Interview with Edward Bourne Ruffman

British officer served with 166th Light Anti-Aircraft Bty, 56th (East Lancashire) Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 6th Anti-Aircraft Bde, Mauriceforce in Norway, 4/1940- 5/1940; served with 5th Light Anti-Aircraft Bty, 2nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 4th Anti-Aircraft Bde in North Africa, 5/1941-11/1941; hospitalised for wounds in Egypt, South Africa and Park Prewett Hospital, Basingstoke, GB, 1941-1943; served as chief officer with Merchant Navy during Special Operations Executive ball-bearing runs between GB and Sweden, 1944-1945

REEL 1 Background in Newcastle upon Tyne, GB, 1916-1939: family; education; reasons for initial failure to obtain place at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Camberley, 1934. Recollections of operations as officer with 166th Light Anti-Aircraft Bty, 56th (East Lancashire) Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 6th Anti-Aircraft Bde, Mauriceforce at Namsos, Norway, 4/1940-5/1940: duties as anti-aircraft instructor in GB prior to posting to Norway, 1940; voyage from aboard HMS Kimberley from GB to Norway; arrival at Namsos, 4/1940; reporting to General Carton de Wiart; role with rearguard; dumping guns at Namsos dock; German Air Force attacks at Namsos; return to Scapa Flow, GB, 5/1940. Aspects of period as officer 166th Light Anti-Aircraft Bty, 56th (East Lancashire) Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 6th Anti-Aircraft Bde in GB, 1940: reception on return from Norway; airfield defence duties during Battle of Britain; contact with Squadron Leader Leonard Cheshire at RAF Dishforth, 8/1940; reasons for volunteering for service in Middle East. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Britannic from GB to Egypt via South Africa, 1940: conditions on board; physical transformation of nursing sisters during voyage; reception in Durban, South Africa. REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of operations as officer with 5th Light Anti-Aircraft Bty, 2nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 4th Anti-Aircraft Bde in North Africa, 1941: defence of Alexandria Harbour, Egypt; story of discovery of location of German Air Force bomb on ammunition wharf at Alexandria Harbour, Egypt; move to during first siege to Tobruk Garrison, Libya; visits to forward observation post at Tobruk, Libya; breakout from Tobruk, Libya; story of being wounded on mine during attempt to rescue infantrymen, Libya, 23/11/1941. Aspects of hospitalisation for wounds in Egypt, South Africa and GB, 1941-1943: nature of wounds; medical work carried out by Sir Harold Gillies at Park Prewett Hospital, Basingstoke; invaliding out of British Army, 7/1943. Recollections of operations as chief officer with Merchant Navy during Special Operations Executive ball-bearing runs between GB and Sweden, 1944-1945: invitation to join; role of George Binney in gaining ball-bearing supplies from Gothenburg, Sweden. REEL 3 Continues: ball-bearing run between Kingston upon Hull, GB and Gothenburg, Sweden; near interception of his motor gun boat HMS Gay Viking in Kattagut and Skagerrak, North Sea; job aboard motor gun boat HMS Gay Viking; execution of ball-bearing runs; aid received from Henry Denham, naval attache in Stockholm, Sweden; story of collision between HMS Gay Viking and HMS Hopewell and his period in sea afterwards, 5/2/1945. REEL 4 Continues: accommodation at Royal Station Hotel, Kingston upon Hull between operations; recruitment to Special Operations Executive by Russell Wood; operation to Denmark, 1945; contact with Peter Tennant, press attaché in Stockholm Legation, Sweden; prior recollection of German Air Force raid on RAF Driffield, 15/8/1940. Aspects of hospitalisation in Egypt and South Africa, 1941-1942: medical treatment he received for wounds in Egypt, 1941; fate of wounded friend Captain John Goschen, lost aboard SS Chakdina, sunk off coast of Libya, 5/12/1941; memories of road accident in South Africa, 1942.