Interview with Ivor Travers Nutting

British private served as signaller with 1st Bn Royal Sussex Regt, 7th Indian Infantry Bde, 4th Indian Infantry Div in North Africa, Sudan, Cyprus and Italy, 10/1940-10/1944

REEL 1 Background in Maidstone and Pennybridge, GB, 1917-1939: family; education; poaching experiences. Aspects of period as private with 1st Bn Royal Sussex Regt, 23rd Infantry Bde in GB, 1939-1940: joining battalion, 1939; experiences on coast of Southern England, GB, 1940; voyage from GB to Egypt via South Africa, 9/1940-10/1940. Recollections of operations as private with B Coy, 1st Bn Royal Sussex Regt, 4th Indian Infantry Div in Egypt and Sudan, 10/1940-4/1941: arrival in Egypt, 10/1940; in action at Mersa Matruh, Egypt; attitude of Australian Army troops at Mena, Egypt; move to Sudan, 12/1940; shooting of Company Sergeant-Major Fleet after he gave false gas attack; hospitalisation with throat problems; reasons for volunteering for prisoner of war guard duties at Omdurman, Sudan; reconnaissance mission with Sudan Defence Force. Recollections of operations as signaller with 1st Bn Royal Sussex Regt, 7th Indian Infantry Bde, 4th Indian Infantry Div in North Africa, 4/1941-3/1942: training at signaller. REEL 2 Continues: return to unit; relief of Tobruk, Libya, 11/1941; unit casualties outside of Tobruk, Libya; accidental attacks on battalion by Fleet Air Arm; capture of Benghazi, Libya; withdrawal to Tobruk, Libya in captured Italian vehicle. Aspects of period as signaller with 1st Bn Royal Sussex Regt, 7th Indian Infantry Bde, 4th Indian Infantry Div in Cyprus, 3/1942-9/1942: move to Cyprus; relations with Cypriot civilians; drunken excesses; work with heliograph; suicide of comrade. Recollections of operations as signaller with B Coy, 1st Bn Royal Sussex Regt, 7th Indian Infantry Bde, 4th Indian Infantry Div in North Africa, 9/1942-5/1943: move to Ruweisat Ridge, Egypt, 9/1942; narrow escape from mortar explosion; role of unit during Battle of El Alamein, Egypt, 10/1942-11/1942; action at Gabès, Tunisia, 4/1943; 2nd/11th Bn Sikh Regt's attack at El Hammah, Tunisia, 4/1943; narrow escape when he was blown up by mortar at El Hammah, Tunisia, 4/1943. REEL 3 Continues: German surrender in Tunis, Tunisia, 5/1943. Recollections of operations as signaller with 1st Bn Royal Sussex Regt, 7th Indian Infantry Bde, 4th Indian Infantry Div in Italy, 1/1944-10/1944: move to Italy after training in Middle East; move to Monte Cassino, 2/1944; relief of United States Army troops at Monte Cassino; question of sending his unit forward during Allied air attacks, 15/2/1944; conditions in front line at Monte Cassino; question of use of bayonet charges in Second World War; capture of German Army soldier; narrow escape during attack; Italian Partisan treatment of Italian collaborators at Urbino; relaying land lines at Monte Cassino; stench of bodies at Monte Cassino; United States Army Air Force bombing of troops at Monte Cassino, 2/1944; German use of multi-barrelled mortars at Monte Cassino. Reflections on service with 1st Bn Royal Sussex Regt in Sudan, North Africa and Italy, 1940-1944: incident of soldier who shot himself in foot; his attitude to deserting. REEL 4 Continues: destruction of his motorcycle at San Marino, 10/1944; hospitalisation for road accident at Taranto, Italy and return to GB; behaviour of wounded Albanian Partisans in hospital in Taranto, Italy; question of worst experiences in Second World War.