Interview with Ronald Alfred Newbold

British NCO served with 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards, 1st Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in GB, France and Belgium, 1939-1940; served with 4th Bn Coldstream Guards in GB, 1940-1941; served with 4th (Motor) Bn Coldstream Guards, 6th Guards Tank Bde in GB and North West Europe, 1941-1945

REEL 1 Background in Leicester, GB, 1916-1937: family; education. Aspects of enlistment and training with Brigade of Guards in GB, 1937-1939: opinion of training at Guards Regimental Depot, Caterham; field training at Guards Training Depot, Pirbright; public duties in London; handling recruits at trained soldier at Guards Depot, Caterham; story of deserter who had re-enlisted as guardsman; newspaper report that affected guardsman; attitude to becoming corporal in officers' mess, 1939; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of period as NCO with 1 Coy, 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards, 1st Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in France, 9/1939-5/1940: train journey to Le Mans, 9/1939; move to Bachy; construction of Gort Line; Christmas celebrations, 25/12/1939; lack of contact with French civilians; duties in Maginot Line, 2/1940. Recollections of operations as NCO with Headquarters Coy, 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards, 1st Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in France and Belgium, 5/1940: move to Louvain, Belgium, after 10/5/1940; role with Headquarters Coy. REEL 2 Continues: problems with guardsmen feet; medical problem with eye which confined him to field ambulance; artillery shell which hit hospital ship evacuating him from Dunkirk, France; arrival in Littlehampton and sight of Silver Lady; medical treatment for his eye at Woking. Aspects of period as NCO with 4th Bn Coldstream Guards in GB, 1940-1941: memories of Regimental Sergeant-Major Ronald Brittain and German Air Force bombing of Buckingham Palace, London, 1940; formation of battalion at Elstree; practising for defence of London, 1940-1941; reasons for reduction to ranks; move to Frome. Aspects of period as NCO with 4th (Motor) Bn Coldstream Guards, 6th Guards Tank Bde in GB, 1941-1944: mechanising of unit, summer 1941; attitude to job as quartermaster storeman with Headquarters Coy; pattern of training in GB; preparations for D-Day at Charing; role of 6th Guards Tank Bde in reserve; German V1 Flying Bomb strike on brigade's Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers workshops at Charing, 24/6/1944. Recollections of operations as NCO quartermaster storeman with 4th (Motor) Bn Coldstream Guards, 6th Guards Tank Bde in North West Europe, 7/1944-5/1945: landing in Normandy, France, 20/7/1944; move to Bayeux, Normandy, France; role of battalion during actions at Caumont and Hill 309, Normandy, France; problems with fuel for Churchill Tank; supply work done by unit vehicles. REEL 3 Continues: advance towards Arnhem, Netherlands, 9/1944; capture of Tilburg, Netherlands, 28/9/1944; reception of British Army troops in Tilburg, Netherlands; penetration into Reichswald Forest, Germany, 2/1942; destruction of Cleve, Germany, 2/1945; nature of German resistance at Kiel, 5/1945; relations with German civilians; demobilisation in GB, 12/1945; attitude to having served with Coldstream Guards; story of relations with civilians in Eindhoven, Netherlands and contacting family in 1994.