Description
Object description
British private served with 1st Bn Hampshire Regt in India, 1929-1935; served with 2nd Bn Hampshire Regt in Palestine, 1936-1937; NCO served with 2nd Bn Hampshire Regt in GB, France, Belgium, North Africa, Italy and Palestine, 1937-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Southampton, GB, 1913-1929: family; education; employment. Aspects of enlistment and training as bandboy with British Army in GB and Germany, 1929: reasons for joining British Army, 1929; training at Bingen am Rhein, Germany; nature of voyage aboard HMT Somersetshire from GB to India, 1929; what bandboys' spent their money on; method crew used to swindle troops with game 'Crown and Anchor' abord HMT Somerset; theft amongst troops. Recollections of period as bandboy and bandsman with 1st Bn Hampshire Regt in India, 1929-1935: initial impressions of Karachi; character of train journey to Multan on North West Frontier; smartness of troops at Multan; role of battalion contractor; company structure of unit; description of accommodation.
REEL 2 Continues: lay out of personal equipment; precautions against snakes and insects; storage of kit box; method of water supply; protecting rifles against thieves known as 'loosewallahs'; method of cooling accommodation; attitude to serving at Multan; duties; move to Dalhousie hill station in heat; skill of Kite Hawks; regimental brothel at Multan; move to Razmak; loss of water from contractor's bath from sniper fire; Rassidar system; method of picketing hills; skirmish on frontier.
REEL 3 Continues: stand-to; garrison defences at Razmak; mutilated corpse tied to mule brought into Razmak; role of columns; life in Razmak; relations between British Army and Gurkhas troops; relations of Pathans; attitude towards leaving Razmak for Peshawar; effect of being greeted by women near Bannu; loss of rifle at Peshawar; guard duties at Peshawar; acting as stretcher-bearer at Gallenoi, 1935.
REEL 4 Continues: contracting sand-fly fever, 1935; life in Nowshera Cantonment; handling Red Shirts during civil disobedience in Peshawar area; opinion of Mahatma Gandhi's supporters. Aspects of voyage from India to GB, 1935: conditions on board troopship including work of crewmen; holding rank of bandsman; battened down in Bay of Biscay. Aspects of period as bandman with 2nd Bn Hampshire Regt in Aldershot Garrison, GB, 1935-1936: joining unit; level of discipline in Brigade of Guards; treatment of drilling guardsmen; distribution of band earnings; amusing story of playing in band for civilians; attitude of civilians to soldiers in Aldershot.
REEL 5 Continues: Recollections of operations as bandsman with 1st Bn Hampshire Regt, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1936-1937: reasons for call-up of reservists from Army Reserve; guard duties on kibbutz; opinion of kibbutz system; handling of Arab insurgents; relations with Christian Arabs in Beit Jala; attending Bedouin feast; Bedouin etiquette and belief in return of T E Lawrence; origins of sores which afflicted unit at Haifa. Recollections of operations as NCO with 2nd Bn Hampshire Regt, 1st Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in GB, France and Belgium, 9/1939-6/1940: story of breaking out of barracks in Aldershot Garrison to get married, 4/9/1939; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939.
REEL 6 Continues: move from GB to France, 16/9/1939; marching to band playing on journey through France; aid received from French Army officer whilst looking after reservist; digging in at Bachy, France; move into Belgium, 5/1940; German Army infiltration tactics; reasons why he deprived French Army soldier of his motor-bicycle; story of artillery shelling which knocked him off motor-bicycle; withdrawal from Albert Canal, Belgium; plight of refugees; nature of rearguard action; discipline of battalion at Dunkirk, France; capture of Fifth Columnist; question of reliability of memory; sight of dead horses.
REEL 7 Continues: question of stretcher-bearers staying with wounded; footwear worn; embarkation aboard paddle-steamer, 2/6/1940. Aspects of period as NCO with 2nd Bn Hampshire Regt, 1st Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in GB, 1940-1942: reformation of battalion at Wakefield; coastal defence in Louth; degree of preparedness for German invasion, 1940; Combined Operations training in Scotland and Isle of Wight. Recollections of operations as NCO with Mortar Platoon, 1st Bn Hampshire Regt, 128th (Hampshire) Infantry Bde, 46th Infantry Div in Tunisia, 1942-1943: divisional landing at Algiers, French Algeria, 11/1942; move to front line at Tébourba; role with Headquarters Coy; escape from encirclement at Tébourba; narrow escape from Deutsches Afrika Korps troops.
REEL 8 Continues: regrouping at Medjez-el-Bab and Béja; advance towards Tunis; type of mortars used; tactical use of mortar; capture of German prisoners of war in cave; degree of knowledge of operations by infantrymen; preparations for landings at Salerno in Italy at Bizerte, 1943; German Air Force raid on Bizerte; address by Major-General Brian Horrocks. Aspects of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Hampshire Regt, 128th (Hampshire) Infantry Bde, 46th Infantry Div during landings at Salerno, Italy, 9/1943: landing on wrong beach.
REEL 9 Continues: German use of captured British reconnaissance aircraft. Aspects of evacuation and hospitalisation for wounds, 9/1943: evacuation for wounds and battle fatigue; description of 'twilight treatment' received at Tripoli, Libya; insistence on returning to battalion in Italy; question of why survivors tend not to be riflemen. Aspects of period as NCO with Palestine Command in Palestine, 1944-1945: role as sergeants' mess caterer; job training anti-aircraft officers as infantry officers; training Jews and Arabs at Sarafand; reasons why he stopped training Arabs to train Jews; success with Jewish training squad, 1945; job as officer's bodyguard; prior recollection of troops being frightened by corpse in Tunisia.
REEL 10 Continues: demobilisation in GB, 1945; reaction to depiction of British Army in television programme 'Sword of Honour', 2001.