Description
Object description
British driver served with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in GB, 1939-1943; served as officer with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in North West Europe and Germany, 1944-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Dundee, 1919-1939: family circumstances; education; sporting activities; interest in cars and motorcycles; question of career; work as office boy and clerk at jute brokers office and in father's building business, ca 1933-1935; work as staff apprentice with sales office of printing firm; activities with 18th (Dundee) Bn, Boys Brigade; football activities; question of approach of war, 1938-1939. Recruitment and training with Headquarters Sqdn, 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry at Thistle Street Drill Hall, Dundee, 5/1939-9/1939: reasons for recruitment and influence of Sergeant Nelson Taylor; prior interview with Colonel Sharp; reception; delayed kitting out with uniform; formation of Troops; possession of driving licence and consequent role as driving instructor.
REEL 2 Continues: imprest vehicles; ex-jute works drill hall; opinion of Sergeant 'Geordie' Stenhouse; drill nights; driving instruction; weekend camps at Annismuir, Ladybank, including driving Dailmer Steyr Armoured Car and Mark VI B Tank, hut accommodation and visits to local towns; question of signal training; attending summer camp at Waitworth Lines, Catterick Camp, 7/1939, including walk to camp, reception and riding motorcycles; role as member of key party; mobilisation, 1/9/1939; cleaning old rifles; reaction to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; nature of training; story of acting as first guard at Waitworth Lines, 7/1939. Period at Kirkaldy, 9/1939-10/1939: billets and conditions of service; relationship with civilians; driving instructing. Period at Leslie, 10/1939-1/1940: billets; opinion of Bren carrier and role training drivers; opinion of Colonel Sandy McIntosch and use of his family tartan on 2F&FY badge; opinion of various officers and NCOs including Lieutenants Joe Grimond, Joe Powell and Alastair Grant.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of various officers, NCOs and ORs including Lieutenants Alastair Grant, Robert Bruce and Squadron Sergeant Major Dave Grainger, Troopers Tommy Wilmott; German air raid on Forth, 16/10/1939. Cold weather during period in Beaumont Barracks, Aldershot, 1/1940-2/1940. Period at Farnham, 2/1940-6/1940: reception of English draft; PT sessions; relationship with civilians; promotion to lance corporal; map reading exercises; guarding airfield. Period at Dunagannon, Northern Ireland, 6/1940-12/1940: journey out; billets; convoy driving training; avoiding route marches; visits to Dublin; relationship with Irish civilians and story of first awareness of divisions between religious communities; story of dispute with Sergeant Grainger over guard duty on birthday; role of Padre Oswald Welsh; flying back to GB on leave; promotion to corporal. Period at Bessbrook, 12/1940-7/1941: role as orderly corporal; departure of Colonel McIntocsh; question of republican sympathies of Irish civilians. Recollection of period at Whitby, 7/1941-4/1942: conversion to armoured regiment in 29th Armoured Bde; characteristics of Valentine tank including method of driving, role of crew, maintenance of diesel engine and tracks and cleaning; exercises on moors and importance of taking up hull down position; visit to tank firing range; opinion of Colonel Edward Cooper; drill and PT session; question of commission; corporals' mess; training at Goathland; promotion to sergeant; guard duty and 'stick' system; relationship with civilians; question of assimilation of English drafts.
REEL 5 Continues: posting to newly formed Reconnaissance Troop, Headquarters Sqdn; equipment with Dingo Armoured Car and reconnaissance role during exercises. Periods at Stanmore Park, Brighton, Chailey and Hove, 4/1942-8/1942: role as acting Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant; expansion of unit on arrival of new drafts; preliminary interview and test for possible commission; reaction to leaving unit. Period of pre-OCTU training at Blackdown Camp, ca 8/1942: origins of cadets; posting in charge of troop; selection for specialist training on armoured cars. Recollections of period on Armoured cars course, HAC Sqdn, Royal Military College, Sandhurst, ca 9/1942-5/1943: role of officer's servant; room accommodation; food rations; initial training courses; football activities; selection as cadet commandant; opinion of Regimental Sergeant Major Brand; tactical training exercises; survival course at Capel Curig; Sten gun accident; lectures; nature of officers' mess; question of cadets returned to unit.
REEL 6 Continues: reasons for selection of commission into 12th Lancers; passing out parade and award of belt of honour. Recollections of period attached to Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment at Ashford, 5/1943-1/1944: attachment with other personnel of 12th Lancers to supervise conversion of unit into armoured car unit; role training personnel in use of Daimler armoured car; billets; role of officer's servant; relationship with ORs, NCOs and infantry officers; preparing armoured car hard standings concealed in woods; meeting wife and marriage, 1/1944. Period as gunnery instructor at Gunnery Training School, Lulworth Camp, 1/1944-9/1944: prior gunnery course; reaction to posting; role of NCO instructors; role as acting adjutant; background to requesting transfer to active service. Story of meeting Major John Gilmour and consequent posting to 2F&FY whilst at Officers Holding Unit at Vilvoorde, Brussels, Belgium, 9/1944-10/1944. Recollections of period with 2 Troop, B Sqdn, 2 F&FY in Ijselstein sector, 10/1944-12/1944: acceptance of reduction in rank to lieutenant; reception and question of status as 'ranker' officer; opinion of various officers and NCOs including Colonel Alec Scott, Major Peter Lorram, Captain Peter Ryde and Lieutenants David Reid and John Darke and Sergeants Ken Dawson, Jack Gee and Norman Kirby.
REEL 7 Continues: opinion of various officers including Majors John Gilmour, Richard Leith and Alastair Grant, Lieutenant Scott-Brownlie, Major Hutchisson and Lieutenant Eric Wood; B Sqdn officers' mess; billets; characteristics of Sherman tank including inadequate armour, track problems and flammability; role as troop and tank commander; crew roles; muddy conditions; story of Padre Welsh attempting to assist Sherman crew in difficulties under fire; standing patrols; story of taking leave party into Antwerp and casualties in V2 hit on Rex Cinema; standing patrols; overnight laager including cooking role of co-driver and re-supply; story of explosion of soya sausages tin; compo food rations; water supply; making tea; stowage of equipment on Sherman; revolver; tank suit.
REEL 8 Continues: latrines; personal morale; facilities at B Echelon at Helmond. Period at Ypres, 12/1944: handing in Sherman; attending course in Comet tank at Poperinghe; billets; relationship with Belgian civilians. Recollections of operations in Ardennes, 12/1944-1/1945: collecting Sherman from Brussels and carrying out emergency maintenance; cold weather during drive to Dinant; close escape from German machine gun fire; occupation of Ansrem; situation; Christmas celebrations, 25/12/1944; problems with icy roads during drive to Falmagne; snow; patrols; injured testicles through accident with spring seat; hospitalisation in Lille. Period in Ypres, 1/1945-3/1945: return of unit; characteristics of Comet tank; relationship with crew including co-driver Eddie Renn. Driver Eddie Weinberg, Gunner Stubbs and Wireless operator; Gravelines firing ranges; impressions of visit by Montgomery and Major General Pip Roberts; opinion of Brigadier Roscoe Harvey; officers' mess and drinking habits.
REEL 9 Continues: Gravelines firing range; personalising and nicknaming Comet; learning German phrases; training exercise at Montaigu sector, 3/1945; question of briefing. Aspect of advance into Germany, 3/1945-5/1945: crossing Rhine on pontoon bridge; initial absence of opposition; death of Major Loram, 8/4/1944; opening fire on buildings; action at Schwarnstedt; burial of Sergeant Harry Christie; panzerfaust problem; absence of German tank opposition; case of accidental firing of 76mm gun in laager at Esperke, 10/4/1944; meeting German officer and his warning of 'gas mines'; reaction to passing Belsen Concentration Camp; isolation after crossing Muden bridge; overnight laager; isolation of squadrons; opinion of Major David Voller; wearing scarf; opinion of Captain Sam Miller; rest period; decline in German resistance.
REEL 10 Continues: reception from German civilians; leading advance down motorway to Lubeck, 2/5/1945; reception from German civilians, German POWs and question of continued German resistance; reactions to VE Day, 8/5/1945. Recollections of period at Bredstedt, 5/1945-2/1946: German POWs; billets; role rounding up German POWs on islands of Fohr and Sylt; controlling movements of German troops evacuating Denmark; role on attachment to Hogel Displaced Persons Camp; role as Brigade Sports Officer; question of transferring with Colonel Scott to another unit; opinion of Colonel Hutchkisson and transfer as second in command of A Sqdn; nunnery billets; football competition; questions of demobilisation and postings to other units; role as assistant adjutant, Headquarter Sqdn; removal of Comets; role as acting adjutant during dissolution of unit, 2/1946. Period with Inns of Court Regt, 2/1946-5/1946: attitude to demobilisation; officers' drinking habits; role as orderly officer; visits to Denmark; question of non-fraternisation with Germans.
REEL 11 Continues: question of black market; educational courses; personalised jeep; disposal of vehicles in quarry. Return to GB and demobilisation, 5/1946: medical; demob suit. Post-war career: delayed honeymoon; return to work at printing firm; effects of war service; birth of son, 7/1946; buying house; question of rejoining territorials and call up as reserve officer to summer camp; membership of South of the Border Group, Fife & Forfar Yeomanry; story of 60th anniversary reunion at Dundee, 4/1999.