Description
Object description
British private served with 129 Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB and North West Europe, 1940-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Derby, 1919-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of enlistment and training with British Army in GB, 1939-1940: enlistment, 12/1939; introduction to army catering at Cookham Camp; adjusting to army life; rubella epidemic at Cookham Camp; opinion of basic training. Recollections of period as medical orderly with 129 Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1940- 1944: posting to unit at Gillingham; initial training with unit; character of unit including illiterate sergeant; memories of commanding officer Colonel 'Popeye' Lister; graduating from orderly to nursing orderly; move to Rothamstead Park, c5/1940.
REEL 2 Continues: move to Harpenden, summer 1940; method of learning to look after his personal comfort; move to Luton Hoo and Welwyn Garden City; initial experience of ward work; German Air Force attack on Welwyn Garden City; departure of Colonel 'Popeye' Lister; move to Smeeth Paddocks near Ashford; utilisation of experience in building trade at Smeeth Paddocks, winter 1941-1942; accidental fire in accommodation at Smeeth Paddocks; move into stores work; casual approach to discipline of 'Lakri' Woods; use of forty eight and thirty six hour passes to get home on leave; reaction to proposal to form unit dance band; under German shellfire at Dover Castle, 1942.
REEL 3 Continues: start of skin disease centre at Penshurst; reasons for impetigo problem amongst troops; petrol pilfering problem at Penshurst; treatment available for impetigo; role of unit in reserve during German Air Force attack on Canterbury, 1942; driving training; attitude of Royal Army Service Corps personnel to driving ambulances; reasons for period of training in military hospital at Maidstone.
REEL 4 Continues: emphasis on social life by staff in Maidstone hospital; six-month period of night duty at Kenfield Hall, Canterbury; 'Lakri' Woods reluctance to collect his MBE; incident of being placed on charge at Deal; caring for younger brother suffering from meningitis during leave in Derby; in secure camp at Rye; children asking for money in East End of London. Recollections of operations as medical orderly with 129 Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in Normandy, 6/1944- 8/1944: disembarking at Arromanches in Normandy, 6/1944; reasons for associating Intermezzo from Cavalliera Rusticana with disembarkation, 6/1944.
REEL 5 Continues: character of landing; removal of waterproofing from vehicles; first attempt to smoke army cigarettes; intervention by regimental sergeant- major during handling of mines casualty; move to Caen area; danger of German counter battery fire; handling casualties; orders to say put under German advance; friendly fire problem in St Lo area; treatment of Germans and French civilians; work with casualty receiving station; story of French civilian women's pleasure in seeing soldiers bathing. Recollections of operations as medical orderly with 129 Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps in North West Europe, 1944-1945: contracting dysentery during advance to Louvain, 9/1944.
REEL 6 Continues: dealing with cases of VD and scabies; problem of when to use penicillin; occasion when female civilian had cyst removed by unit at Louvain; advance along Arnhem corridor; story of medical officer reaction to death of Royal Army Service Corps driver-batman to sniper fire; sight of dead Germans tied to girders on crossing Nijmegen bridge; need to withdraw from front-line at Lent; his refusal to play football on a Sunday; contact with Salvation Army officers in Lent; eye injury caused by horse play.
REEL 7 Continues: treating Dutch female collaborator for scabies; problems of sheltering from German artillery in terrain with high water table; role of 4th Bn Dorsetshire Regt in rescuing survivors from Arnhem bridgehead; reaction to crossing river on pontoon bridge; rest period in Tilburg; rapid move to Ardennes, 12/1944; treating civilians for scabies in Ardennes; move to Brunsum area; story of young boy who prolonged his treatment and present he received from boy's mother; making friends with Salvationist family at Hoensbruck; question of competence of new medical officer and reaction of medical orderlies.
REEL 8 Continues: crossing Siegfried Line; treating difficult abdominal wound case; sight of Canadian casualties at Kalkar; crossing of River Rhine at Wesel; adjusting to being under shell-fire; threat of booby traps; dealing with casualty with hand grenade trapped in his pocket; sight of concentration camp survivors in Belsen Concentration Camp; reason for issue of photographs of concentration camp survivors; arrival in Bremerhaven. Recollections of period with Royal Army Medical Corps during Occupation of Germany, 1945-1946: move to Hanover area; story of fraternisation with German children; move to Luneburg; orders to set up VD clinic in Luneberg.
REEL 9 Continues: obtaining equipment for VD clinic; duties in VD clinic; selection procedure for staffing clinic with civilian staff; number of patients using clinic; work regime; reasons why he stayed on beyond his demobilisation date; how his time at VD clinic came to an end; send off he received from German civilian staff. Aspects of demobilisation and return to civilian life in GB from 1946: demobilisation procedure at York; circumstances of his home coming in Derby, 1946; his wife's attitude to his wartime service with British Army; resuming civilian employment.
REEL 10 Continues: pattern of civilian employment; question of how Second World War changed his outlook on life; attempt to obtain employment in the medical treatment of VD. Memories of treating German POWs during the Second World War.