Description
Object description
British civilian in Kingston upon Hull GB, 9/1939-3/1941; guardsman trained at Guards Depot, Caterham and Guards Training Depot, Pirbright in GB, 3/1941-12/1941; guardsman and NCO served with 3rd Bn Coldstream Guards, 22nd Guards Bde and 301st Guards Motor Bde in North Africa, 2/1942-6/1942; NCO served as clerk with Central Mediterranean Training Centre, Benevento, Italy, 1943-1945; served with Army School of Mechanics, Padua, Italy, 1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Kingston upon Hull, GB, 1920-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of period as civilian in Kingston upon Hull, GB, 1939-1941: reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; German Air Force attacks on western side of Kingston upon Hull; public morale; construction of family air raid shelter. Aspects of enlistment in British Army in GB, 12/1940-3/1941: volunteering for military service, 12/1940; call-up for military service, 3/1941; reasons he went into Brigade of Guards and not Corps of Military Police. Aspects of training as guardsman with Guards Depot, Caterham, GB, 3/1941-12/1941: basic training in Guards Depot, Caterham, 4/1941; reaction to regimental discipline; playing rugby for Guards Depot against Welsh Guards at Guards Training Depot, Pirbright, 1941; German Air Force attacks on Caterham, 1941; field training and signal course at Guards Training Depot, Pirbright, 1941; posting to 3rd Bn Coldstream Guards, 12/1941.
REEL 2 Continues: reaction to having to leave his family on Christmas Eve, 24/12/1941; arrival at Regents Park Barracks, London, 25/12/1941; marching of draft to Marylebone Railway Station, London, 12/1941; train journey to Glasgow, 12/1941. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Louis Pasteur from GB to Egypt, 12/1942-1/1942: conditions on board troopship; practising Morse Code; threat of Imperial Japanese Navy submarines and race to get into Port Tewfik, Egypt. Recollections of operations as guardsman and NCO with 3rd Bn Coldstream Guards, 22nd Guards Bde in North Africa, 2/1942-4/1942: move to base depot, Geneifa, Canal Zone, Egypt; arrival in Fort Capuzzo, Libya, 2/1942; conditions on arrival; joining battalion in Tobruk, Libya, 2/1942; nature and composition of battalion; digging in on Tobruk Perimeter, Libya.
REEL 3 Continues: role as gun-layer in anti-tank platoon; skirmishing with Germans forces on Tobruk Perimeter, Libya, 3/1942; move to Buq Buq, Egypt for re-equipping, 4/1942; creating a parade ground, Buq Buq, Egypt; inspection by Lord Guildford and brief visit from King of Greece, 5/1942; nature of Halfaya Pass, Egypt. Recollections of operations as NCO with 3rd Bn Coldstream Guards, 201st Guards Motor Bde in Knightsbridge Box, Libya, 5/1942-6/1942: return to Tobruk-Gazala area, 5/1942; digging in The Cauldron, Knightsbridge Box, 5/1942; mining three sides of box; training on Ordnance QF 6 Pounder Anti-Tank Gun; return to unit during German attack on Bir Hakeim; nature of rations issued; effect of German shelling turning Knightsbridge box into 'a cauldron'; ineffectiveness of Ordnance QF 2 Pounder Anti-Tank Gun against German tanks; use of sticky bombs against German tanks; orders to receive delivery of Ordnance QF 6 Pounder Anti-Tank Guns, 6/1942.
REEL 4 Continues: delivery of Ordnance QF 6 Pounder Anti-Tank Guns; knocking out of Italian tank spotting for German artillery with first shot, 6/1942; prolonged action in 'The Cauldron'; orders to evacuate Knightsbridge Box, 13/6/1942; German shell hit on dug out in which he was wounded, 13/6/1942. Aspects of medical evacuation for wounds in Libya and Egypt, 1942: removal by ambulance, 13/6/1942; actions of Corporal Burke; nature of wounds; treatment as one of walking wounded; removal to Casualty Clearing Station at Sidi Barrani, Egypt and then to Tobruk, Libya; treatment received in Tobruk, Libya; evacuation of hospital from Tobruk, Libya to Mersa Matruh, Egypt, 6/1942.
REEL 5 Continues: move by train to Cairo, Egypt. Aspects of hospitalisation in Egypt, 1942: treatment received in 15th Scottish General Hospital in Egypt; letters from fiancee; reaction to issue of hospital uniform; recreational activities; evacuation of hospital to El Arish; re-union with section sergeant; story of what had happen to section sergeant; medical treatment for arm wound; discharge from convalescent camp. Aspects of period in Geneifa Camp, Egypt, 1942-1943: role as mess waiter in officer's mess; impression of Italian prisoners of war; role in quartermaster's store.
REEL 6 Continues: appearance before personnel selection board, 1943; posting to Italy, 1943. Recollections of period as NCO with Central Mediterranean Training Centre, Benevento, Italy, 1943-1945: voyage aboard MS Batory from Egypt to Italy, arrival in Taranto; weather conditions; train journey to Naples; impression of Naples; arrival in Benevento; exploring former Fascist headquarters; establishment of centre; bomb damage and threat of typhoid; methods employed to encourage savings for war effort; promotion from corporal to sergeant; revival of civilian life; reaction to arrival of 44th Infantry Div 'Cremona', Italian Co-Belligerent Army, 9/1944.
REEL 7 Continues: closure of centre as front line moved north. Aspects of period with as NCO with Army School of Mechanics, Padua Italy, 1944-1945: move to Army School of Mechanics, Padua, 1944: journey from Benevento to Padua; establishment in Padua, 1944; working off PYTHON and LIAP leave and reaction to comrades having leave in GB; plundering of army buffet by local Italian civilians, Bologna, 1945. Aspects of journey from Italy to GB, 12/1945-1/1946.
REEL 8 Continues: nature of train journey from Milan, Italy to Calais, France, 1/1/1946; attitude of British authorities to Axis weapons being brought back to GB; reaction to being back in GB, 1/1946; journey from Waterloo Railway Station, London to Brookwood, 1/1946. Aspects of period as NCO with Guards Training Depot, Pirbright, GB, 1946: reception and adjutant's parade; reaction to having to 'bull up' for commanding officer's orders instead of making way home to Kingston upon Hull, 1/1946; homecoming; refusal to stay on in Coldstream Guards; administrative duties, 1946.
REEL 9 Continues: fire service arrangements; attitude to those who had not seen active service; role in suppression of prisoner's riot in Military Detention Centre, Aldershot, 4/ 1946; administrative duties as army fire officer, 1946; period of time wasting whilst awaiting demobilisation in Windsor; demobilisation procedure in Guildford, 1946. Reflections on military service in Second World War: attitude to having served in Second World War and Coldstream Guards; question of comradeship formed during Second World War; relations between Italian civilians and British troops in Italy, 1943-1945; description of Union Jack Club in Waterloo, London during Second World War.
