Interview with James Cramer

British guardsman and NCO trained with Grenadier Guards in GB, 1939-1940; NCO served with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, 206th Independent Infantry Bde (Home) and 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Div in GB, 1939-1942; served with 1st Bn Royal Ulster Rifles, 6th Airlanding Bde, 6th Airborne Div in GB and North West Europe and Palestine, 1942-1946

REEL 1 Background in Portsmouth, GB, 1915-1939: family; education; employment with Portsmouth City Police; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Recollections of enlistment and training as guardsman and NCO with Grenadier Guards in GB, 1939-1940: reasons for volunteering for British Army, 11/1939; reception at Duke of York's Barracks, Chelsea; effect on his fastidiousness with army rations; training by numbers; treatment of army boots; pack drill punishment; impression of officers; rivalry between Coldstream Guards and Grenadier Guards; problems with pay; move to Training Bn, Grenadier Guards at Victoria Barracks, Windsor; problems encountered at Royal Military College Sandhurst, Camberley. Aspects of period as NCO with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, 206th Independent Infantry Bde (Home) and 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Div in GB and Northern Ireland, 1940-1942: move to Fenton Street Barracks, Leeds; use of drilling skills; opinion of Vickers Machine Gun; formation of unit at Aberlady. REEL 2 Continues: promotion to lance-sergeant, 9/1940; move to Northern Ireland; precautions taken against potential Irish Republican Army (IRA) attacks; treatment of soldiers affected by venereal disease; experience in padded cell; reasons for volunteering for airborne forces, 1942. Recollections of period as NCO with 1st Bn Royal Ulster Rifles, 6th Airlanding Bde, 6th Airborne Div in GB, 1942-1944: transfer to unit at Bulford Camp; impressions of battalion driver in full insignia at Salisbury, 1942; issue of red beret; glider training; pattern of training and courses attended, 1942-1944; reasons for transfer to reinforcement company; return to D Coy; briefings for Operation Tonga; grenade accident prior to D-Day; reasons for soup free meals prior to embarkation aboard gliders. REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of operations as NCO with D Coy, 1st Bn Royal Ulster Rifles, 6th Airlanding Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-9/1944: glider flight from GB to Normandy, evening D-Day, 6/6/1944; technique of landing between anti-glider poles at Ranville; welcome received from Major-General Richard Gale; nature of attack with supporting fire from HMS Arethusa; different sounds of ordnance; need to retrieve empty Sten Gun magazines; disposal of dead; preference for Bren Gun over German machine guns; composition of assault rations and compo rations; effect of army biscuits on teeth and gums; developing craving for bread; accidental artillery shelling of positions; role in charge of burial party, 9/6/1944; ambush of German Army column, 9/6/1944; danger from German Army troops shamming death; retreat of 51st (Highland) Infantry Div troops at Sainte-Honorine la Chardronette. REEL 4 Continues: disappearance of reinforcements from 70th Bn Royal Ulster Rifles with retreating 51 Div men; fate of 12th Bn Parachute Regt at Bréville-les-Monts; comparison between German MP40 and Sten Gun; in action at Château Saint-Come; work in charge of battalion snipers; breakout of Normandy during Operation Paddle; evacuation of NCOs with shell shock; advance along coast; leading troops into Saint-Philibert-sur-Risle; memories of bugler Rifleman Nicolas 'Nicky' McGuire; dealing with German prisoners of war; threat of German laid booby-traps; story of liberation of German diver's watch on River Orne; liberation of Honfleur; relief by Belgian troops on River Seine; impressions of Mulberry Harbour; embarking procedure at Arromanches-les-Bains; battalion casualties in Normandy; physical and psychological condition he was in on return to GB; reflections on heavy casualties taken by 51st (Highland) Infantry Div. REEL 5 Continues: potted history of 1st and 6th Airborne Divs. Recollections of operations as NCO with D Coy, 1st Royal Ulster Rifles, 6th Airborne Div in North West Europe, 1944-1945: rapid move to Belgium, 12/1944; role as quartermaster sergeant; predictability of German artillery shelling; injuries received in road accident; effect of No 9 pills on constipation; arrival of United States Army troops with plethora of equipment in Ardennes, Belgium, 2/1945; modification of Sten Gun; nature of premonitions prior to Operation Varsity, the crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; memories of Major Huw Wheldon; escaping from glider during Operation Varsity, 3/1945; question of wearing red berets for Operation Varsity; battalion casualties at Hamminkeln, Germany; battalion reaction to to delay in 15th (Scottish) Infantry Div at Hamminkeln, Germany, 3/1945; state of German towns; capture of German 'storm rifle'; disarming Displaced Persons. REEL 6 Continues: question of possible conflict with Soviet Army at Wismar, Germany, 5/1945; return to GB. Recollection of period as NCO with 1st Bn Royal Ulster Rifles, 6th Airlanding Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Palestine, 1945-1946: background of sending battalion to Palestine; initial impressions of Palestine Police Force officer on arrival at Haifa; contrast between Jewish and Arab settlements; reasons for troops becoming pro-Arab at Gaza; duties at regimental sergeant-major at Hadera; amusing story of heated exchange between regimental mascots; security precautions taken at Petah Tikva; road to journey to Egypt, 1946; return to GB and resuming duties with Portsmouth City Police, 3/1947. Reflections on service as NCO with British Army during Second World War, 1939-1946: attending days shooting with Arabs in Palestine, 1946; republican sympathies of civilian population at Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, 1940. REEL 7 Continues: relations between Catholic and Protestant troops serving in 1st Bn Royal Ulster Rifles; number of applicants to join volunteer services, 1939; fate of bugler Rifleman Nicolas 'Nicky' McGuire at Bréville-les-Monts, Normandy, France, 19/4/1944; contrast in behaviour of British and German Army troops at night; positioning of German Army machine guns on fixed lines in Normandy, France; opinion of German Army techniques and equipment.