Description
Object description
British sapper served with Royal Engineers in Iceland, 1940-1941; NCO trained as glider pilot with Glider Pilot Regiment in GB, 1942-1943; served with B Sqdn, No 1 Wing, Glider Pilot Regt in GB and North West Europe, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Victoria Canada and GB, 1913-1939: family; education in boy's home in Farningham; employment in building trade; mother's return from Canada; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; membership of Young Communist League, 1936-1939; failed attempts to fight for Spanish Republic during Spanish Civil War; joining Young Communist League in Croydon, 1936. Aspects of period as sapper with Royal Engineers in GB, 1939-1940: formation of company; rates of pay.
REEL 2 Continues: reasons for joining Royal Engineers; abortive plans to send company to Norway, 4/1940. Recollections of period as sapper with Royal Engineers in Iceland, 1940-1941: arrival, 7/1940; building facilities for troops and Royal Air Force; conducting socialist propaganda in unit; decorating of his bed with red flags on German invasion of Soviet Union, 22/6/1941; reaction to German invasion of Soviet Union; relations between British troops and Icelanders; political activity among Icelanders; British use of local Icelander labour; making contact with Icelander Communists; meeting in Reykjavik to welcome back Communists from Brixton Prison in GB; lack of impact of his socialist propaganda on his Royal Engineer comrades. Aspects of training as glider pilot with Glider Pilot Regiment in GB, 1942-1944: volunteering for airborne forces in GB, 1942.
REEL 3 Continues: selection for Glider Pilot Regiment, summer 1942; pattern of glider pilot training, 1942-1943; opinion of role of Royal Air Force in formation of Glider Pilot Regiment; joining 2nd Bn Glider Pilot Regt, 1943. Recollections of abortive operation as NCO with B Sqdn, No 1 Wing, Glider Pilot Regt in GB, D-Day, 6/6/1944: selection as one of three glider crews to attack Merville Battery, Normandy, France; reasons for his own gliders failure to take part in operation.
REEL 4 Continues: difficult take off from RAF Brize Norton; dangers of cumulus cloud to gliders; snapping of tow rope and reaction to it; forced landing at RAF Odiham; discovery of causes of accident; attitude of 9th Bn Parachute Regt passengers despite failure to reach target.
REEL 5 Continues: relations between glider pilots and Royal Air Force tug crews. Recollections of operations as NCO with B Sqdn NO 1 Wing, Glider Pilot Regt during Operation Market Garden in Netherlands, 9/1944: move to RAF Manston in preparations for Operation Market Garden; flight of gliders from GB to Netherlands, 9/1944; lack of sense of urgency after landings; reception by Dutch civilians in outskirts of Arnhem; orders to retrace steps and return to Oosterbeek; move into grounds of Hartenstein Hotel; making tea under German mortar fire; narrow escape from mortar fire; secondment of Parachute Regiment, 22/9/1944.
REEL 6 Continues: move to headquarters near Vreewijk Hotel, 22/9/1944; foraging for food; amusing story of cockney soldier under German fire, 24/9/1944; threat of German commander to destroy house he was holding with tank fire; circumstances of withdrawal; effect of events on morale; diet of bottled plums, 23/9/1944-25/9/1944; shooting of German Army soldier, 25/9/1944; collapse of comrade's morale; reaction to being under orders to hold impossible positions, 25/9/1944.
REEL 7 Continues: reprimand from Parachute Regiment officer for allowing men to leave positions; reaction to order to withdraw; precautions taken from withdrawal from house; heavy German fire from warehouse into house formerly held by glider pilots; withdrawal past Hartenstein Hotel; release of German prisoners of war from Hartenstein Hotel; move to banks of River Nederrijn, 25/9/1944; discipline of British troops awaiting evacuation; ferrying of escaping survivors across River Nederrijn by Canadian Army Engineers; arriving on south bank of River Nederrijn; amusing story relating to comrade Staff Sergeant Ted Bevan; treatment by Church Army in Eindhoven; nervous reaction to participation in Operation Market Garden by chain smoking cigarettes.
REEL 8 Continues: story of British airborne soldier captured during Operation Market Garden and how he received retaliation from German ex-prisoners of war he had mistreated. Recollections of operations as NCO with B Sqdn, No 1 Wing, Glider Pilot Regt during Operation Varsity, the crossing of the River Rhine, Germany, 24/3/1945: conversion to General Aircraft Hamilcar Glider in GB, 1944; attitude towards forthcoming Operation Varsity; personal morale prior to Operation Varsity; plan to spiral down on landing; asking for more height from tug pilot; loosing sight of landing zone in spiral approach; survival of collision with roof of house on landing; shooting German officer who approached crashed glider; taking cover with co-pilot, Staff Sergeant Jack Codd in wood.
REEL 9 Continues: Canadian paratrooper's wish to shoot German prisoners of war for the shooting helpless Canadian paratroopers in trees; belief of two German prisoners of war that they were digging their own graves; story of liberating alarm clock from Canadian paratroopers; comrades acquisition of German electric clock as booty.