Description
Object description
British NCO served with 70th Bn Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regt) in GB, 1940-1942; served with 2nd Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in North Africa, Italy and Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 12/1942-9/1944; prisoner of war in Stalag II-A, Neubrandenburg, Germany, 11/1944-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Maidstone, GB, 1921-1939: family; education. Aspects of period as private and NCO with 70th Bn Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regt) in GB, 1940-1942: joining battalion; opinion of enforced 'bull' in unit; guard duties at RAF Biggin Hill during Battle of Britain, 1940; German Air Force attacks on RAF Biggin Hill; nature of battalion; alternative units he considered joining, 1941-1942. Aspects of training as NCO with Parachute Regiment in GB, 1942: joining Parachute Regiment; parachute training; danger of 'ringing the bell' during parachute jumps; experimental jumps including jumping into lake and pine woods; supervising role with Polish paratroopers and Special Operations Executive trainees; posting to 2nd Bn Parachute Regt as reinforcement, 1942. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Stathallen from GB to French Algeria, 12/1942 including torpedoing of ship in Mediterranean, 22/12/1942: torpedoing of ship, 22/12/1943.
REEL 2 Continues: period aboard ship after torpedoing and rescue by HMS Pathfinder, 11/1942. Aspects of period as NCO with 2nd Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in French Algeria, 12/1942: arrival of HMT Strathallen survivors in Algiers; sight of French Admiral Jean Darlan's funeral; apprehension about reaction of Vichy French to Operation Torch, 11/1942. Recollections of operations as NCO with 2nd Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Regt, 1st Airborne Div in Tunisia, 1942-1943: joining battalion at Béja; role of battalion in Tunisia; relations with French Tunisians on Goubellat Plain; attack on Italian/Austrian division at Bou Arada; reaction to death of brother and how his comrades supervised him on patrol after hearing news; opinion of American troops soldiering.
REEL 3 Continues: German attempt to break through, Sedjenane; wounding in a cork wood, Sedjenane. Aspects of medical treatment for wounds in Tunisia and French Algeria, 1943: initial treatment for wounds at Sedjenane, Tunisia; contracting gas gangrene at Philippeville, French Algeria; hospital treatment in Bône, French Algeria; effect of seawater on wounds; reasons for missing landings in Sicily, Italy. Recollections of operations as NCO with 2nd Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in Italy, 9/1943-12/1943: landings at Taranto, 9/1943; sight of mining and loss of HMS Abdiel in Taranto Harbour, 10/9/1943; role of retrieving bodies from Taranto Harbour; character of fighting in South East Italy; amphibious operation from Barletta; return to GB, 12/1943. Recollections of operations as NCO with 4 Platoon, B Coy, 2nd Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div during Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 9/1944: abortive series of plans for airborne operations in North West Europe, 6/1944-8/1944.
REEL 4 Continues: delays to operation; failures of planning and execution; opinion of Corporal Harry Wood; flight from Saltby, GB to Netherlands, 17/9/1944; method used by Major John Frost to rally officers, 17/9/1944; reception by Dutch civilians, 17/9/1944; dealing with German snipers; German forces' resistance to British advance; German blowing up of Arnhem Railway Bridge; Dutch civilian who volunteered to guide unit; casualty caused by igniting amatol; move towards Arnhem; question of Major John Frost's luck.
REEL 5 Continues: problems of reaching Arnhem Bridge; occupying house in Eusebius Square; aid given by Jan Brouwer who took him and Hugh Levine to the Engelmann family; German fire aimed at house; capture by Germans. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Netherlands and Germany, 1944: initial treatment by Germans on capture; march with Dutch civilians to Zutphen, Netherlands; amount German interrogator knew of his army career; fellow prisoners of war in Zutphen, Netherlands; sight of devastated Cologne, Germany; in transit at Stalag XII-A, Limburg an der Lahn, Germany; nature of cattle truck journey into Germany. Recollections of period as Stalag II-A, Neubrandenburg, Germany 11/1944-5/1945: refusal of prisoners of war captured during Operation Market Garden to work, their subsequent isolation and how this was evaded.
REEL 6 Continues: attempts to trade with Serbian prisoners of war; attempts made to get prisoners of war to work; rations; arrival of Red Cross parcels, 12/1944; period outside camp to rescue Royal Air Force man; effect of German propaganda; story relating to Alsatian dog which attached itself to him; arrival of British prisoners of war marched from camps further east and medical help they received; dispute with Germans over how British prisoners of war should be buried; attempt to organise prisoner of war burial ceremony; air supply drop of food and medical supplies; arrival of Soviet Army troops, 5/1945; how German guards entrusted their families to British prisoners of war, 5/1945; beating up of German political officer, 5/1945; impression of Soviet forces.
REEL 7 Continues: arrival of Royal Air Force officer to arrange British prisoners of war release from camp; Serbian organisation of camp food supply; march to Schwerin; contrast between American supply situation in Schwerin and British in Lüneburg. Aspects of return from Germany to GB, 1945: flight in Douglas Dakota from Germany to GB, 5/1945; reception of returning prisoners of war at RAF Dunsfold and Haywards Heath, 5/1945. Reflections on service during Second World War: question of self-discipline under-fire; reaction to dropping of atomic bomb on Japan, 8/1945; attitude to having served in Second World War; story of Captain John Timothy's raid behind German lines to get prisoners of war back, Bari, Italy, 1943.
