Description
Object description
British private and NCO served with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Infantry Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Div in GB, 9/1940-11/1941; NCO served with 108th Regt, Royal Armoured Corps, 10th Armoured Bde and 10th Tank Bde in GB, 11/1941-12/1943; served with 1st Lothians and Border Horse, 30th Armoured Bde, 79th Armoured Div in GB and Normandy, France, 12/1943-8/1944; served with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Infantry Bde, 11th Armoured Div in North West Europe, 8/1944-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Wood Green and Stoke Newington, London, GB, 1916-1940: social background; education; employment in dry cleaning shops; recreational activities; motorcycle and car driving; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; call up, 6/1940. Recollections of enlistment and training with British Army at Carlisle, GB, 6/1940-9/1940: reception and kitting out; hutted accommodation; vaccinations; rations; drill; rifle and bayonet training; preparations for inspections to avoid guard duty as 'stick' man; hand grenade training; route marches and problems with feet; physical training
REEL 2 Continues: relations with Other Ranks; reaction to swearing; opinion of NCO instructors; degree of contact with officers; recreational activities in Carlisle; pay. Aspect of period as private and NCO with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Infantry Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Div in GB, 9/1940-11/1941: tented accommodation at Newbury Racecourse; eating arrangements; reception and relations with Regular Army and Territorial Army troops; Bren Gun training; learning to drive Universal Carrier; promotion to unpaid lance corporal; relations with NCOs and officers. Aspects of period as NCO with 108th Regt, Royal Armoured Corps, 10th Armoured Bde and 10th Tank Bde in GB, 11/1941-12/1943: background to change of unit role and designation to 108th Regt, Royal Armoured Corps, 1/11/1941; attending instructors course in driving Cromwell Tank at Bovington Camp; promotion to sergeant on rejoining regiment at Barnard Castle; nature of sergeants' mess and dances; opinion of Churchill Tank; characteristics of M4 Sherman tank.
REEL 3 Continues: characteristics of M4 Sherman Tank; role as driver/fitter instructor on Churchill Tank and M4 Sherman Tank; story of breaking clutch; role as tank commander in M4 Sherman Tank crew; wireless and intercom sets; nature of tactical exercises; disbandment of regiment, 12/1943. Recollections of period as NCO with 1st Lothian Horse and Border Regt, Royal Armoured Corps, 30th Armoured Bde, 79th Armoured Div in GB, 12/1943-6/1944: nature of M4 Sherman Flail Tank; failed roller M4 Sherman Tank variant; problems with flail mechanism and low speed of M4 Sherman Flail Tank; waterproofing and tests; marriage and honeymoon, 4/1944. Aspects of operations as NCO with 1st Lothians and Border Horse, Royal Armoured Corps, 30th Armoured Bde, 79th Armoured Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: embarkation aboard Landing Ship Tank; reaction to news of D-Day landings, 6/6/1944.
REEL 4 Continues: dry landing from Landing Ship Tank at Arromanches-les-Bains; move inland; bivowac; initial cooking arrangements; use compo rations; cigarette smoking and supplies; whisky ration received as NCO; relation with tank crew; latrines; use of M4 Sherman Flail Tank to clear path across fields under fire; bailing out after M4 Sherman Flail Tank was hit; move to holding unit, 8/1944. Recollections of period with C Sqdn, 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Infantry Bde, 11th Armoured Div in North West Europe, 8/1944-5/1945: reaction to joining mainly Scottish regiment; opinion of Lieutenant Eric Lamont; opinion of squadron commander and Sergeant Royston Vallance; role as Lieutenant Eric Lamont's tank crew driver; view from driver's periscope in action; night advance to Amiens, France, 30/8/1944; capture of German Army half-track crew carrying German payroll.
REEL 5 Continues: taking small amount from German payroll; relations with French civilians and their treatment of collaborators; advance to Antwerp, Belgium; visit to Antwerp, Belgium; objecting to issue of German rations; static period at Little Amerika, Netherlands; story of narrow escape from German Army mortar fire; cold conditions sleeping in M4 Sherman Tank; role as tank commander in 'point' tank; use of High Explosive (HE) shells and machine gun fire on suspicious localities; personal morale; question of M4 Sherman Tank's flammability; fighting at Deurne, Netherlands, 10/1944; relations with Dutch civilians in billets at Helmond, Netherlands; attending course in Comet Tank at Bovington Camp, GB, 12/1944-2/1945: characteristics of Comet Tank; leave; story of escorting prisoner to military prison; rejoining regiment in Ypres, Belgium, 2/1945: giving instruction on Comet Tank at Ypres, Belgium; accommodation; relations with Belgian civilians; drinking habits.
REEL 6 Continues: review of Comet Tank crew of co-driver Jimmy Phythian, Driver Larry Smith, Wireless Operator Ginger Weston and Gunner Ted Gwalter; sleeping arrangements; uniform and issue of tank suits; question of tank camouflage; crossing River Rhine on pontoon bridge, Germany, 27/3/1945; story of breaking down due to faulty electrical master switch and difficulty in regaining touch with leading tanks; fighting at Loccum, Germany, 4/1945, including situation, reconnaissance on foot, discovery of German 88 mm Gun, success in destroying German 88mm Gun, ditching and bailing out of M4 Sherman Tank; subsequent award of Military Medal; re-supply at overnight laager; cooking arrangements and brewing tea; isolated situation having crossed river; Panzerfaust and mines problems; opinion of German tanks and 88mm Gun.
REEL 7 Continues: advance on autobahn and entry into Lübeck, Germany, 30/4/1945; co-operation with personnel of 2nd (Machine Gun) Bn Cheshire Regt carried on M4 Sherman Tank; German prisoners of war; accommodation; using tanks to assist Swedish Red Cross to control looting activities of German civilians; celebrations of VE Day, 8/5/1945; slaughtering cow; accidental shooting incident at Bredsteadt, 5/1945; assisting with Displaced Persons Camp, 5/1945-6/1945; course as electrician; relations with German civilians; opinion of Major Hotblack. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in Germany, 6/1945/1946: background to transfer to regiment; role on promotion to squadron sergeant-major; cancellation of posting to Far East, 8/1945; opinion of Church Crocodile Flame-Throwing Tank; stag hunting; demobilisation, 3/1946. Post-war life and employment: return to work with dry cleaners in Nottingham; problems adapting to civilian lifestyle and question of rejoining British Army; membership of South of Border Group, Fife and Forfar Yeomanry Association.