Interview with Macleod Forsyth

British NCO served with 2nd Bn Parachute Regiment in GB, 10/1941-10/1942, including Operation Biting, the raid on Bruneval, France, 27/2/1942-28/2/1942; served with 2nd Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in North Africa, 11/1942-7/1943; served with 8th Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 36th Infantry Bde, 78th Infantry Div in Italy, 8/1943-5/1945

REEL 1 Background in GB, 1912-1933: family; education; employment. Aspects of period with Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) in GB, 5/1933-9/1939: basic training at Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) Regimental Depot, Stirling; character of army biscuits; nature of manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain; degree of fitness in British Army pre-Second World War; training recruits and qualities looked for; attitude to parade ground drill. Aspects of period as NCO with Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) in GB, 1939-1941: opinion of militiamen trained at Alloa, 1939; fear of firearm accidents with new recruits, 1940; guard duties on Orkney Islands; story of one soldier who accidentally shot another and having to arrange military funeral; volunteering for special duties, 1941. REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of training as NCO with 2nd Bn Parachute Regt in GB, 10/1941-2/1942: reporting to battalion at Chesterfield; formation of Scottish C Coy; character of training including jumping from moving lorries; parachute training at No 1 Parachute Training School, RAF at RAF Ringway; reaction to first parachute jump; attitude to prospect of being Returned to Unit for refusing to jump; hunger during training because of high energy expenditure. Recollections of operations as NCO with C Coy, 2nd Bn Parachute Regt during Operation Biting, the raid on Bruneval, France, 27/2/1942-28/2/1942: jumping on target and paratroopers apprehension of tracer fire from Le Havre; problem with radio link to Royal Navy; operation objectives; execution of raid; treatment of paratroopers on return; equipment carried by paratroopers and engineers; role during operation; transfer to A Coy, 2nd Bn Parachute Regt, 1942. Recollections of operations as NCO with A Coy, 2nd Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in North Africa, 11/1942-5/1943: landing in Algiers, French Algeria, 11/1942; reaction to French policeman's brutality towards Arab civilian, Algiers, French Algeria, 11/1942; failure of raw United States Army troops at Kasserine Pass, Tunisia, 2/1943; parachute drop at Depienne, near Tunis, Tunisia; withdrawal to Medjez-el-Bab, Tunisia; Major John Frost's use of hunting horn. REEL 3 Continues: hallucinations on retreat from Tunis; aspects of battle of Cork Wood, Sedjenane, Tunisia, 1943, including officer's panic, artillery hit on mule supply train, reaction to sight of dead paratrooper and refusal to obey 'no blankets for burial order'; tendency to speak his mind to officers; reasons for being Returned to Unit. Recollection of operations as NCO with Y Coy, 8th Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 36th Infantry Bde, 78th Infantry Div in Italy, 7/1943-5/1945: joining battalion Mount Etna, Sicily, 18/7/1943; landing at Termoli; contrast between regiment and Parachute Regiment in action; contact with German Army soldier, Termoli. REEL 4 Continues: brush with German Army patrol on River Sangro; failure of unit's grenades; crossing River Po on pontoon bridge, 1945; question of deliberate 'bellying in' of tanks by armoured unit; opinion of commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel John 'Hamish' Taylor. Recollections of period as NCO with 8th Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 36th Infantry Bde, 78th Infantry Div in Austria, 1945: question of observing on non-fraternisation order; cancellation of leave; move to Heligenblut am Grossglockner; story of unreasonable request of Royal Air Force warrant officer for carriage to himself on train journey; attitude of commanding officer to giving him permission to marry Austrian civilian, 12/1945. Aspects of post-war period with Housing Department, War Office in London, GB: policy towards allowing war widows to keep their houses; opinion of politician Manny Shinwell's treatment of war widows; question of post-war British Army discipline; question of lessons learnt about patriots. REEL 5 Continues: attitude to having served in Second World War. Reflections on service in Second World War: question of those who pretend to have participated in Operation Biting and Operation Market Garden; question of American paratroopers use of second parachute; accident he witnessed in parachute jumping; award of Military Medal for action at Cork Wood, Sedjenane, Tunisia; story of father's objection to going into coal mining in 1920s.