Description
Object description
British guardsman served with 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards in GB, 1936-1939; NCO served with 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards, 1st Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in GB, France and Belgium, 1939-1942; served with 3rd Bn Coldstream Guards, 201st Guards Motor Bde in North Africa, 1942; prisoner of war in North Africa, Campo PG 82, Laterina, Italy and Stalag VII-A, Moosburg, Germany, 6/1942-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Kingston upon Hull, GB, 1918-1936: family; education; employment; early interest in British Army. Aspects of enlistment and training at Guards Regimental Depot, Caterham in GB, 1936: reasons for joining Brigade of Guards; basic training; drilling; accommodation in barracks; physical training. Recollections of period as guardsman with 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards in GB, 1936-1939: reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; attitude towards ceremonial work; requirement of guardsmen to box; drill for fixing bayonets.
REEL 2 Continues: punishment for mistake during bayonet drill at Windsor Castle; importance of correct turn out; importance of cleaning equipment to maintain discipline; attitude to display in ceremonial duties; guards at Buckingham Palace, 1938-1939; method of controlling guards' drill movement outside Buckingham Palace; relations with public outside Buckingham Palace; degree of interest in guards from Royal Family; nicknames of various Guards regiments; participation with Aldershot Tattoo at Aldershot Garrison, 1939.
REEL 3 Continues: manifestation of rivalry between Coldstream Guards and Gordon Highlanders at Aldershot Tattoo. Recollections of period as guardsman with 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards, 1st Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in France, 9/1939-5/1940: move to France, 9/1939; billeting at Bachy; method of constructing slit trenches; recreational activities and relaxation; period in outposts on Maginot Line near Metz; patrolling in front of Maginot Line; involvement in farm work. Recollections of operations as guardsman with 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards, 1st Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in Belgium and France, 5/1940: initial contact with Germans at Louvain, Belgium; battalion casualties; retreat and sight of civilian casualties; orders to retreat to Dunkirk, France; arrival in Dunkirk, France; waiting on beach at Dunkirk, France; embarkation on board ship at East Mole, Dunkirk, France.
REEL 4 Continues: use of Lewis Gun against German Air Force during voyage from Dunkirk, France to GB. Aspects of period as NCO with 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards, 1st Guards Bde, 1st Infantry Div in GB, 1940-1942: regrouping of unit at Walton near Wakefield; reception on return from Dunkirk Evacuation; re-equipping at Tadcaster; coastal defense duties south of River Humber, 1940; German Air Force lone aircraft attack at North Coates, 1940; apprehension over tobacco barrels in sea; sight of German Air Force bombing of Kingston upon Hull from Caister, winter 1940-1941; training at Loch Fyne; amphibious training at Loch Fyne; effect of hospitalisation in Glasgow; period with holding battalion at Regent's Park, London; guard duties at Prime Minister's Official Residence Chequers.
REEL 5 Continues: reasons for volunteering for overseas service. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Louis Pasteur from GB to Egypt via South Africa, 1942: conditions on board troopship; reception in Cape Town, South Africa; Africans diving for coins; arrival in Canal Zone, Egypt. Recollections of operations as NCO with Carrier Platoon, 3rd Bn Coldstream Guards, 201st Guards Motor Bde in Knightsbridge Box, Libya, 6/1942: sleeping in desert; entry into Knightsbridge Box; character of fighting in Knightsbridge Box; work with Carrier Platoon protecting artillery observers; British and German use of spotter aircraft; drawbacks of riveted tanks; occasion when Universal Carriers made a quick return to box.
REEL 6 Continues: crossing minefield unscathed; effect of German Air Force Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber attacks; question of waste of ammunition fired on Knightsbridge Box; attitude to prospect of being blinded; narrow escapes from artillery and machine gun fire in Knightsbridge Box; method of cooking in North Africa, 1942 and in France, 1940; rations; slight wounding; extrication from Knightsbridge Box, 6/1942. Aspects of operations as NCO with Carrier Platoon, 3rd Bn Coldstream Guards, 201st Guards Motor Bde in Libya, 6/1942: destruction of his Universal Carrier on 'Gazala Gallop'; reaching Tobruk.
REEL 7 Continues: sight of dummy anti-aircraft guns at El Adem; attempts to defend El Adem. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Libya, 6/1942-10/1942: capture by German Deutsches Afrika Korps tank crew at El Adem, 6/1942; opinion of Victory V cigarettes; conditions in prisoner of war cage; suffering from black outs; transfer from El Adem to Benghazi via Derna; behaviour of Libyan Italian Army guards; conditions on board ship on voyage from Benghazi to Brindisi, Italy, 10/1942. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Campo PG 82, Laterina, Italy, 11/1942-9/1943: arrival, 11/1942; use of tented accommodation, winter, 1942-1943.
REEL 8 Continues: conditions during winter, 1942-1943; building huts; delousing; rations; behaviour of Italian Army guards; method of filling time; categories of prisoner of war receiving extra rations; arrival of Red Cross clothing; description of Red Cross parcels; method of obtaining wood for fuel; solitary confinement for taking wood; bartering for food amongst prisoners of war; treatment of prisoners of war who stole from their fellows; singing prisoner of war song about camp; walking around perimeter; state of prisoners of war Christmas, 25/12/1942.
REEL 9 Continues: description of prisoner of war handicraft skills; farm work; attitude of Italian guards to outcome of Second World War; memories of Italian Army guard Aldo; problems with bed bugs. Aspects of escape and period evading capture in Italy, 9/1943-10/1943: escape from captivity, 9/1943; refuge in Rapelle; method of charcoal production; building hut in hills; working with civilians during wine harvest.
REEL 10 Continues: life in hut in hills; recapture and removal to Florence; return to Campo PG 82 at Laterina. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag VII-A, Moosburg, Germany, 1944: train journey to camp; international soccer matches and other recreational activities; detailing to work parties; construction work at hydro electric power station site; attempt of British prisoners of war to sabotage concrete mixing; threats that he would join punishment squad.
REEL 11 Continues: continuation of sabotage despite threats of punishment; physical condition of Soviet labourers; contents of Canadian Red Cross parcels; scavenging by Soviet labourers; prisoner of war entertainments; prisoner of war boxing tournament; bartering Red Cross supplies with civilians; smuggling fresh food into camp; behaviour of guards. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Germany, 1944-1945: sight of bombed marshalling yards; female labourers used by Germans; reaction to potential of United States Army Air Force attacks; transfer to military hospital at Kattowitz; sight of German casualties from Eastern Front, winter 1944-1945; march westwards, 1/1945-2/1945.
REEL 12 Continues: rations available on march; death of Soviet prisoners of war from exposure on march; arrival in the Prague area, Czechoslovakia; escape attempt and recapture in Bohemia, Czechoslovakia; fear of cannibalism by starving Soviet prisoners of war, 3/1945; physical condition on arrival at Landshut, Germany; United States Army Air Force attacks on train carrying prisoners of war; return to Stalag VII-A, Moosburg; sight of Allied air armadas. Aspects of liberation and return to GB, 1945: liberation by United States Army troops; reaction to liberation.
REEL 13 Continues: bartering sugar for cigarettes with United States Army troops; flight from Germany to GB; processing of prisoners of war in GB; awaiting demobilisation in Aylesbury, GB; recovery from prisoner of war experiences. Reflections of military service in Second World War: attitude to having served with 2nd Coldstream Guards; attitude towards Germans and spirit in which war was fought in North Africa; witnessing American military personnel rioting in Kingston upon Hull, 1942