Description
Object description
British messenger with Auxiliary Fire Service and private with 10th (Finsbury Park) Bn County of London Home Guard in London, 6/1940-5/1942; trained with East Surrey Regiment at Cavalry Barracks, Canterbury and Shorncliffe Camp, Shorncliffe in GB, 5/1942-12/1942; served with 2nd Bn East Surrey Regt, 184th Infantry Bde, 61st Infantry Div in GB and Northern Ireland, 12/1942-12/1943; served with 1/5th Bn Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 131st Infantry Bde, 7th Armoured Div in GB, 1/1944-5/1944; served as driver with Royal Army Ordnance Corps in GB and Normandy, France, 5/1944-7/1944; served with 1/5th Bn Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 131st Infantry Bde, 7th Armoured Div in Normandy, France, 7/1944-8/1944
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Finsbury Park and Tufnall Park, London, GB, 1926-1939: family; education; football activities; membership of Boys' Brigade and Boy Scout Movement; communal holiday arrangements. Aspects of schoolchild in Tufnall Park, London, GB, 9/1939-6/1940: declaration of Second World War and reaction to air raid warning, 3/9/1939; military training with Army Cadet Force at Clarence Way Drill Hall, 1938-1939; failed attempt to join Royal Navy, 9/1938; mother's work with London Ambulance Service; evacuation to Great Billington and Dunstable, 9/1939-12/1939, including billets, work on farm, visit to dentist, nature of school, ban on visiting home and return to London, 12/1939. Recollections of period as schoolchild and civilian in Tufnall Park, London, GB, 12/1939-6/1940: leaving school; employment in shops and for engineering firm. Recollections of period as private with 10th (Finsbury Park) Bn County of London Home Guard in London, GB, 6/1940-5/1942,
REEL 2 Continues: uniform; character of recruits and officers; story of officer and his makeshift pike; training and street fighting exercise in Camden Town; signals post at cigarette factory in Mornington Crescent; street patrols and guard post; question of black market. Recollections of period as messenger with Auxiliary Fire Service in London, GB, 1940-1941: acting as volunteer with Blue Cross; nature of duties and unofficial role assisting firemen during alarms; story of entering burning factory and clearing German Air Force incendiary bombs off roof; story of call out to Broadcasting House, Portland Street, 12/1940; story of being lowered into cellar of burnt out house to look for survivors; story of rescuing naked woman; German parachute oil drum bomb dropped on Gooch Street.
REEL 3 Continues: story of assisting in cleaning blood from ambulances during visits to mother's London Ambulance Service station on Holloway Road; mother's loss of nerve and subsequent work at Tuffnal Park Underground Station; blackout; sheltering in Tufnall Park Underground Station; question of rationing. Recollections of enlistment and training with East Surrey Regiment at Cavalry Barracks, Canterbury and Shorncliffe Camp, Shorncliffe in GB, 5/1942-12/1942: background to enlistment under age in Euston, London, 5/1942; reception; kitting out and uniform; barracks room accommodation; kit inspections; origins of recruits; rations; drill and physical training; tactical and field training; opinion of instructors; story of protest after being called in by Corps of Military Police for identification parade; German Air Force raid on Canterbury, 6/1942; transfer to motor transport section; learning to drive Universal Carrier.
REEL 4 Continues: learning to drive Universal Carrier; presence of Danish troops; move to Shorncliffe Camp; German Air Force attacks on Universal Carrier; role of Universal Carrier; informal nature of training to drive lorries; visit to friend; use of Universal Carriers for rescue work after German Air Force raid on Canterbury, 6/1942; practical joke played on NCO; routine maintenance on Universal Carrier; Universal Carrier accidents; story of meeting old teacher; relations with fellow recruits and story of fight; story of dispute with NCO; friend's military career. Recollections of period as private with Motor Transport Section, Headquarters Coy, 2nd Bn East Surrey Regt, 184th Infantry Bde, 61st Infantry Div in GB and Northern Ireland, 12/1942-12/1943: narrow escape from German Air Force attack during parade at Exeter; character of battalion; journey from Exeter to Londonderry, 12/1942 story of being caught with member of Women's Royal Naval Service; sight of wanted posters for Irish Republican Army fugitives.
REEL 5 Continues: hutted accommodation; whisky distillery billets at Coleraine; Universal Carrier and Combined Operations training on sand dunes; armed guard necessary during church parade; swimming across river to get back to camp; move to C Coy; organisation of East Surrey Regiment and Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment); issue of bicycles and learning to ride; use of bayonet in detecting mines; tactical exercises and use of explosive charges in dealing with armoured cars; sabotage and infiltration exercise; 'Wings for Victory' parade; story of picking up deserter on Falls Road, Belfast; story of accidentally disrupting funeral in Belfast; canteens; sight of riot; incident of being followed; visits to dance halls and question of fights with soldiers from other units.
REEL 2 Continues: story of visit to cinema being interrupted by armed Irish Republican Army members commemorating 1916 Easter Rising, 4/1943; story of waking up in police station after night drinking; story of eccentric Irish civilians; story illustrating unofficial use of explosive charges; opinion of Bren Gun; rescue of aircrew from aircraft crash; story of practical joke played on friend; case of venereal disease; story illustrating poor state of equipment handed on by previous unit; draft to North Africa; failure of attempts to get on draft and volunteering for Parachute Regiment; period with 1/5th Bn Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 131st Infantry Bde, 7th Armoured Div at Hunstanton, GB, 1/1944-5/1944. Recollections of period as driver with Royal Army Ordnance Corps in GB and Normandy, France, 5/1944-7/1944: sealed nature of camp at Hinton Hall, Brentwood, GB; lorry convoy to Tilbury Docks, 6/1944; crossing English Channel, 6/6/1944 including embarkation at Tilbury Docks.
REEL 7 Continues: formation of escorted convoy; long-range German artillery fire; loading lorries onto landing ship tank; sight of Royal Norwegian Navy destroyer HNoMS Svenner sunk by German Navy torpedo boats off Sword Beach, D-Day, 6/6/1944; landing on Sword Beach, D-Day, 6/6/1944; noise of naval bombardment; sight of M4 Sherman Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicles clearing beach; parking lorry in field; German Air Force attack; fears of German Army snipers and lack of ammunition issued; move inland; move to former German headquarters Château Tailleville, 6/1944; question of Canadian Army troops massacre of Germans trapped in bunkers; establishment of motor transport delivery centre; German Army outpost in wireless station; digging slit trenches; sleeping in Château Tailleville; role delivering vehicles and equipment to units; story illustrating problems with towing vehicles; story of asking directions from Corps of Military Police NCO and subsequent question of him being German spy; mistaken notification as missing; loss of kit and wearing German Army helmet.
REEL 8 Continues: sight of capture of German wireless station; German Army sniper in haystack; disposal of tin cans; narrow escape from German 88mm Gun fire; story of French civilian failing to warn of position of German machine gun post; occasion of being shot at whilst riding motorcycle at night; question of German mines and booby-traps; guard duty; minor shrapnel wound; story of conducting successful defence against charge of having left post while on guard duty; vehicle park; organising patrol to try to catch intruders; use compo rations; story of bullet deflected by soldier's tin of cigarettes; question of German forces' use of wooden bullets.
REEL 9 Continues: background to requesting transfer from Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 7/1944 and period with holding unit near Bayeux, 7/1944. Recollections of operations as private with 1/5th Bn Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 131st Infantry Bde, 7th Armoured Div in Normandy, France, 7/1944-8/1944: situation in wooded area near Villers-Bocage; sniper problem and activities of British Army sniper; incident of British Army despatch rider on motorcycle riding in full view of German forces' positions; slit trenches; laying hand grenade booby-traps; story of narrow escape from detonation of recently cleared mine; situation; story of soldier shot in buttocks; personal weapons; story of being sniped at on latrine; relief by unit of United States Army. Recollections of hospitalisation in Normandy, France and GB, 8/1944-9/1944: infected hand wound and evacuation by motorcycle; story of attacking German patient in tented hospital at Arromanches-les-Bains; initial medical evacuation to Canadian Army hospital in Surrey, GB; hospitalisation in Dundee Royal Infirmary and convalescent homes in Dundee, 8/1944-9/1944 including reception, medical treatment and recreational activities.
REEL 10 Continues: relations with civilians in Dundee. Aspects of period as private with British Army in GB and Northern Ireland, 1944-1947: period of light training at Glencorse, Pencuik near Edinburgh, 1944; arrival of Polish military personnel; request to return to 2nd East Surrey Regt; story of escorting deserter; training role with 2nd Bn East Surrey Regt, 184th Infantry Bde, 61st Infantry Div in Northern Ireland; story of being arrested for fight; exercises in Mourne Mountains, Northern Ireland; demobilisation, 1947. Post-war life and employment: question of classification as disabled; employment as electrician with British Broadcasting Corporation; duties as Special Constable with Metropolitan Police and amusing story of frightening violent drunken prisoner into good behaviour.
