Marchant, John Jenner (Oral history)

British officer served with Home Guard Auxiliary Units in Burley and Beaulieu, New Forest, GB, 1942-1943; served with Jedburgh Team Aubrey, Special Operations Executive in GB and France, 1943-1944; served with Force 136 in Burma and Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, 1945

REEL 1 Aspects of period as NCO and officer with 2nd Bn Queen Victoria's Rifles, King's Royal Rifle Corps and 2nd Bn Wiltshire Regt (Duke of Edinburgh's) in GB, 1938-1942: joining 2nd Bn Queen Victoria's Rifles, King's Royal Rifle Corps in Territorial Army in 1938; reaction to declaration of Second World War and period of Phoney War, 1939; commissioning and posting to 2nd Bn Wiltshire Regt (Duke of Edinburgh's), 1940; morale of troops returning from Dunkirk Evacuation, 5/1940-6/1940. Aspects of period as officer with Home Guard Auxiliary Units in Burley and Beaulieu, New Forest GB, 1942-1943: background to recruitment, 3/1942; status of unit; building underground hide-outs; question of arms; training course including explosives at Headquarters, Auxiliary Units, Coleshill House; opinion of effectiveness of Auxiliary Units in event of German occupation. Recollections of period with Jedburgh Team Aubrey, Special Operations Executive in GB and France, 1943-1944: recruitment; training including parachuting; move from role as instructor at Milton Hall Training School to becoming operational member of Jedburgh team, 1944; personnel in team; dropping into France, 5/7/1944; reception of team; team leader Jean Cannabarts; opinion of local French Resistance; moving around Brittany and evading retreating German forces. REEL 2 Continues: question of pro-German elements among French population and shooting of members of Milice by French Resistance; return to London, GB from Cherbourg, France, 7/1944; question of Breton nationalism; physical condition at end of operation; question of debriefing at Headquarters, Special Operations Executive, Baker Street, London; cancellation of further operation at Alsace, France, 12/1944. Recollections of period with Force 136, Special Operations Executive in Burma, 1/1945-8/1945: voyage with other Jedburgh officers aboard HMT Otranto from GB to Ceylon, 1944-1945; parachute drop into Mandalay area, 24/1/1944; loss of radio sets in drop; crossing terrain with aid of Kachins; use of steam generator to power wireless batteries; composition of team, commanding officer Major Hedley; question of contact with Japanese forces; conduct of intelligence operation east of Mandalay; question of suicide pills and refusal to take suicide pill on operations in France; question of preference for operations in France or Burma; activities with Colonel Peacock's team on Operation Character in Pegu Yomas; use of local Karen levies as resistance fighters against Imperial Japanese Army troops, 4/1945-7/1945; paying off Karen levies with silver rupees; condition of Imperial Japanese Army troops; bout of sickness in Pegu Yomas; posting with Special Operations Executive unit to Medan, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, 12/1945.