Interview with Leslie James Perry

British civilian in Barking, GB, 1939-1943; private served 2/4th Essex Regt, 163rd Infantry Bde in GB, 1943; signaller served with 1st Bn Suffolk Regt, 8th Infantry Bde, 3rd Infantry Div in GB and Normandy, France, 4/1944-7/1944

REEL 1 Background in Barking, GB, 1925-1939: family; education. Recollections of period as civilian living in Barking, 1939-1943: reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; employment for Plessey Ltd at Ilford; reasons for joining construction industry, 1941; demolition work in Norwich, 1942; reasons for joining British Army, 3/1943; prior recollections of life in Barking during 1930s; second-hand story of shot down Polish airman in Dagenham during Battle of Britain, 1940; effect of bomb blast on chickens; attempt to obtain German Air Force land mine parachute souvenir; German Air Force bombing of London Docks; public morale; attitude towards German Air Force crews. REEL 2 Continues: use of Anderson Shelter; contracting skin complaints from sleeping in clothes; membership of 12th (Barking and Ilford) City of London Home Guard; opinion of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Aspects of training with Essex Regiment Regimental Depot, Warley Barracks, Warley, Brentford, GB, 1943: induction into military life, 5/1943; procedure for inoculating troops and contracting vaccine fever; infantry training at Warley; punishment he received for scrumping apples. Aspects of period as private with 2/4th Bn Essex Regt, 163rd Infantry Bde in GB, 1943: joining battalion at Abbotsbury; mustard gas poisoning he got marching in Dorsetshire; coastal defence near Ventnor, Isle of Wight; character of battalion; stationing at Gravesend. REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period with 1st Bn Suffolk Regt, 8th Infantry Bde, 3rd Infantry Div in GB, 1944: volunteering for special role at Aldershot; reaction to learning of intended role during D- Day landings; move into sealed camp near Newhaven; use of anti-vermin powder; equipment issued for landings; postponement of D-Day, 4/6/1944 and 5/6/1944; orders not to communicate with civilians; lack of amphibious landing training. Recollections of operations as private with 1st Bn Suffolk Regt, 8th Infantry Bde, 3rd Infantry Div in Normandy, France, 6/6/1944: use of sea-sick pills, 5/6/1944; character of English Channel crossing, 6/6/1944; landing on Sword Beach; reaction to sight of dead 1st Bn South Lancashire Regt (The Prince of Wales's Volunteers) soldier; push inland to Hermanville-sur-Mer; reaction to potential of German armoured attack; unit objectives; problems of tackling German Strongpoint Hillman; second hand account of attack on Strongpoint Hillman. Recollections of operations with Headquarters Coy, 1st Bn Suffolk Regt, 8th Infantry Bde, 3rd Infantry Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-7/1944: period in static positions until, 27/6/1944; role as bodyguard to Corporal Cyril Bligh-Bingham MM; reaction to move into reserve. REEL 4 Continues: plans to recapture Château de la Londe, 28/6/1944; conversation he had with Royal Artillery officer about accuracy of supporting artillery barrage, 28/6/1944; under German machine gun fire at Château de la Londe; comrade who was able to pull himself out of shell-shocked condition, 28/6/1944; receiving tot of brandy; German shelling of positions and problems of thinking rationally. Recollections of wounding and hospitalisation in Normandy, France and GB, 1944: blowing up by mine, 5/7/1944; belief of stretcher-bearers that shock should have killed him; medical treatment he received in field, Normandy; handling of fatally wounded man; loading onto hospital ship; treatment for discomfort by Canadian nurse at Haslemere, GB; treatment in Nottingham General Hospital; belief of nursing sister that he would die of shock. REEL 5 Continues: generosity of United States Army troops to wounded hospital patients in Derby; reaction to death of cousin Corporal Wilf Everitt in Normandy, 3/8/1944; reasons for military classification as C2; reaction to role guarding German prisoners of war; attitude to having served in Normandy; effects of service in Normandy; story of unsatisfactory reference to psychiatrist after Second World War; question of accuracy of memory.