Description
Object description
British civilian member of Z Bty, 29th County of London (Battersea) Bn Home Guard in Battersea, London, GB, 1942-1943; trooper served with 1st Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, 8th Armoured Bde in North West Europe, 9/1944-5/1945; served with 1st The Royal Dragoons in Germany, 1946-1947
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Battersea, London, GB, 1926-1939: family; education. Aspects of period as evacuee from Battersea, London to Rowlands Castle, GB, 1939-1942: reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; evacuation with school; training with Officer Training Corps (OTC). Recollections of period as member of Z Bty, 29th County of London (Battersea) Bn Home Guard in Battersea, London, GB, 1942-1943: joining rocket battery, 1942; move to plotting room; organisation of rocket launcher sites; problems with unexploded rockets; firing pattern; training and operating launchers; guarding German prisoners of war; effect of bombing on Battersea area; work in plotting room. Aspects of training as trooper with Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 1/1944-8/1944: volunteering for military service, late 1943; reaction to basic training; move to Bovington Camp, 1/1944; Morse Code training at Bovington Camp; wireless training at Lulworth Cove, 6/6/1944; nature of gunnery and driving training; incident of driving into wall; composition of crew of M4 Sherman Tank.
REEL 2 Continues: dismounted training; character of exercises; forming draft at Barnard Castle. Recollections of operations as trooper with 1st Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, 8th Armoured Bde in North West Europe, 9/1944-5/1945: reception in unit; role in squadron office; joining tank crew as wireless operator; memories of tank crew; supporting 82nd Airborne Div, United States Army at Nijmegen, Netherlands; use of wireless nets and role as wireless operator; role supporting United States Army troops at Geilenkirchen, Germany, 11/1944; attacking German positions and grounding of tank; sleeping in tank; recovery of tank; operating with infantry; effect of German mortar fire.
REEL 3 Continues: condition of Geilenkirchen, Germany after fighting; withdrawal to Netherlands; Christmas period, 12/1944; role supporting 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Div in Venlo Pocket, Netherlands, 1/1945; contact with German Tiger Tanks during attack on village; tank crew's role as rearguard in village; memories of Trooper Bill Kendrick; capture of German prisoners of war; capture of Heinsberg, Germany; reasons for destroying church steeples; amusing story of taking showers in Netherlands; operating with No 1 Troop in Reichswald Forest, Germany, 2/1945-3/1945; firing into forest; plan for attack on Kleve, Germany; nature of advance through forest; arrival in Kleve, Germany; German defence of Kleve, Germany; knocking out of his tank.
REEL 4 Continues: nature of fighting in Kleve, Germany; withdrawal using by amphibious vehicles from Kleve, Germany to Nijmegen, Netherlands; burial of crew member; reception by Dutch civilians in Nijmegen, Netherlands; reforming of crew; opinion of Sherman Firefly Tank; opinion of M4 Sherman Tank; question of early model M4 Sherman Tank being prone to catching fire; role of Sherman Firefly; return to Kleve, Germany; readjusting gun; story of attack on German positions in farmhouse near Goch, Germany; description of four day ration packs; repairs to tank; opinion of German Jagdpanther Tank; accommodation in Goch, Germany.
REEL 5 Continues: knocking out of his tank at Issum, Germany; sheltering in infantry bunker; return to knocked out tank and destruction of German machine gun; technique for crossing River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; incident of fire on back of tank near Rees, Germany; supporting Canadian Army troops; party with Canadian Army troops; reception at unit; unit tank casualties; period in Hengelo, Netherlands, 1/4/1945-4/4/1945 including treatment of Dutch collaborators and relations with Dutch civilians.
REEL 6 Continues: reforming of troop; role of his tank in advance along single track road through forest; rescuing wireless operator from destroyed tank; capture of German prisoners of war; trooper's attempt to infest his wound; role of tank during attack on Cloppenburg, Germany; amusing story involvement in bank robbery at Cloppenburg, Germany; attack on Bremen, Germany, 4/1945; looting of German command blockhouse; German road blocking techniques; last action against Waffen-SS troops in farmhouse; reaction to end of Second World War, 8/5/1945. Aspects of period as trooper with 1st Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, 8th Armourd Bde in Germany, 5/1945-1/1946: guarding Displaced Persons camps.
REEL 7 Continues: participation in reconnaissance party to Berlin, 6/1945; typing duties; batering cigarettes; visit to Adolf Hitler's former Chancellery, Berlin, 6/1945; impressions of Soviet troops, disbandment of unit, 1/1946. Aspects of period with 1st The Royal Dragoons in Germany, 1946-1947: armoured car patrols on border between British and Soviet Zones of Occupation; raiding German collaborators' homes; guard duties in court; German illegal stills; move to Berlin; social activities in Berlin; incarceration in Soviet Zone of Occupation; use of cigarettes as currency; contact with German civilians in Berlin; guard duties in bakery, Berlin; character of black market in Berlin; playing cricket against German national team; taking part in Berlin Tattoo; reaction to serving with regiment.
REEL 8 Continues: attitude to having served in Second World War with Sherwood Rangers.