Interview with Walter Vincent Boulter

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Description

Object description

British sapper served with 282nd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in GB and North West Europe, 11/1943-5/1945

Content description

REEL 1 Background in Oxford, GB, 1916-1939: period in The Poplars Orphanage, 1920-1931; employment. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Engineers in GB, 1/1943-10/1943: background to enlistment in Royal Sussex Regt at Chichester, 1/1/1943; acquiring nickname 'Pim'; lack of problems adjusting to military life; trade testing; move to Royal Engineers at Aldershot Garrison; assault course under fire; sleeping arrangements at Aldershot Garrison. REEL 2 Continues: move to Sharow, then Ripon; degree of recreational time; sporting activities; gas training. Aspects of period as sapper with 282nd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in GB, 11/1943-6/1944: move to Faversham, 12/1943; character of accommodation; driving duties; attitude to military service; opinion of officers and relations with NCOs; waterproofing vehicles; reaction to service aboard; restricted movement prior to D-Day; embarkation at Tilbury. Recollections of operations as sapper with 282nd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1945: crossing English Channel including sight of German corpse floating in water; seasickness; landings on Gold Beach, 6/1944; move to Bayeux; water supply duties near Hill 112; attending Officer 'O' groups. REEL 3 Continues: situation and duties in Caen; incidents of humour in unit; French civilians method of dealing with collaborators; discovery of shed full of bodies; medical officers dealing with lump on his arm; rations in Normandy; lack of trust for French civilians; amusing story of obtaining eggs; cooking facilities; impressions of Falaise Gap, 8/1944; unit casualties and burial of dead. Recollections of operations as sapper with 282nd Field Coy, Royal Engineers, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in North West Europe, 8/1944-5/1945: relations with Dutch civilians; German use of flares, winter 1944-1945; effects of exploding German V1 Flying Bomb. REEL 4 Continues: method by which British Army units moved forward; conditions in Reichswald Forest, Germany, 2/1945; German positions in Reichswald Forest, Germany, 2/1945; question of surviving war; comradeship; role of chaplain; character of 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div; conditions of active service; story of leave in GB; opinion of Corps of Military Police and Royal Army Medical Corps; opinion of German civilians and German Army troops; effect of psychological threat to use flamethrowers; sight of Airspeed Horsa Gliders during Operation Market Garden at Nijmegen, Netherlands; memories of building Airspeed Horsa Glider and repairing Hawker Hurricanes prior to military service; post-war visit to brother-in-law's grave at Arnhem, Netherlands; sight of German Army troops losing their military uniforms in Hamburg, Germany, 5/1945; situation in Hamburg, Germany, 5/1945; contact with Soviet and Polish Displaced Persons prior to German surrender. REEL 5 Continues: lack of celebrations in Hamburg on VE Day, 8/5/1945; building pontoon in Duisburg; attending German war criminal trial in Essen after end of Second World War, 1945; recreational games; demobilisation, 10/1946; story relating to importance of comradeship during military service; attitude to having served in British Army during Second World War.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1990 to the present day (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Baker, Lindsay (Recorder)
Boulter, Walter Vincent (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 2001-03-16
Dimensions: whole: Duration 150, Number Of Items 5
Catalogue number: 21111

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Interview with Walter Vincent Boulter

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