Description
Object description
British NCO served with 2/7th Bn Queen's Royal Regt (West Surrey), 35th Infantry Bde, 12th (Eastern) Infantry Div in GB, 6/1940-11/1940; served with 2/7th Bn Queen's Royal Regt (West Surrey), 169th (London) Infantry Bde, 56th (London) Infantry Div in Iraq and North Africa, 11/1942-9/1943; officer cadet with Middle East Officer Cadet Training Unit in Haifa, Palestine, 9/1943-3/1944; officer served with 16th Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in Middle East, Italy, Greece and Austria, 3/1944-1/1946; served with 5th Bn Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt), 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Div in Austria, 1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Ongar and Chertsey, GB, 1918-1939: childhood; work on farming smallholding; awareness of approach of Second World War; declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Recollections of training as private with Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) Regimental Depot, Stoughton Barracks and Queen's Camp, Guildford, GB, 1/1940-5/1940: issue of uniform; relations with fellow recruits; weekend leave and effect of vaccinations; hutted accommodation; morning parade; drill; weapons training, including rifle, bayonet, Bren Gun and grenades; tactical exercises; route marches; drill; relations with officers; kit inspections.
REEL 2 Continues: relations with NCOs; rations; recreational activities; quarantine due to meningitis outbreak. Aspects of period as private with Holding Bn, Queen's Royal Regt (West Surrey) at Seaford and Coulsdon, GB, 5/1940-6/1940: opinion of Major Allen Block; relations with draft from Lancashire. Recollections of period as private and NCO with 2/7th Bn, Queen's Royal Regt (West Surrey), 35th Infantry Bde, 12th (Eastern) Infantry Div and 169th (London) Infantry Bde, 56th (London) Infantry Div at in GB, 6/1940-8/1942: reception and posting to A Coy; reaction to Dunkirk Evacuation; officers; training; anti-invasion activities in Kent; promotion to lance corporal; coastal pill-boxes at Hythe; exercises; training units of Suffolk Home Guard in Suffolk; promotion to sergeant; baggage party duties and opinion of dock workers during preparations for embarkation at Liverpool.
REEL 3 Continues: attending commando course at Lochailort, 1941; training role with Battle Platoon, Headquarters Coy; opinion of Lieutenant-Colonel Allen Block. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Johan van Oldenbarnevelt from GB to Iraq via South Africa to Bombay, India, 8/1942-11/1942: conditions on board; posting to Mortar Platoon; tug of war; baggage party duties; rat problem during voyage to Basra, Iraq, 10/1942. Aspects of period as NCO with 2/7th Bn, Queen's Royal Regt (West Surrey), 169th Infantry Bde, 56th (London) Infantry Div at Kirkuk, Iraq, 10/1942-3/1943: Ordnance ML 3 Inch Mortar training, including method of firing, range and transport; tented accommodation; precautions against Kurd civilians stealing equipment; nature of oil waste roads. Aspects of operations as NCO with 2/7th Bn, Queen's Royal Regt (West Surrey), 169th Infantry Bde, 56th (London) Infantry Div in North Africa, 3/1943-9/1943: journey by lorry from Iraq to Tunisia; minor shrapnel chest wound during operations at Enfidaville, Tunisia, 4/1943; hospitalisation at Tripoli, Libya; rejoining battalion at Tripoli, Libya; lessons learnt from active service experience; personal morale; question of application for commission; sergeants' mess.
REEL 4 Continues: question of leaving battalion; interviews to establish suitability for commission; nature of tests during War Officers' Selection Board. Recollections of period as officer cadet with Middle East Officer Cadet Training Unit at Haifa, Palestine, 9/1943-3/1944: lectures and drill; passing out and background to commissioning into Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh's). Recollections of period as officer with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in Middle East, 3/1944-7/1944: acceptance of posting after prior interview with Lieutenant-Colonel John Preston; initial posting to D Coy; opinion of Major Frank Duffy; posting to Mortar Platoon, Support Coy; opinion of various officers, including Major Harry Mynheer, Lieutenant-Colonel John Preston, Lieutenant Russell Collins; Major Raymond Mitchell.
REEL 5 Continues: opinion of various NCOs including Sergeant Hunter and Company Sergeant-Major Leslie Thornton; independent role of Mortar Platoon; opinion of Private Joss Hall; internal security duties and enforcement of curfew due to presence of Jewish insurgents in Tel Aviv, Palestine; hockey; training; posting to Mortar Platoon, Support Coy; story of Corps of Military Police being called due to disturbance in officers club at Qassassin Camp, Egypt; story illustrating Captain Jimmy Coutts' attitude to base staff. Aspects of period as officer with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in Italy, 7/1944-8/1944: attitude towards move to Italy; drinking habits; question of adequacy of wireless sets issued to Mortar Platoon; football activities; inspection by King George VI.
REEL 6 Recollections of operations as officer with Mortar Platoon, Support Coy, 16th Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div on Gothic Line, Italy, 8/1944-12/1944: Mortar Platoon Universal Carriers and use of motorcycles; personal weapons; Officer 'O' groups, including composition; artillery support received from 449th Field Battery, 70th Field Regt, Royal Artillery; nature of terrain; narrow escape from German artillery fire at Petriano, 28/8/1944; question of amount of use of mortars; personal morale; relationship with other ranks; policy of taking shelter in houses; mortar pits; question of amount of use of mortars and effective range; taking Universal Carrier from other regiment; period under German artillery fire, 9/1944; German forces' use of multi-barrelled mortars; method of ranging own mortars.
REEL 7 Continues: story of patrol, subsequent role in capturing group of houses and sight of German forces' attack on neighbouring positions; story of Lieutenant Giff Footer's threatening troops during attack; story of Lieutenant Douglas Tiffin inspiring troops during advance under artillery fire; story of coming under fire after being positioned by Major Denis Worrall on forward slope under German observation; crossing rivers; unit casualties at Balignano Spur, 10/10/1944; effects of German mines; stories of occupying observation post in church tower, superficial neck wound from artillery shell splinter and reception from Italian civilians at Cesena, 19/10/1944; rest periods; receiving drafts from anti-aircraft units and question of unit morale, rest periods.
REEL 8 Continues: role censoring letters; letter contact with GB; absence of pastoral role; role writing to parents of casualty; story of narrow escape from German mine whilst riding motorcycle; climate; drinking habits; amusing story of Major Harry Mynheer being hit by Italian civilian he was attempting to calm during German artillery fire; opinion of Major Laurence Stringer; story of Lieutenant Douglas Tiffin inspiring troops during advance under artillery fire; question of amount of use of mortars; opinion of various officers. Aspects of operations as officer with Mortar Platoon, Support Coy, 16th Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in Greece, 12/1944-4/1945: reaction to move to Greece; situation and nature of Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) insurgent activities in Athens; period in Patras; dinner with Greek civic dignitaries; question of feeding Greek civilians; story of detonating German mines. Recollections of operations as officer with 16th Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in Italy, 4/1945-5/1945: role in charge of Motor Transport Section during voyage back to Italy.
REEL 9 Continues: reaction to return to Italy; move to Bertinoro sector; story of getting vermouth from distillery captured by 2nd New Zealand Infantry Div personnel; celebrations on VE Day, 8/5/1945: Aspects of period as officer with 16th Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in Austria, 5/1945-1/1946: riding demonstration by Cossack horesemen of the former XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps and their repatriation to Soviet Union; move to Brückl; tense nature of situation; move to Wildon; patrols looking for fugitive Nazis; relations with Austrian civilians; relationship with neighbouring German unit; period in Vienna, 10/1945-11/1945; disbandment of battalion, 1/1946. Aspects of period as officer with 5th Bn Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt (Sherwood Foresters), 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Div in Austria, 1/1946-7/1946: role as transport officer; delay in demobilisation due to soldier's court case after serious accident. Post-war life and career: farming; prior recollection of death of brother Sergeant John Dodd serving with 103 Sqdn, No 1 Group, Bomber Command, RAF, 29/3/1942; question of effects of war service.
