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Object description
British private served with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Cheshire Regt, 13th Infantry Bde in GB, France and Belgium, 10/1939-11/1941; served with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Cheshire Regt, 5th Infantry Div in GB, India, Iran, Italy and North West Europe, 11/1941-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Liverpool, GB, 1920-1939: family; education; employment; reasons for volunteering for British Army, 10/1939. Aspects of period as private with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn, Cheshire Regt, 13th Infantry Bde in GB and France, 11/1939-5/1940: basic training at Chester 11/1939; opinion of Vickers Machine Gun; roles of machine gun crew; joining B Coy at Templeuve-en-Pevele, France, 11/3/1940; relations with French civilians; duties. Recollections of operations as private with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn, Cheshire Regt, 13th Infantry Bde in France and Belgium, 5/1940: reaction of unit to German attack, 10/5/1940; convoy into Belgium; German air attack on convoy, Ninouve, Belgium, 10/5/1940; story of how he got separated from unit and found them again; incident of German paratroopers disguised as priests; orders to retreat; arrival Dunkirk Perimeter.
REEL 2 Continues: destruction of vehicles and equipment; arrival on beaches at Dunkirk, France; escape from beach to fishing boat Esjen; German Air Force attack on Esjen whilst crossing English Channel; reception in Ramsgate, GB. Aspects of period as private with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn, Cheshire Regt in GB, 6/1940-3/1942: reassembling unit in Devonshire, 6/1940; move to Muthill; invasion panic, 9/1940; civilian support for armed forces; move of 5th Infantry Div from Scottish Command to Lancashire, 10/1940; move to Moy, Northern Ireland; friendship with Irish family; inspection of troops by Duke of Kent; attachment as driver with Headquarters, 5th Infantry Div. Aspects of voyage aboard HMS Almanzora from GB to India via South Africa, 3/1942-5/1942
REEL 3 Continues: embarkation on River Clyde, GB; sight of beggars Freetown, Sierra Leone; how civilians encouraged him to desert and join South African forces in Cape Town, South Africa; how company was held in reserve for invasion of French Madagascar, 4/1942. Aspects of period as private with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Cheshire Regt, 5th Infantry Div in India, 6/1942-8/1942: arrival in Bombay, 17/6/1942; accommodation; how Duke of Gloucester's inspection of troops as thwarted by monsoon, Ranchi, 6/1942; move towards Burma frontier until column turned back on receiving news that Japanese were not invading India; contact with supporters of Mahatma Gandhi on move to Hazaribagh, 7/1942. Aspects of period as private with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Cheshire Regt, 5th Infantry Div in Iraq and Iran, 8/1942-6/1943: arrival in Basra, Iraq, 8/1942; move by road to Kermanshah, Iraq and Qum, Iran; work guarding supply route to Soviet Union; move to Sicily, Italy via Palestine, 7/1943. Aspects of operations as private with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Cheshire Regt, 5th Infantry Div in Sicily, Italy, 7/1943-8/1943: landing on Sicily, 10/7/1943; German rearguard action at Mistabianco, near Mount Etna, 8/1943. Recollections of operations as private with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Cheshire Regt, 5th Infantry Div in Italy, 9/1943-1944: sight of HMS Warspite bombarding 'toe' of Italy; role during landings.
REEL 4 Continues: story of sailor's act of kindness to family back in Liverpool, GB; hold up on River Garigliano; landing of company in Gulf of Gaeta, 1/1944; nervousness of American landing craft crews who landed troops; pinning down by German machine gunners on beach; United States Army Air Force strike; advance of unit around Rock of Argenta; attending to wounded Major Mathers; avoiding of mines and saving a comrade from setting off German booby-trap. Recollections of operations as private with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Cheshire Regt, 5th Infantry Div in Italy, 2/1944-6/1944: company role in second wave of landings at Anzio, 3/1944; story of sergeant-major wanting revenge for death of brother in action.
REEL 5 Continues: story of punishment of German officer prisoner of war for spitting in face of infantryman who captured him; medical treatment of company commander for shrapnel wounds; incident of comrade blown up by German booby trap and unwillingness to report this to his comrade's bereaved wife; reaction to hearing news of D-Day, 6/6/1944; story of not being allowed to visit Rome on leave due to recently being placed on charge; move to Palestine, 7/1944; question of being deafened and left with tinnitus from artillery fire at Anzio. Recollection of period with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Cheshire Regt, 5th infantry Div in North West Europe, 3/1945-5/1945: move to Marseille, France, 3/1945; journey from Southern France to Belgium including being shown French family wiped out by retreating Germans, 8/1944; move to Belgium, 3/1945.
REEL 6 Continues: arrival at Beervelde, near Ghent, 3/1944; story told to him by Flemish family of arrest of their son by Gestapo; wounding in leg by sniper in Germany, 4/1945; evacuation to GB for medical treatment; reception by family in Liverpool, GB, 1944; problems recovering from leg wound, 1944-1945. Aspects of civilian life and employment in GB, 1946-1947: starting career in police, despite war injuries; war disability pension; ill health as result of war experiences; reaction to war injuries tribunal he appeared before, 1947; treatment for continuous tinnitus; increase of disability pension to sixty per cent.