camp at Gaza; attempts by Arabs to steal from camp. REEL 6 Continues: role of unit and casualties; attitude towards serving in Palestine; rescue work done by British Army troops on Jewish bus under fire from Arabs at Wadi Rushmia; opinion of General Hugh Stockwell; withdrawal of his unit into enclave in Haifa, 5/1948; Arab civilian who threatened British Army troops outside Haifa.