Description
Object description
British private served as driver served with 16th Bn, Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in GB, North Africa and Italy, 6/1940-10/1943
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Aldbrough St John, GB, 1910-1940: family circumstances; education; brothers' military service in First World War; sporting activities; education; employment as butcher, 1916-1940; church attendance and singing in choir; marriage, 1934; declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; question of seeking Reserved Occupation status.
REEL 2 Continues: reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Recollections of training as private with B Coy, 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in GB, 6/1940-1/1941: call-up for military service and case of illiterate conscript, 6/1940; train journey to Edinburgh, 6/1940; reception at and initial impressions of Norton Hall Park Camp, Edinburgh; kitting out; hair cut; reaction to swearing; opinion of NCOs, including Company Sergeant-Major George Gates; relations with fellow recruits; question of effects of military regime, 'bull' and discipline; rations; arrival of unit transport; route marches.
REEL 3 Continues: story of selection as driver; move to Dumfermline, 8/1940; weapons training; gas masks; latrines; move to Dalkeith, 10/1940; relations with civilians; disciplinary offenders; story of finding accommodation for visit by wife and baby; stories illustrating relations with civilians. Recollections of period as driver with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in GB, 1/1941-12/1942: story of journey to Thetford with advance party; hospitalisation with attack of mumps.
REEL 4 Continues: role as driver collecting stores on posting to Motor Transport Section attached to A Coy and issue of 15 cwt Chevrolet Truck; organisation of unit transport; camouflaging trucks and question of drivers polishing trucks; routine maintenance; role of fitters; speed limit; billeting at Shadwell Court in Thetford; opinion of various officers and NCOs; question of promotion; question of senior NCOs attitude towards drivers; role carrying equipment as drivers and cooking arrangements during exercises; story of mistaking officer for private during exercise; use of transport rather than marching on active service; driver's mate.
REEL 5 Continues: relations with civilians; role driving soldiers by truck into Thetford; detachment to South Staffordshire Regiment during unit move to Great Yarmouth, 7/1941; German Air Force raids; stories of problems with officers and other ranks of South Staffordshire Regiment; story of complaint over rations; tented accommodation and effects of bad weather on rejoining unit at North Walsham, 8/1941; accommodation at Shorncliffe Camp; detachment acting as guard company for Headquarters, South Eastern Command at Reigate; problems with drunken female personnel; question of venereal disease; Christmas celebrations, 25/12/1941; Salvation Army canteens; coastal defence duties at Sandgate; drivers' role operating searchlight; story of NCOs caught asleep on guard.
REEL 6 Continues: bar on civilians on beach; move to Rye, 3/1942: relations with civilians; patrols; German Air Force raids; canteen; coastal patrols; mortar training and near accident with Canadian Army troops; assisting with hop picking; relations with riflemen; story of pub fight between two soldiers and Canadian Army troops; story of lorry accident during exercise; convoy discipline; story of setting up road traffic directing signals during exercise.
REEL 7 Continues: move to Camberley, 11/1942; signs of overseas service including suddenly defunct telephone boxes, issue of unditching sand mats and leave situation; journey in convoy to Liverpool and problems with wet blankets in tented camp at Birkenhead, 12/1942; personal morale; move into holding camp at Liverpool; cases of desertions and self-inflicted wound; description of code used in letters to wife to overcome censorship. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Staffordshire from Liverpool, GB to Algiers, French Algeria, 25/12/1942-1/1/1943: kit carried on embarkation; conditions on messdeck; seasickness.
REEL 8 Continues: other units on broad troopship; seasickness; eating arrangements; route; initial impressions of Algiers, French Algeria; disembarkation. Aspects of period as driver with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div at Maison Carrée, French Algeria, 1/1943: march; billeting in farm; emergency rations; drinking wine; oranges; latrines; lectures; march back to pick up transport; conditions driving in convoy through Atlas Mountains, including adaptation to lorries to recycle radiator water, story of driver's mate buying from Arab civilians and problems with Universal Carrier brakes.
REEL 9 Continues: Recollections of operations as driver with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in Tunisia, 1/1943-3/1943: laager in woods and problems with mud at Sedjenane; situation; nightly convoy from B Echelon to A Coy positions at Green Hill; composition of rations; cooking arrangements; night driving conditions; German Air Force superiority and attacks on B Echelon positions in wood; story of ditched lorries; withdrawal of unit to Sedjenane sector; absence of Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Ware and senior officers during initial attack by German forces, 1/3/1943; priming hand grenades in preparation for counter-attack; sight of counter-attack at dawn, 1/3/1943; subsequent withdrawal and state of unit; removal of Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Ware and subsequent meeting as brigadier; opinion of Lieutenant-Colonel John Preston; role on detachment as driver with 1st Bn Parachute Regt, 3/1943; attitude of German prisoners of war; amusing story of Polish interpreter; use of hand grenades by 1st Bn Parachute Regt personnel; situation of headquarters; German artillery fire whilst evacuating headquarters.
REEL 10 Continues: infantry tactics used by 1st Bn Parachute Regt; rejoining unit; story of 1st Bn Parachute Regt personnel shooting Arabs suspected of passing on intelligence to German forces; story of getting lost driving through artillery positions during preliminary bombardment at start of advance on Tunis, 4/1943; battalion receiving draft from Wales; story of tanks coming up; question of air support; opinion of American forces. Recollections of period as driver with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in Tunisia and French Algeria, 5/1943-9/1945: German prisoners of war; rest period at Hammam-Lif, Tunisia; driving troops into Tunis, Tunisia and necessity of staying with lorries to prevent Arab stealing; reaction of troops long wait lining roads for Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden; move to Blida, French Algeria, 6/1943; cases of soldiers drunk on wine; training; story of local leave with Company Sergeant-Major Stanley 'Tug' Wilson; move to camp at Bizerte, Tunisia, 8/1943; German Air Force raids; dangerous petrol dumps.
REEL 11 Continues: Entertainment National Service Association (ENSA) concerts; German Air Force raids; practice in embarking lorries on to Landing Ship Tanks; water proofing lorries; awareness of invasion of Italy; subsequent reports from Italian civilians of German awareness of invasion plans; loading of Landing Ship Tank. Aspects of voyage from Bizerte, Tunisia to Salerno, Italy, 9/1943: officers' sand tables; hearing of Italian surrender, 8/9/1943; story of being trapped below decks during German Air Raid in harbour at Bizerte, Tunisia; volunteering for galley duties; opinion of American rations; sight of invasion fleet; German artillery fire on approach to Salerno, Italy, 10/9/1943. Recollections of operations as driver with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div at Salerno, Italy, 9/1943: landing at Salerno, Italy, 10/9/1943; confused nature of situation; reception from Italian civilians; joining A Coy in foothills; cutting officers' hair; sight of British Army troop movements; move to Hospital Hill, 11/9/1943-19/9/1943; terraces.
REEL 12 Continues: lorry park below Hospital Hill; NCO's loss of nerve; situation; ammunition carried on lorry; visiting Salerno supply dump; reaction to NCO going sick with loss of nerve; distribution of cigarettes from wounded officers; loss of contact with A Coy; explosion of lorry after direct hit by German artillery shell at battalion headquarters; personal morale; question of religious beliefs; effects of explosion of lorry at battalion headquarters; collection of replacement truck from B Echelon.
REEL 13 Continues: movement of battalion headquarters and further details of collection of replacement truck from B Echelon; German artillery fire on reinforcement troops arriving in Salerno; replacement A Coy truck; story of narrow escape from German artillery shelling of wagon line in Salerno. Aspects of operations as driver with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry, 139th Infantry Bde, 46th (North Midland) Infantry Div in Italy, 9/1943-10/1943: nature of road congestion caused by 7th Armoured Div and delays whilst carrying emergency bread ration up to unit through defile at Vietri sul Mare; move through Naples towards River Volturno; attack of jaundice and medical evacuation. Aspects of hospitalisation at Philippeville, French Algeria, 10/1943-11/1943: fat free diet; unnecessary armed guard on severely wounded German prisoner of war patients; presence of Auxiliary Territorial Service female survivors from sunk ship; story illustrating weakened state of health.
REEL 14 Continues: reaction to first normal meal. Aspects of period as driver with British Army in North Africa and Italy, 11/1943-4/1946: poor conditions of service in convalescent camps; failure of attempt to rejoin unit; various postings; period as guard at camp containing German prisoners of war at Philippeville, French Algeria; relationship with Glaswegian guards and German prisoners of war; story of allowing German prisoner of war out to steal apples; guarding Italian civilian fascist prisoners; various postings; period as driver in Algiers, French Algeria; various postings in Italy; leave in GB leave; reception on return to GB and demobilisation, 4/1946. Reflections on service with 16th Bn Durham Light Infantry: opinion of various officers, NCOs and Other Ranks; intended suspension of 16th Battalion Durham Light Infantry Regimental Association, 9/1999.