Description
Object description
British trooper and NCO served as fitter with Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own) in Egypt, 1/1943-12/1943; served with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in GB and North West Europe, 2/1944-2/1946; served with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars in Germany, 2/1946-12/1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Eastleigh, GB, 1923-1939: social background; education; question of approach of war; reactions to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; employment and effects of war on it. Recollections of service with 11th (Eastleigh) Bn Hampshire Home Guard, 5/1940-4/1942: recruitment; weapons training including Ross Rifle, Browning Machine Gun, hand grenades, Blacker Bombard and Molotov Cocktail; tactical exercises; optional specialist training; guard duties; loss of interest in Home Guard service, 1941; duties assisting civilian authorities following German Air Force raids on Southampton; question of stress.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of training with 52nd Training Regt, Royal Armoured Corps at Warminster, GB, 4/1942-5/1942: prior failed attempt to join Fleet Air Arm; kitting out; hair cut; barrack accommodation; origins of recruits; physical training; rations; drill; relations with NCOs; rifle training and comparison of Ross and Lee-Enfield Rifles; learning to drive lorries and Universal Carrier; difficulty with signal training; training on Ordnance QF 2 Pounder Anti-Tank Gun; acting as training instructor with newly issued Browning Machine Gun; canteen; kit inspections.
REEL 3 Continues: preparing for kit inspections; opinion of instructors; relations with officers; story of going Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) to visit home and escaping detection by Corps of Military Police; pay; relationship with local civilians. Recollections of period as trooper with Royal Armoured Corps at Bovington Camp, GB, 6/1942-7/1942: learning to drive Churchill Tank; tank classifications; shortened training period; reactions of family during embarkation leave. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Athlone Castle to Durban, South Africa, via Brazil, 7/1942-10/1942: mess deck; volunteering for duties in cooks' galley; seasickness; parade and reception from Brazilian civilians during visit ashore in Brazil; reception during period ashore at Durban, South Africa; onward voyage from South Africa to Egypt, 11/1942. Aspects of period as fitter with Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own) at Sidi Bishr, Egypt, 1/1943-12/1943: movements prior to joining regiment, 12/1942-1/1943; reception on arrival; opinion of Crusader Tank; training by tank crews; training course in vehicle electrics; method of detecting electrical faults.
REEL 4 Continues: posting to Fitter Troop, Headquarters Sqdn; routine vehicle maintenance programmes; role and composition of unit; detachment to 4th Royal Tank Regt in Western Desert; hospitalisation with attack of typhoid. Aspects of period as fitter at Catterick Garrison, 12/1943-2/1944: return to GB, 12/1943; duties. Recollections of period as fitter with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div at Aldershot Garrison, 2/1944-6/1944: reception and nature of unit identity; posting as electrical fitter to B Sqdn; difficulty in working with M3 Grant Tank and M4 Sherman Tank; method of waterproofing M4 Sherman Tank; nature of unit identity; testing waterproofed tanks; origins and composition of unit; relations with NCOs, officers and Other Ranks including Fitter Sergeant David Findlay; use of M3 White Half-Tracks; fitters' equipment; barrack accommodation.
REEL 5 Continues: visits to home in Eastleigh; supernumerary status and detachment as temporary tank commander with reinforcement drafts, 5/1944-6/1944. Recollections of operations as fitter with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: embarkation and crossing English Channel, 12/6/1944; landing and move inland; removing waterproofing from tanks and vehicles; reception from French civilians; rejoining unit; sight of mass Allied bomber raid on Caen; state of unit morale; story illustrating United States Army troops' unwillingness to repair rather than replace equipment; death of friend, 18/7/1944; arrival of replacement tanks; characteristics of M4 Sheman Tank and question of them catching fire easily; advance to Vire; story of being wounding in back whilst repairing M4 Sherman Tank.
REEL 6 Continues: initial treatment and air evacuation to GB. Recollections of hospitalisation, convalescence and postings in GB, 8/1944-1/1945: medical operations to remove shrapnel; family visits; physiotherapy; circumstances of getting special license and marriage during posting to Catterick Garrison; posting to Holding Unit at Brandon; story of senior officer's ruse to avoid ban on home leave at Christmas and New Year, 12/1944; state of health; rejoining unit. Aspects of period as fitter electrician with Headquarters Sqdn, 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div at Ypres, Belgium, 1/1945-2/1945: waiting for return of unit from operations in Ardennes; state of unit; return of recovered wounded veterans; relations with Other Ranks; characteristics of Comet Tank; relations with Belgian civilians; visits to First World War battle sites. Recollections of operations as fitter electrician with Headquarters Sqdn, 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in Germany, 2/1945-5/1945: nature of operations.
REEL 7 Continues: German artillery fire; accidental bombing attacks by United States Army Air Force aircraft; opinion of United States Army troops; maintenance work on lorries; repairing tanks tracks; state of German towns; relations with German civilians; effects of passing close to Belsen-Belsen Concentration Camp; German artillery fire; question of approach of end of war; story of being disciplined by regimental sergeant-major after continuous period of duty; relations with NCOs; reaction to news of VE Day, 8/5/1945. Recollections of period as fitter with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in Germany, 5/1945-2/1946: situation; minimal duties; educational courses and running classes; current affairs lectures and encouragement from officers to vote for Labour Party in General Election, 7/1945; initial non-fraternisation ban and question of relations with German civilians; question of reaction of German civilians to photographic exhibition of concentration camp victims.
REEL 8 Continues: absence of black market activities; local leave; football activities; question of demobilisation arrangements; disbandment of unit, 2/1946. Aspects of period as fitter with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars at Lingen, Germany, 2/1946-12/1946: barrack accommodation; situation awaiting demobilisation and arrival of draft containing members of original recruit squad; demobilisation, 12/1946. Aspects of post-war life and employment: difficulties in settling into regular employment; question of staying in British Army with commission in Army Education Corps; missing comradeship of military serive; review of career in local government and careers advisory service; question of effects of war service; contacts with Fife and Forfar Yeomanry Association, 1996-1999.
