Interview with Godfrey Thomas Welch

British trooper served with Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons), 4th Armoured Bde in North West Europe, 6/1944-5/1945

REEL 1 Background in Edmonton, GB, 1923-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of period as civilian in Edmonton, GB, 9/1939-8/1943: reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; degree of German Air Force bombing in area; narrow escape from stick of bombs; firewatching duties; use of Anderson Shelter; lack of belief in German victory; effect of Prime Minister Winston Churchill on public morale; listening to radio; employment in Reserved Occupation. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 1943-1944: reasons for volunteering for Royal Armoured Corps, 8/1943; basic training at Richmond; question of level of expectations, 1943; training at Bovington Camp; gunnery training at Lulworth Camp; specialist roles in tank. Aspects of period as trooper with Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons), 4th Armoured Bde in GB, 1944: joining unit at Worthing; role as gunner/operator and crewing up procedure; General Bernard Montgomery's visit to Worthing; waterproofing tanks; armament of M4 Sherman Tank; move to Portsmouth; training in embarkation techniques. Recollections of operations as trooper with B Sqdn Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons), 4th Armoured Bde in Normandy, France, 7/6/1944-11/7/1944: conditions during crossing of English Channel; landing on Sword Beach, 7/6/1944. REEL 2 Continues: advance inland towards Carpiquet Airfield; effect of Allied bombing on Caen; question of failure of training to prepare him for tank being hit; start of attack on objective on Hill 112; effect of mortar fire on infantry in woods; effect of German 88mm Gun shell hit on his M4 Sherman Tank, 11/7/1944; wounding on bailing out of tank, 11/7/1944; operating in infantry role; second wound received from shrapnel; evacuation from battlefield; successes with his gunnery, 6/1944-7/1944; hit on German Panther Tank without initial penetration; second attack on German Panther Tank and it's destruction; destruction of German Panzer Mk IV Tank; attack on German multi-barrelled mortar unit; success against German self-propelled gun; recapitulation of incident on Hill 112. REEL 3 Continues: award of Military Medal; medical treatment for his wounds in GB, 1944-1945. Recollections of operations as trooper with B Sqdn, Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons), 4th Armoured Bde in North West Europe, 1/1945-5/1945: return to unit as driver in Netherlands, 1/1945; crossing River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; advance towards Bremen, Germany; knocking-out of tank by Panzerfaust during street fighting in Bremen, Germany, 4/1945; halting hospital train from eastern front; carrying British paratroopers into Wismar, Germany, 5/1945; fraternisation with Soviet Army troops at Wismar, Germany, 5/1945; impressions of Soviet Army T-34 Tank; German fear of Soviets. Aspects of period as trooper with Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons) in Germany, 1945-1947: effects of demobilisation on unit; use of Romanian prisoners of war for cleaning work; attitude to having to vacate occupied land to Soviet forces; visit to site of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp; move to Lüneburg; visits to Victory Club in Hamburg; operation of non-fraternisation ban. REEL 4 Continues: relations with Germans; problems with Displaced Persons. Aspects of operations as trooper with Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons), 4th Armoured Bde in North West Europe, 1944-1945: nature of street fighting in Bremen, Germany, 4/1945; names of tanks; further details fighting on Hill 112, Normandy, France; opinion of quality of German opposition in Normandy, France; degree of contact with French civilians in Normandy, France.