Interview with Herbert Geoffrey Rees

1733628705
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Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

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Description

Object description

British signaller served as despatch rider with Royal Corps of Signals attached to Headquarters, 1st Infantry Div in North Africa and Italy, 1943-1944; served with Royal Corps of Signals attached to 76th (Shropshire Yeomanry) Medium Regt, Royal Artillery, Eighth Army in Italy, 1944-1946

Content description

REEL 1 Background in Birmingham, GB, 1921-1941: family; education; employment; job as Air Raid Precautions messenger in Handsworth. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Corps of Signals in GB, 1941-1942: volunteering for Royal Corps of Signals; arrival in Winchester, 13/3/1941; basic training; role as despatch rider with Headquarters, 4th Infantry Div; problems of riding motorcycle at night in New Forest; bombed state of Southampton; voyage from GB to Algiers, French Algeria, 3/1943. Recollections of operations as despatch rider with Royal Corps of Signals attached to Headquarters, 1st Infantry Div in North Africa, 3/1943-5/1943: move to Medjez-el-Bab, Tunisia; danger of accidental bombing by United States Army Air Force; living conditions especially shortage of water; character of Arabs; transfer from 4th Infantry Div to 1st Infantry Div; attitude towards Guards Brigade discipline. REEL 2 Continues: move into Tunisia. Recollections of operations as operations as despatch rider with Royal Corps of Signals attached to Headquarters, 1st Infantry Div and 76th (Shropshire Yeomanry) Medium Regt, Royal Artillery, Eighth Army in Italy, 1943-1946: arrival in Taranto; discomforts of traveling aboard Landing Craft Tank; occasion when his motorcycle broke down; weather conditions; landing in Anzio, 1/1944; question of failure to exploit bridgehead; story of taking relief wireless operator into front line; wounding by artillery fire; medical evacuation and hospitalisation for wounds in Naples; recuperating in Sicily and return to Anzio; entry into Rome, 6/1944; opinion of Victory V cigarettes; attachment to 76th (Shropshire Yeomanry) Medium Regt, Royal Artillery, Eighth Army; state of Florence after German retreat; conditions in mountains, 12/1944; attitude of Italian civilian whose tree was cut down; contracting jaundice; black market operations; importance of soap. REEL 3 Continues: narrow escape from German artillery fire; opinion of New Zealand military personnel and their method of supplementing back pay; crossing River Po on pontoon bridge, 4/1945; behaviour of Yugoslavs inland of Trieste; unwillingness of Germans to surrender to Italian Partisans; sight of Soviet soldier in German military service being detained; New Zealand soldier's trade in captured German horses; period with Polish forces in Ancona, summer 1946; attitude to having served with British Army in Italy; British Army policy towards looting; selling military petrol after end of war; trade in British Army blankets; story of individual and gangs of deserters; listening to radio.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1990 to the present day (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Wood, Conrad (Recorder)
Rees, Herbert Geoffrey (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 2002-04-09
Dimensions: whole: Duration 90, Number Of Items 3
Catalogue number: 22677

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Interview with Herbert Geoffrey Rees

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