Tweed, Thomas (Oral history)

British private served with 2 Platoon, A Coy, 1st Bn (The Rangers) King’s Royal Rifle Corps in GB and Egypt, 6/1940-3/1941; served with 2 Platoon, A Coy, 9th Bn (The Rangers) King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 1st Armoured Bde in Greece, 3/1941-4/1941; served with 2 Platoon, A Coy, 9th Bn (The Rangers) King’s Royal Rifles Corps, Creforce on Crete, Greece, 5/1941; POW in Salonika POW Transit Camp, Greece and Stalag VII A POW Camp at Moosberg, Germany, 1941-1945

REEL 1 Background in Hackney, London, GB, 1919-1940: family; education; employment. Aspects of enlistment and training at King’s Royal Rifle Corps Depot in Winchester in GB, 1/1940-6/1940: call up, 1/1940; training at Winchester. Aspects of period as private with 2 Platoon, A Coy, 1st Bn (The Rangers) King’s Royal Rifles Corps in GB, 6/1940-11/1940: posting to battalion at Chichester, 6/1940; destruction of family home by German bombing; posting to coastal defences duties at Brigg. Aspects of voyage aboard SS Andes from GB to Egypt, 11/1940-1/1941: embarkation at Liverpool, 11/1940; route taken; disembarkation in Egypt. Aspects of period as private with 2 Platoon, A Coy, 1st Bn (The Rangers) Bn King’s Royal Rifles Corps in Egypt, 1/1941-3/1941: desert training; move to Western Desert; opinion of Italian troops. Aspects of operations as private with 2 Platoon, A Coy, 9th Bn (The Rangers) King’s Royal Rifles Corps, 1st Armoured Bde in Greece, 3/1941-4/1941: move to Greece, 3/1941; unit role; sight of advancing German troops, 12/4/1941; withdrawal from positions at Kleidi Pass; contact with Greek civilians; destruction of unit’s vehicles; evacuation from Greece HMS Ajax, 4/1941. REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of operations of private with 2 Platoon, A Coy, 9th Bn King’s Royal Rifle Corps, Creforce on Crete, Greece, 4/1941-5/1941: landing at Canea; re-organisation of battalion; German Air Force attacks; sight of German paratroopers; killing of German paratroopers by defenders; German attack on hospital; defensive deployment on Crete; death of company commander Captain John Pendlebury, 22/5/1941; retreat to Sphakia; capture and treatment by Germans. REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period as POW in Salonika POW Transit Camp, Greece, 1941: conditions in camp; transfer from Greece to Germany via Yugoslavia. Aspects of period as POW in Stalag VII A POW Camp at Moosberg, Germany, 1941-1945: arrival at camp; work altering officer uniforms at Oflag IV C, Colditz; on work party in satellite camp at salt mine in Sondershausen; attitude towards work; treatment by guards; rations; attempt to escape camp; move to other satellite camps; march away from camp; liberation by US troops, 1945; attitude of Americans towards Germans; return to GB; treatment received by German guards; physical condition on return to GB.