Interview with Victor Burton

British private and NCO served with 1st Bn East Lancashire Regt, 126th Infantry Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Div in GB, France and Belgium, 10/1939-10/1941; private served with 1st Bn East Lancashire Regt, 42nd Support Group and 71st Infantry Bde, 42nd Armoured Div in GB, 10/1941-10/1943; served with 1st Bn East Lancashire Regt, 71st Infantry Bde, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in GB and Normandy, France, 10/1943-8/1944; served with Anti-Tank Platoon, Support Coy, 1st Bn East Lancashire Regt, 158th Infantry Bde, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in North West Europe, 8/1944-5/1945

REEL 1 Background in Middleton, GB, 1918-1939: father's military service with Lancashire Fusiliers during First World War, 1914-1918; employment as butcher's boy and plans to open own shop. question of call-up to Royal Army Service Corps; reaction to outbreak of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of training as private with 1st Bn East Lancashire Regt at Squires Gate Camp, Blackpool, GB, 10/1939-11/1939: basic training; work as driving instructor. Recollections of period as private with 1st East Lancashire Regt, 126th Infantry Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Div in GB and France, 11/1939-5/1940: status as militiaman and question of value of long service in action; building pillboxes near Armentières, France; visits to estaminets; lice problem. Recollections of operations as private with 1st Bn East Lancashire Regt, 126th Infantry Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Div in Belgium and France, 5/1940-6/1940: German attack, 10/5/1940; move to take up positions on canal in Tournai, Belgium; German Air Force attacks during retreat; French refugees; abandoning truck and cousin's looted property; cigarettes carried; casualty in rearguard positions; move to Dunkirk, France; evacuation from East Mole, Dunkirk, France; reception on arrival at Ramsgate, GB; move to Pontefract, GB; delousing; story of selling looted pistol; award of Victoria Cross to Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews for action on Dunkirk Perimeter, 31/5/1940-1/6/1940. Recollections of period as private and NCO with 1st Bn East Lancashire Regt, 126th Infantry Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Div, 42nd Support Group and 71st Infantry Bde, 42nd Armoured Div and 71st Infantry Bde, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in GB, 1940-1944: initial transport, 1940; casualties during river crossing exercise; courses; cancellation of posting to 2nd Infantry Div for Far East service, 5/1942; posting to 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div, 10/1943. REEL 2 Continues: failure of attempt to volunteer for Parachute Regiment; promotion to lance corporal in Motor Transport Section; rejection of promotion to platoon sergeant and reversion to driving mortar truck; introduction of Universal Carrier to carry mortars; running bingo sessions at Mere Camp; letter writing; leave; story of stopping run away horse and cart in Watford; pride in unit; relations with officers; beds; visit from wife; practise embarkation and disembarkation at Felixstowe, 1944; waterproofing vehicles; embarkation at London Docks, 6/1944. Recollections of operations as private with 71st Infantry Bde, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: landing on Gold Beach; German direct hit on mortar position and consequent transfer to Anti-Tank Platoon; terrain and nature of fighting. REEL 3 Continues: conditions of service; casualty rate amongst junior officers; death of friend; story of mined road; German prisoners of war; reputation of United States Army Army Air Force for bombing Allied troops; scenes on driving through Falaise Gap; view of Allied air raid on Caen. Recollections of operations as private with Anti-Tank Platoon, 158th Infantry Bde, 53rd (Welsh) Div in North West Europe, 1944-1945: advance into Belgium, 8/1944; role guarding corridor during Operation Market Garden to Nijmegen, Netherlands, 9/1944; sight of British 1st Airborne Div's rear echelon in corridor during Operation Market Garden, 9/1944; quiet period; evacuation with tonsillitis; use of Weasel Amphibious Vehicles in supply role in Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944; story of bringing up young reinforcements and carrying back corpses in Reichwald Forest, Germany, 2/1945-3/1945; crossing River Rhine and advance into Germany, 3/1945; sight of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp survivors, Germany, 4/1945; restricted ceasefire during passage through of German delegation to Lüneberg Heath, Germany, 5/1944; personal morale as end of war approached; casualties; story of looting German police lugers to sell to United States Army troops during entry into Hamburg, Germany, 5/1944; curfew on German civilians; story of looting spirits from Hamburg Docks, Germany; story of opening bar and facing down military police; prior recollection of Corps of Military Police policeman's courage directing traffic under fire in Normandy, France, 1944. REEL 4 Continues: celebrations on end of war, 5/1945; selling cigarettes and pipe tobacco on black market; move to Oberhausen, Germany; stories illustrating relations with United States Army troops; training with flame thrower for possible posting to Far East and reaction to use of atom bomb on Japan, 8/1945; guarding schnapps factory from Displaced Persons; music and German courses; reason for voting for Conservative and Unionist Party in General Election, 7/1945; return to GB, demobilisation and return to civilian employment as butcher, 1946; question of effects of war.