Description
Object description
British NCO served with 232 Field Coy Royal Engineers in GB and France, 1939-1941 and in Middle East and North Africa, 1941-1942; POW in Italy and Stalag VIIIB, Lamsdorf, Germany, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Chester-le-Street, 1919-1939: family; daily life and living conditions; recreational and sporting activities; education; employment in garage; nature of work and pay; recreational activities. Recollections of training with 232 Coy Royal Engineers in GB, 2/1939-1/1940: reason for enlisting with Territorial Army, 2/1939; training and composition of Coy.
REEL 2 Continues: uniform; description of training and vehicles; opinion of Coy CO Major Pegler; pay; discipline; reaction of parents; relations with local civilians; rifle training; use of First World War vehicles; attached to 50th Northumbrian (Motorised) Division; memory of outbreak of war, 9/1939; billets; sleeping arrangements; morale; duties guarding bridge against IRA attack; posted to camp at Witney, Oxfordshire; billets; role as driver/mechanic and section driver; vehicles and equipment; composition of Coy; role of sappers including bridging work and mine clearance; description of billets in mill; opinion of food; care of uniform .
REEL 3 Continues: description of basic training; equipment and vehicles; attached to 150 Bde (East Yorks and Green Howards); role as driver; opinion of officers; attitude of local civilians; memory of Christmas embarkation leave, 1939; posted to France, 1/1940. Recollections of operations with 232 Coy Royal Engineers in France, 1-5/ 1940: landed at Cherbourg; moved to Lille; digging of anti-tank ditches; opinion of French roads; weather conditions; opinion of rations; billeted in farm building; attitude of French civilians; washing and sanitary facilities; daily routine; moved to Belgian border and duties on road reconnaissance; description of HQ; problem of refugees on roads; moved to Vimy Ridge area and joined up with 150 Bde; memory of being machine gunned by German aircraft and damage to vehicles; opinion of Major Pegler's role; moved to Ypres area; problem of lack of food; question of awareness of military situation; reaction to being under shellfire. Aspects of evacuation from Dunkirk, 5/1940: description of retreat to Dunkirk; vehicles abandoned; conditions on beach prior to evacuation.
REEL 4 Continues: boarded coal barge; opinion of organisation of retreat; question of air cover; description of journey to GB; conditions on barge; food; landed at Ramsgate; reaction to reception on landing. Aspects of period in GB, 5/1940-5/1941: entrained to camp at Salford; reaction of civilians; issued with new uniforms; leave; moved to Weymouth; section posted to Portland and duties demolishing bridge; guard duties; promoted lance corporal; question of possible invasion; moved to Congresbury; description of air raids on Bristol and role in helping demolish unsafe buildings; promoted corporal; divisional training; weather conditions during winter 1940-1941; opinion of new section CO; integration of new drafts of conscripts; description of further training; question of censorship of mail.
REEL 5 Continues: preparations for going overseas; inoculations; embarkation leave; vehicles taken to Liverpool; question of secrecy; description of journey aboard Empress of Russia from Liverpool to Egypt; convoy from Glasgow, 5/1941; sleeping arrangements; conditions aboard ship; messing arrangements; fire drill; guard duties; boat drill; recreational activities; washing clothes; weather conditions; inspections; arrived Freetown; role in charge of fire piquet; memory of crossing Equator; arrived Durban and reception by civilians; attitude to racial discrimination. Recollections of operations with 232 Coy Royal Engineers in Middle East, 7/1941-12/1941: sailed up Red Sea to Port Suez; weather conditions; posted to transit camp at Ismalia; question of adapting to climate; accommodation in tents; posted to Port Tewfir and arrival of vehicles; moved to Mersa Matruh sector with 150 Bde, 7/1941; role in building defences; moved to Alexandria and sailed to Famagusta, Cyprus and role constructing hospital; trucked to Larnaca in evenings; attitude to Cypriots; question of buying food from market; washing clothes; state of health and problem of sand-fly fever; duties digging and repairing defences.
REEL 6 Continues: leave in Nicosia; sailed from Famagusta to Haifa, 11/1941; 50th Div moved to Iraq; description of duties with 150 Bde; problem of lack of vehicles; tented camp; problem of thefts. Recollections of operations with 232 Coy Royal Engineers in North Africa, 12/1941-8/1942: moved by road to Mersa Matruh, 12/1941; story of locating and repairing abandoned vehicles; problem of driving in sandstorm; use of filter on vehicles to combat sand; use of compass; description of desert terrain and climate; problem of flies; rations; construction of defences around Mersa Matruh; story of pay; moved across desert following railway line; story of damage to vehicle; obtaining water from water point; memory of Christmas celebrations, 1941; moved into Gazala Line with 150 Bde;duties building defences and digging vehicles into sand; water rations.
REEL 7 Continues: washing facilities; washing clothes in petrol; water truck; opinion of rations; cooking facilities; camouflaging of dugouts; disposal of empty food tins; daily routine and duties; stand to; location of infantry battalions; movement through gaps in wire; further comments on rations; recreational activities; guard duties on minefield; problem of cold at night; clothing; moved down line to new box; story of recovering damaged vehicles; problem of obtaining spare parts; description of line and defences; story of role in night attack on airfield; role in erecting observation towers for artillery; casualties and damage to vehicles; burial of dead and transportation of wounded; question of fear; problem of lack of air support; loss of vehicles.
REEL 8 Continues: role as last vehicle in column and repairing vehicles; problem of losing contact with column; description of further attacks on column and damage to vehicles; returned to base for rest and refitting; question of air support; Italian POWs; award of Military Cross to section CO; opinion of attack; organisation of column; description of crossing desert terrain; collaboration with Polish unit; censorship of mail; question of leave; problem of anti-personnel mines; washing and sanitary facilities; attitude to desert conditions; duties as Transport Corporal; religious services; supporting units in box; memory of visit to Free French positions; description of attack by German armoured column on 150 box at Gazala.
REEL 9 Continues: Aspects of period as POW in Italy, 8/1942-1943: story of being taken prisoner by Germans; problem of lack of food and water; moved to camps in Tripoli and Benghazi; opinion of treatment by Germans and Italians; problem of dysentery; moved to POW camp in Capua, Italy; interrogation; living conditions; food; problem of lice; morale; moved to camp at Benuvento; description of camp; accommodation; sanitary arrangements; medical facilities; roll calls and inspections; Red Cross parcels; story of bartering food with guards.
REEL 10 Continues: cookhouse run by POWs; method of heating water; daily routine; work making road into camp and extra rations; question of escape; moved to camp in south of Italy; conditions and opinion of guards; state of health; sharing food; morale; description of compound; ratio of guards to POWs; condition of clothes; moved to camp north of Rome; moved by train to Brenner Pass and handed over to Germans, 1943; period in transit camp in Poland; living conditions and accommodation; story of swimming pool. Recollections of period as POW Stalag VIIIB, Lamsdorf camp, Germany, 1943-1/1945: description of journey to camp in cattle trucks; put into compound with Canadian POWs; story of handcuffs; description of camp and living conditions; question of working; punishment compound; medical and educational facilities; role of British RSM ; accommodation in huts; food and heating; sanitary facilities; Red Cross parcels.
REEL 11 Continues: description of role with escape tunnels; use of bedboards; organisation of escapes; allocation of numbers; punishment for escapers; German closure of tunnels; inspection of huts; question of suicides; role of escape committee; story of roll call; use of stove to cover tunnel entrance; question of NCOs escaping; discipline in camp; role of RSM as liaison with Germans; story of special compound; question of mixed nationalities; roll calls, reveille; punishment for late arrivers; treatment by guards; exercise; educational classes and exams; Red Cross visits; amusing story of sanitary bucket; description of contents of Red Cross parcels; use of cigarettes and food as currency; recreational activities including concert parties and theatre shows; memory of visit to Lamsdorf Hospital with toothache.
REEL 12 Continues: state of health; parcels from home; sporting activities; use of illegal wireless to listen to news including D-Day landings, 6/1944; story of body in pool; use of stooges by Germans; morale among POWs; padre in camp; question of sending money home; punishment for theft in huts; army discipline; punishment cells; bartering food with guards; bread ration; problem of diminishing food supplies; attitude to guards; treatment of Russian POWs; memory of hearing Russian artillery; description of Christmas celebrations in camp; religious services; communication with home. Aspects of period as POW in Germany, 1-5/1945: moved out of camp, 1/Jan/1945; rations; marched across country; accommodation in barns; problem of lack of food; treatment by guards; problem of frostbite in feet; story of German officer and coffee; memory of passing Gorlitz camp, Poland; memory of refugees on road.
REEL 13 Continues: medical treatment for frostbitten feet; operation on feet without anaesthetic; memory of RAF raid on Hamburg railway station; moved into POW camp hospital; story of liberation by British Army, 5/1945; memory of displaced persons and Russian women; flown back to GB. Aspects of period in GB, 1945-1946: further medical treatment; memory of VE Day, 8/May/1945; home leave; role as corporal training drivers at Royal Engineers Depot, Aldershot; demobilised at York, 2/1946; pay and gratuity; question of readjustment to civilian life.