Description
Object description
British officer served with 3rd Bn Gold Coast Regt, Royal West African Frontier Force on the Gold Coast, 1939-1940; served with 3rd Bn Gold Coast Regt, 24th (Gold Coast) Infantry Bde, 12th (African) Infantry Div in East Africa, 6/1940-5/1941; commanded Convalescent Depot at Poona, India, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, Kenya and Gold Coast, 1913-1939: family; education; degree of military training; move to Kenya, 1936; reaction to declaration of Second World War at Tarkwa, Gold Coast, 3/9/1939. Aspects of period as officer with 3rd Bn Gold Coast Regt, Royal West African Frontier Force on Gold Coast, 1939-1940: prior membership of local forces; move to join unit at Kumasi, 10/1939; reliance on African NCOs; use of Pidgin English; educating the soldiers; character of African troops; African troops' state of health; medical and religious practitioners in battalion.
REEL 2 Continues: discipline amongst African troops; question of volunteer status of African troops; presence of wives and children in lines; building up strength of battalion, 1939-1940. Recollections of period as officer with 20 Platoon, D Coy, 3rd Bn Gold Coast Regt, 24th (Gold Coast) Infantry Bde, 12th (African) Infantry Div in Kenya, 1940-1941: nature of voyage to East Africa, 6/1940; move to Northern Frontier District of Kenya, 7/1940; Rhodesian reinforcements to D Coy; personnel in platoon; relations with NCOs.
REEL 3 Continues: instruction of soldiers about Italian forces; basing at Wajir Fort, 7/1940-12/1940; shooting down of Italian aircraft; role as Ki-Swahili language interpreter; collapse with dehydration; nature of patrolling. Recollections of operations with 20 Platoon, D Coy, 3rd Bn Gold Coast Regt, 24th (Gold Coast) Infantry Bde, 12th (African) Infantry Div in Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia, 1/1941-5/1941: advance to Afmadu, Italian Somaliland, 1/1941; reaction to sight of Italian wounded, early 1941; crossing River Juba, Italian Somaliland, 2/1941; physical condition during advance.
REEL 4 Continues: cleanliness of African troops; advance to Alessandria, Italian Somaliland; advance towards Ethiopia; surrendering of Italian forces; advance to Bardera, Italian Somaliland; narrow escape from Italian grenade; capture of Bardera and Issia Badowa, Italian Somaliland; advance over river into Ethiopia; character of advance towards Negelli, Ethiopia; mining of bridge; African troops' visit to former Italian Army brothel; Italian request to surrender to British rather than Ethiopians; capture of Italian officer and NCO.
REEL 5 Continues: Italian Blackshirt evacuation of Negele, Ethiopia; advance to Wadera, Ethiopia; commanding officer's reaction to unit being held up before Wadera, Ethiopia; incident of seconded King's African Rifles private who let him down; attitude of company commander to casualties; nature of Italian positions around Wadera, Ethiopia; weather conditions at Wadera, Ethiopia; attitude of African troops towards white officers; behaviour of battalion under artillery fire; plans to attack at Wadera, Ethiopia, 5/1941; character of Italian opposition to his aggressive reconnaissance at Wadera, Ethiopia; African troops' attitude to wounded.
REEL 6 Continues: wounding in leg, 5/1941. Aspects of wounding and hospitalisation in Kenya, 1941-1942: how his men rescued him in face of Italian attack; medical evacuation from battlefield at Wadera, Ethiopia; medical treatment he received for wounds; removal by air to Kenya; medical regrading; attitude to sharing hospital ward with Italian patients in Kenya; rejoining unit in Accra, Gold Coast, summer 1942. Aspects of period as officer with Gold Coast Regiment in India, 1944-1945: sight of Imperial Japanese Army Air Service bombing of Calcutta; work as air-supply despatcher over Kaladan Valley, Arakan, Burma; role commanding Convalescent Depot at Poona, 1944-1945; question of mishandling of African troops by British officers; question of changes in British Army from 1942; attitude to having served with African troops in Second World War.
REEL 7 Continues: question of why there were no African officers until the end of Second World War.