Description
Object description
British NCO served with 1/8th (Machine Gun) Bn Middlesex Regt, General Headquarters Troops and 3rd Infantry Div, British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium, 4/1940-5/1940; served with No 2 Commando and 11th Special Air Service Battalion in GB, 6/1940-9/1941; officer served with 1st Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in GB, Sicily, Italy and during Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 1943-1944; prisoner of war in Germany, 1944-1945; served with 1st Bn Welch Regt, 29th British Infantry Bde, 1st Commonwealth Div in Korea, 3/1952-6/1952
Content description
REEL 1 Background in London and Staines, GB, 1919-1939: family; education; employment; reasons for joining Territorial Army, 1938. Aspects of period as private and NCO with 1/8th (Machine Gun) Bn Middlesex Regt (Duke of Cambridge's Own) in GB and France, 9/1939-5/1940: background to promotion to sergeant; unit move to join General Headquarters Troops, British Expeditionary in France, 4/1940; role digging anti-tank defences; stationing around Lille, France. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1/8th Bn Middlesex Regt (Duke of Cambridge's Own), 3rd Infantry Div, British Expeditionary Force in Belgium and France, 5/1940: start of German offensive, 10/5/1940; unit casualties during move into Belgium; role of 3rd Infantry Div; move to Brussels area Belgium; sighting of Vickers Machine Guns; problems of obtaining transport; withdrawal towards Albert Canal, Belgium; holding bridges over Albert Canal, Belgium; wounding by German mortar-fire; evacuation to hospital to Lille, France; evacuation by ambulance to Dunkirk, France.
REEL 2 Continues: arrival at Dunkirk, France; evacuation aboard hospital ship to GB. Aspects of hospitalisation for wounds in GB, 1940: treatment on hospital train; arrival at Axminister; hearing of doctor's behaviour towards mortally wounded comrade. Aspects of period as NCO with No Commando and 11th Bn Special Air Service Battalion in GB, 6/1940-9/1941: use of Gammon Bomb; change of unit name from No 2 Commando to 11th Special Air Service; role testing defences of Royal Air Force stations in GB; reasons for disbandment of unit and conversion to 1st Bn Parachute Regt, 9/1941. Recollections of operations as officer with 1st Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in Sicily, Italy, 1943: background to officer training and move to North Africa; problems with American pilot during parachute drop on Primosole Bridge; ambushing patrol at Primosole Bridge; destruction and capture of pillboxes; wounding in hand; capture of Primosole Bridge.
REEL 3 Continues: destruction of German Army petrol convoy; reaction of company commander to lack of POWs; question of inefficiency of United States Army Air Force; German counter-attack on his depleted battalion; arrival of relieving forces; evacuation as wounded to North Africa, then GB; later problems of parachute training with wounded hand in GB, 1943-1944. Recollections of operations as officer with 6 Platoon, S Coy, 1st Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div during Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 9/1944: question of sighting of drop zones; mustering on coloured smoke; question of German preparedness for British airborne troops landing.
REEL 4 Continues: move towards Arnhem; problems with wireless sets; unit officer casualties; German ambush on paratrooper column; destruction of German machine gun positions; loss of Universal Carrier crews; action near Koepelgevagenis Prison and St Elisabeth Hospital, Arnhem; method of crossing roads; destruction of Universal Carriers; role locating stragglers; hand-to-hand fighting with Waffen-SS NCO; techniques for clearing German machine gun positions; wounding by sniper; house to house fighting. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Germany, 1944-1945: transport into Germany; behaviour of German captors; arrest for throwing coffee on Germans who had urinated in prisoners of war coffee; meeting with David Stirling.
REEL 5 Continues: behaviour by Schutzstaffel (SS) in German Air Force correction centre, 2/1945; nature of treatment by Schutzstaffel (SS) and post-war effects. Recollections of operations as officer with 1st Bn Welch Regt, 29th British Infantry Bde, 1st Commonwealth Div in South Korea, 3/1952-6/1952: background to volunteering for service in Korean War; role as draft control officer on voyage from GB to South Korea; transfer to unit; move into front line at Hill 355; question of only junior officers patrolling; meeting with Korean agents on River Samichon.
REEL 6 Continues: finding Chinese positions on three day patrol; amusing banter after crossing fertilised Korean paddy fields; discovery of Chinese People's Volunteer Army observation post on Hill 227; reasons for failure on subsequent raid on Chinese People's Volunteer Army observation post; wounding during attack on Hill 227; fate of Chinese People's Volunteer Army prisoners of war; evacuation by helicopter to American run hospital; opinion of Chinese People's Volunteer Army troops.
REEL 7 Continues: Reflections on military service: question of differing motivations for service in Second World War and Korean War; physical effects of military service; historical background to Korean conflict; attitude towards use of flame-throwers and phosphorus grenades; story of training with 11th Special Air Service Battalion in Scotland, 1940-1941; nature of train journey as prisoner of war rom Arnhem, Netherlands into Germany, 1944.
