Interview with John Frost

British clerk served with 11th Ordnance Field Park, 11th Armoured Div in GB and North West Europe, 1942-1945

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Paddington, Notting Hill Gate, London and Ealing, GB, 1920-1939: social circumstances; education; employment as office boy. Recollections of private served with 10th Bn, (3rd City of London) Bn, Royal Fusiliers (69th Searchlight Regt), 40th Anti-Aircraft Bde, 2nd Anti-Aircraft Div and gunner with 69th (3rd City of London) Searchlight Regt, Royal Artillery, 41st (London) Anti-Aircraft Bde, 2nd Anti-Aircraft Div in GB, 4/1939-10/1940: reasons for joining Territorial Army and recruitment procedure, 4/1939; denim uniform; drill night training on searchlight and role as spotter; drill; rifle and Lewis Gun training; spotter's chair; embryo nature of unit; relationship with Other Ranks and effect of teetotalism; relations with instructors and officers; interest in collecting newspapers and current affairs; mobilisation, 30/8/1939; initial billets; reaction to reading of articles of war and declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. REEL 2 Continues: lack of duties; uniform; isolated situation on gun site at Thurton; tented accommodation and winter billets; rations; boredom; firewood; preparing site; hutted accommodation; night searchlight duties and signals; practice drills; volunteering for Orkneys service. Aspects of period as NCO with 38th (King's Regt) Searchlight Regt, Royal Artillery, 50th Anti-Aircraft Bde, 2nd Anti-Aircraft Div and Orkney and Shetland Defences in GB, 1940-1941: volunteering for service on Orkney Islands, 12/1940; journey to Orkney Islands; reaction to discipline; volunteering for searchlight site at Rackwick, Isle of Hoy, Orkney Islands; isolated nature of site; scrapbook hobby; daily routine; winter conditions; lifestyle at Brassington site, 1940; transfer to switchboard duty at Buxton; volunteering for Royal Army Service Corps. Recollections of training as clerk at Royal Army Ordnance Corps Depot, Old Dalby, near Melton Mowbray, GB, 1941-1942: role of Royal Army Ordnance Corps; method of processing indents; officers recruited from business background; stock control training. REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period as stock control clerk with 11th Ordnance Field Park, 11th Armoured Div in GB, 1942-1944: composition of unit; learning to drive lorry; mobile role and type of supplies carried by unit; dispersed nature of 11th Armoured Div; use of lorries to store supplies; ordnance indents; daily routine; endurance exercise; first aid role; move to Beverley, 1943; listening to radio news; move to Aldershot, 5/1944; barrack accommodation; waterproofing lorries; reaction to news of D-Day landings, 6/6/1944; reception from civilians on passing through London; entering sealed camp at Tilbury. Recollections of operations as stock control clerk with 11th Ordnance Field Park, 11th Armoured Div in North West Europe, 6/1944-5/1944: voyage aboard landing craft tank from GB to Normandy, France, 12/6/1944; landing at Bernières-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, 12/6/1944; move inland; establishing and signposting camp; method of processing indents, issue of stores and stock control; mobile role; sleeping arrangements. REEL 4 Continues: tea drinking; cooking arrangements and rations; vitamin tablets; latrines; absence of regular routines; initial static situation, 6/1944-8/1944; guard duties; contacts with divisional units; role supplying small spare parts; German prisoners of war; reaction to sight of burnt out tanks and corpses during advance towards Falaise, Normandy, France, 8/1944; crossing pontoon bridge over River Seine at Vernon, France; pervading smell of dead cattle; camouflage nets; air superiority; Lewis Gun posts; visits to Bayeux, Normandy, France; relations with French civilians; reception received from Belgian civilians during advance to Antwerp, Belgium, 8/1944-9/1944; story of unnecessary casualties on patrol investigating reports of Tiger Tank; German prisoners of war kept in Antwerp Zoo, Belgium; reception on move to Boom, Belgium. REEL 5 situation; relations with Belgian civilians; German V1 Flying Bomb attacks on Antwerp, Belgium; situation on advance into Netherlands. Aspects of period as stock control clerk with 11th Ordnance Field Park, 11th Armoured Div in Helmond, Netherlands, 9/1944-4/1945: situation; attending Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) concert; replenishing supplies from main Ordnance Depot, 11th Armoured Div; detachment of part of unit to Ardennes, Belgium during German Ardennes Offensive, 12/1944-1/1945; hospital treatment for receiving accidental broken nose from drunken NCO; relations with Dutch civilians; situation and winter conditions; leave in GB; letter and parcel contact with GB; collecting newspapers and ephemera. Recollections of period with 11th Ordnance Depot, 11th Armoured Div in Germany, 4/1945-4/1946: crossing pontoon bridge over River Rhine at Wesel, 4/1944; problems with Displaced Persons including risk of attacks on British Army troops and looting. REEL 6 Continues: question of war damage and reception from German civilians; drive along autobahn towards Lübeck; presence of German prisoners of war; bartering cigarettes for German newspapers and ephemera; move to secure Schleswig-Holstein and situation; move to Schleswig, 5/1945; VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; attending current affairs course; question of relations with German civilians including initial non-fraternisation, employment in camp, enforcing curfew and learning German language; question of awareness of concentration camps and German treatment of Jews and Soviets; continuation of ordnance parts supply role; return to GB. Aspects of demobilisation in GB, 4/1946: payments; reluctance to give up wearing uniform during final leave period. Post-war life and employment: background to decision to give up office work and become bus conductor. REEL 7 Continues: effects of war service; return to work as office manager, 1951; background to joining Anglo-German Club and subsequent marriage to German woman, 1957; review of development and commercial exploitation of John Frost Newspaper Archive; membership of Normandy Veterans Association.