McHenry, Ronald Webster (Oral history)

British guardsman and NCO served with Guards Depot, Pirbright in GB, 1940-1941; served with 1st Bn Scots Guards, 24th Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in GB, North Africa and Italy, 1942-1945

REEL 1 Background in Liverpool, GB, 1920-1940: family; education; employment. Aspects of enlistment and training as guardsman and NCO with Scots Guards at Guards Depot, Pirbright in GB, 1940-1941: volunteering for British Army, 7/1940; German Air Force bombing of Chelsea Barracks, London, 1940; nature of discipline in Guards; recruit who committed suicide near Brookwood, late 1940; joining Demonstration Platoon. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Bn Scots Guards, 24th Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in GB, 1942-1943: joining battalion at Chislehurst, 1/1942; difference between Right and Left Flank companies; training in Scotland, winter 1942-1943. Aspects of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Scots Guards, 25th Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in North Africa, 1943: voyage aboard HMT Samaria from GB to Algiers, French Algeria, 3/1943; arrival in Algiers, French Algeria, 3/1943; move into line at Medjez-el-Bab, Tunisia, 4/1943; patrolling at Medjez-el-Bab, Tunisia; German Air Force Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombing attacks on unit trenches, 4/1943. REEL 2 Continues: wounding by booby trap during listening patrol, 21/4/1943; medical treatment for shrapnel wounds; return to unit. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Scots Guards, 24th Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in Italy, 1944-1945: landing at Anzio, 1/1944; digging in on railway embankment under German 88mm artillery fire; wounding by artillery fire at Anzio, 27/1/1944; medical treatment for wounds and slow recuperation; rejoining battalion at Florence, 8/1944; reasons for joining Right Flank company, 8/1944; opinion of German Army opposition; nature of operations in central Italian hills. REEL 3 Continues: abortive plans to attack Monte Sole, 12/1944-1/1945; move to east coast of Italy; German propaganda leaflets dropped prior to crossing of River Po; impressions of warfare in Italy; personal sense of fatalism; carrying mirror in left breast pocket for luck/protection; battle fatigue casualties; curfew in Trieste, VE Day, 8/5/1945; attitude of Yugoslavs towards British Army troops in Trieste, 5/1945; clashes between Italians and Yugoslavs, 5/1945; guard duties in Trieste; attitude to speed of demobilisation and reasons for not staying in Scots Guards after 1947; prior recollection of guarding Rudolph Hess near Pirbright, GB, 1941.