Interview with James Lawrence Burgess Oates

British private served with 12th Bn Royal Fusiliers in GB, 1942-1943; NCO with 2nd Bn Highland Light Infantry, 2nd Special Service Bde in Lebanon and Vis Island, Yugoslavia, 1943-1944; served with 2nd Highland Light Infantry in Greece and Italy, 1944-1945

REEL 1 Background in Canning Town, London and Barking, GB, 1919-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of period as civilian in Dagenham, GB, 9/1939-12/1941: membership 11th (Dagenham) City of London Home Guard, 1940-1941 including training and question of possibility of German invasion; use of air raid shelters; employment as bricklayer doing building repairs; incident of child giving him a paper bag with human thumb in it; invasion scare incident; loss of apple tree during German Air Force bombing; story of how he was admonished by father-in-law for showing hatred towards German Air Force pilots; belief in righteousness of Allied cause in Second World War; opinion of William Joyce 'Lord Haw Haw'; question of seriousness of Home Guard. Aspects of enlistment and training with 12th Bn Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regt) in GB, 1942-1943: call-up for military service, 1/1942; basic training, near Winchester, story of sympathetic treatment from Jewish subaltern who helped him become a better soldier; case of recruit who shot sergeant dead after being forced to do hard training after appendectomy. REEL 2 Continues: move with battalion to Egypt, 1943. Recollections of period of mountain warfare training with 2nd Bn Highland Light Infantry, 2nd Special Service Bde in Lebanon, 1943-1944: volunteering for mountain training; melting down of 78 records to obtain wax for skis; use of regimental pipers on operations; ski training, Mount Sannine, danger of wolves; problems of navigating in blizzards; disaster with snowshoes on training exercise, winter 1943-1944; survival techniques in snow; good relations between Londoners and Glaswegians. Recollections of operations as NCO with 2nd Highland Light Infantry on Vis Island, Yugoslavia, 1944: arrival on Vis Island to replace United States Rangers; how United States Rangers had ruined wells on island and problems of water supply; relations with civilians; discipline among Yugoslav Partisans; unit relations with Yugoslav Partisans. REEL 3 Continues: inaccurate information given about strength of German forces by Yugoslav Partisans; casualties on raid and loss of piper's bagpipes; Germans surrendering to British commandos; Catholic-Protestant conflict between B and C Coys; raiding operations from Vis Island; story of discovery of two graves of British soldiers; German prisoners of war in battalion hands; incident of comrade who was well treated as prisoner of war by German captor. Recollections of operations as NCO with 2nd Highland Light Infantry in Greece, 1944-1945: flight to Patras in Peloponnese; ceremonial entry into Patras; patrolling from Patras; collapse of Greek drachma currency; move to Athens to deal with Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), 12/1944; base on Mount Lycabettus, Athens. REEL 4 Continues: orders to eliminate Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) sniper who was harassing Royal Artillery officer on Mount Lycabettus; how he missed sniper by two feet; lucky escape from Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) mortar round; street fighting against Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) forces; officer killed by mortar round accident; incident of Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) ransacking village after refusal of villagers to co-operate; German prisoner of war who became part of battalion; outbreak of scabies in unit. Recollections of operations as NCO with 2nd Highland Light Infantry in Italy, 1945: incident of army lorry crashing down precipice; nature of German propaganda leaflets; use of neck microphones during listening patrols; reconnaissance patrols against German Army patrols. REEL 5 Continues: loss of NCO to booby trapped mine during fighting patrol and problems retrieving his body; incident on soldier suffering from psychological stress; story of soldier who went mad after accidentally disembowelling dead German when digging in; incident with trapped rat; Gurkhas mistaking battalion for Germans. Aspects of period as NCO with 2nd Highland Light Infantry in Austria, 1945: move to Klagenfurt area to thwart Soviet takeover; good relations despite non-fraternisation orders of with Austrian civilians at Villach; discovery of referendum papers from 1938.