Description
Object description
British NCO served with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in GB, 1939-1943; served with 142 Suffolk Regt in Italy and Austria, 1943-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Dunfermline, 1921-1939: family circumstances; education; work as weaver in silk mill, 1934-1939. Recollections of recruitment and training with B Sqdn, 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry at Campbell Street Drill Hall, Dunfermline, 4/1939-9/1939: reasons for enlistment; drill; learning to drive 15cwt Bedford truck; training on Vickers machine gun and rifle; weekend camps at Annsmuir, Ladybank; summer camp at Catterick, 7/1939; question of training with two man tank; mobilisation, ca 28/8/1939; initial period billeted at home, 9/1939; guard duty. Period at Markinch, 10/1939-1/1940: billets; food rations; signal training; requisitioned vehicles; weeding out of unsuitable soldiers; Rolls Royce armoured car; opinion of Captain John Gilmour.
REEL 2 Continues: story illustrating innocence of Lieutenant Elliott; relationship with NCOs and ORs. Recollections of periods at Aldershot and Runfold, 1/1940-6/1940: accommodation in Beaumont Barracks; origin of black berets worn in Tank Corps; opinion of MPs; visits into Aldershot; fire piquet duty; move to Runfold, 2/1940; billets; method of driving Bren carrier and crew roles; opinion of Bren gun and comparison with Vickers machine gun; characteristics of Mark VII B tank including crew roles, question of inadequacy of armament in action with 1st Fife & Forfar Yeomanry in France, 1940, method of driving and problem of reverse steering; exercises and importance of taking hull down position. Periods at Dungannon and Bessbrook, 6/1940-7/1941: problem during train journey; billets; map reading exercises; characteristics of Valentine tanks including problems in steering and crew roles; move to Bessbrook in case of problems in Eire border area, 12/1941; relationship with Irish civilians.
REEL 3 Continues: story of meeting future wife; local line mills; reason for delaying marriage until after war; nature of exercises; move to billets in Bessbrook, 12/1940; story of missing Christmas celebrations in Dungannon due to guard duty, 25/12/1941. Period at Whitby, 7/1941-5/1942: billets; opinion of General Hobart and question of his role in devising concept of armoured divisions; training in driving on muddy moor areas and methods of recovering ditched tanks; characteristics of Matilda tank; organisation of troop; relationship with tank crew. Periods at Hove and Brighton, Fornham and Chippenham Camps, 5/1942-6/1943: relationship with civilians in Brighton and Hove; canteens; characteristics of Covenantor tank including introductory lecture from Hobart, steering and crew; characteristics of Crusader tank; background to volunteering for overseas service and interview with Gilmour, 6/1943. Voyage with draft to Algiers, Algeria, 6/1943: mess deck conditions and inspections; seasickness.
REEL 4 Continues: submarine alerts and depth charging by destroyers. Aspects of initial period in Algeria, 1943: first impression; story of reaction to accidentally seeing unveiled Arab woman; transit camp. Various aspects of period with 142 Suffolk Regt in Italy, 1943-1945: joining unit at Phillepeville; opinion of Churchill tank; attacks on German defensive lines; importance of assuming hull down positions; characteristics of Churchill tank including view as driver, problems in changing gear, side escape hatches in contrast to Sherman; Bezer machine guns and crew roles; compo food rations and cooking arrangements; fighting in Gothic Line area; British policy of firing whilst moving in contrast to German tanks; importance of tanks acting together to secure all-round observation and use of wireless; question of booby trapped German corpses in River Po; celebrations on VE Day, 8/5/1945. Period in Austria, 1945-1946: house searches to discover concealed weapons; relationship with Austrian civilians. Demobilisation, 1946. Post-war career: return to work at silk mills; mental effects of war service.