Lines, Herbert (Oral history)

British NCO served with 2nd Bn Royal Norfolk Regt in GB and North West Europe, 1938-1940; served with 1st Bn RNR in GB and North West Europe, 1940-1944; served with 6th Bn King's Liverpool Regt in North West Europe, 1945-1946

REEL 1 Background in Felmingham, 1920-1938: family; education; work with rose growers, 1934-1937. Background to recruitment on Supplementary Reserve at Recruitment Office, North Walsham, 1/1938: reasons for wanting to join army; awareness of approach of war. Recollections of conditions of service, daily routine and training with 105 Training Squad, Royal Norfolk Regt at Britannia Barracks, Norwich, ca 1/1938-4/1938: reception; kitting out; relationship with ORs; barrack room; beds; cleaning barrack room; reveille and making bed; opinion of NCOs including Lance Corporal 'Tich' O'Shea and Sergeant Tom Billings. REEL 2 Continues: food rations; fatigues uniform; PT; basic drill; route marches; cross country runs; drill; rifle training and cleaning; bayonet, Lewis gun and grenade training. REEL 3 Continues: gas mask training; trench digging; food rations; education classes; pride in regiment; boxing activities; method of polishing boots and brasses; puttees; pay; recreations; guard duty; fatigues; reaction to army lifestyle; signing on as regular and posting to Gibraltar. REEL 4 Recollections of period with C Coy, 2nd Bn, RNR at Buena Vista Barracks, Gibraltar, ca 4/1938-4/1939: uniform; voyage out; relationship with NCOs; routine duties; guard duty at Government House; visits to town; relationship with Gibraltarian civilians; boxing activities; lifestyle; return to GB. Period at Borden Camp, ?/1939-?/1939: posting as driver to newly formed Carrier Platoon, Headquarters Coy; prior driving experience; Bren gun carriers and method of driving, opinion of Bren gun. REEL 5 Continues: Carrier Platoon organisation; Bren carrier crew; opinion of various officers and NCOs; training in role and deployment of Bren carriers; Bren carrier maintenance; reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; embarkation leave. Recollections of period in France, 10/1939-5/1940: voyage out, 21/9/1939; billets at Rumigies; estaminets; relationship with French civilians; digging trenches as part of Gort Line; period in Maginot Line in Saar sector, 12/1939-2/1940; death of Lieutenant Everitt on patrol. REEL 6 Continues: move to Orchies. Various aspects of operations in Belgium and France , ca 10/5/1940-28/5/1940: German air attack and ineffectual nature of Bren gun anti-aircraft fire; match factory; rearguard role of Carrier Platoon during retreat; refugee problem; question of Stuka attacks; food rations; sleep; bomb damage in Tournai; foraging and story of taking cigarettes from abandoned NAAFI store; story of contact with German troops and loss of Bren carrier; personal morale; joining with 1st Bn, Royal Scots; loss of cigarettes; confused and isolated situation during retreat to Dunkirk. REEL 7 Continues: Recollections of evacuation of Dunkirk; ca 28/5/1940-2/6/1940: situation on beach; queuing for boats in water; sheltering in buildings on front; question of German air attacks; roll of civilian crewed boats; state of morale and discipline amongst troops on beach; foraging for food; cases of panic among soldiers; question of redeployment in action elsewhere in France; evacuation aboard Royal Navy destroyer; fatigue; reception on arrival at Ramsgate. Re-kitting and reorganisation at transit camp at Aldershot, ca 6/1940-7/1940. REEL 8 Rejoining remnants of unit at Driffield Camp, 7/1940. Background to promotion to sergeant and posting to Carrier Platoon, Headquarters Coy, 1st Bn, RNR at Borden Camp, ca 7/1941: position as young NCO; sergeants' mess. Period of training in GB, 1941-1944: opinion of Bren carrier; training exercises; platoon officer; combined operations landing craft training in Scotland; question of boredom; water proofing; embarkation. Aspects of operations in North West Europe, ca 6/1944-7/1945: story of running aground with Landing Craft Tank in Canadian sector and difficulty in rejoining unit, 6/6/1944; static period, 6/1944; treating casualty. REEL 9 Continues: story of success in rescuing French woman from German troops, circumstance of their accidental shooting and escape from court martial; story of being wounded by mortars during attack on wood; evacuation by air to GB. Hospitalisation in Scotland, 1944. Various aspects of period with 6th Bn, Kings Liverpool Regt in France, Belgium and Germany, ca 1945-1946: downgraded medical status; hand wound on running over mine in armoured car; hospitalisation; comparison of territorials and regulars; acting as Bren gun carrier instructor attached to French Army; reaction to changing regiment; role collecting suspected fifth columnists; relationship with German civilians; demobilisation, ca 1946. Post-war life: career as policeman; veterans' associations.