Interview with Douglas Frederick Covill

British trooper served with 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own), 2nd Armoured Bde, 1st Armoured Div in France 1940; NCO served with 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own), 2nd Armoured Bde, 1st Armoured Div in North Africa and Italy, 11/1941-1/1945; served with 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own), 56th (London) Infantry Div in Italy, 1/1945-5/1945

REEL 1 Background in Croydon, GB, 1920-1937: family including story of grandfather's volunteering for service in Boer War; enlistment in 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) in GB, 1937. Recollections of operations as trooper with 10th Royal Hussars (Princes of Wales's Own), 2nd Armoured Bde, 1st Armoured Div in France, 1940: role as tank gunner, 6/1940; types of tanks used; mining of bridge at Rouen and loss of tank in River Seine; evacuation from Brest aboard TSS Manx Maid, 6/1940; opinion of German forces in action; German Air Force attack on refugees on roads; participation in actions at Huppy and Rouen including targets fired at, method of firing and hits on tanks. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT City of Paris from GB to Egypt, 1941: hospitality experienced in South Africa. Recollections of operations as NCO with A Sqdn, 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own), 2nd Armoured Bde, 1st Armoured Div in North Africa, 11/1941-5/1943: advance against Italians; water discipline; Christmas, 25/12/1941; use of 'Jock Columns'; use of smoke to advance on Germans at Knightsbridge Box, Libya, 6/1942; charge at Bir Hakeim, Libya, 6/1942; feint attacks on Ruweisat Ridge, Egypt, 7/1942; loss of his tank in minefield and securing first aid for wounded German soldiers, Kidney Ridge, Egypt, 8/1942; use of cardboard tanks to deceive Germans, 8/1942. REEL 2 Continues: level of casualties in unit; wounding in hand; question of superiority of German tanks; story of capture of officer who met General Erwin Rommel; withdrawal and re-equipping of unit with Sherman Tank, Khatatba, Egypt, 9/1942; passing through minefield during Battle of El Alamein, Egypt, 10/1942; dispersing into dummy minefield, 23/10/1942; massacre of C Sqdn by German 88mm Guns, 23/10/1942; re-equipping after Battle of El Alamein; attack on Mareth Line, Tunisia, 3/1943; opinion of American tank action in Tunisia, 3/1943; action during Battle of El Alamein, Egypt, 10/1942-11/1942; anti-rabies injections in Algiers, French Algeria, 1943. Recollections of operations as NCO with A Sqdn, 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own), 2nd Armoured Bde, 1st Armoured Div and 56th (London) Infantry Div in Italy, 1944-1945: advance to Ancona for attack on Gothic Line, 1944; attack on Gothic Line; sight of headless German corpses after Gurkha attack; conversion of unit to infantry until arrival of new tanks on River Senio; fitting of platypuses on tanks to deal with soft ground, 1/1945; crossing Lake Comacchio, 1945; wounding in German Panzerschreck attack at Argenta; casualties and aid he gave to wounded crew, 4/1945. REEL 3 Continues: advance to River Po and end of war, 5/1945. Aspects of period as NCO with 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own), 2nd Armoured Bde, 1st Armoured Div in Trieste, Italy, 1945: orders to remove Yugoslavian 'Titoists' from city; story of being threatened with court martial for pulling down Soviet flag, 1945; degree of resistance of Yugoslavian 'Titoists'; story of escorting food convoys from Graz to Vienna, Austria, 1945. Aspects of period as NCO with 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) in Lübeck, Germany, 1945: border patrols along border of Soviet Zone of Occupation, Germany, 1945; opinion of Soviet forces. Aspects of period as NCO with 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) in Radfan, Aden, Federation of Southern Arabia, 1964: replacement of old sultan by new sultan, Salalah, Dhofar Province, Oman; retirement, 1971; quartermaster role in Radfan, 1964.