Description
Object description
British private served with 1st London Scottish in GB, 1937-1939; served as officer with 2/7th Middlesex Regt in GB, 1940-1941; served with 70th Bn Middlesex Regt in GB, 1941-1943; served with 9th Bn, parachute Regt in GB and North West Europe, 1943-1944; served as staff officer in GB, 1945-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Saltburn-on-Sea and London, 1919-1939: education; question of career in aviation; work as management trainee for tobacco firm, 1937-1939. Recollections of recruitment and service as private with 1/14th Bn, London Regt at Buckingham Gate Drill Hall, London, 11/1937-8/1939: reasons; uniform; drill and value of OTC experience; weapons training; tactical lectures; weekend and annual camps; question of commission; relationship with ORs, NCOs and officers; increasing realism of training exercises; call up with key party, 8/1939. Recollections of periods at Buckingham Gate Drill Hall and Chelsea Barracks, 8/1939-10/1939: preparations for war; guard duties; filling sand bags; outbreak of war, 3/9/1939. Period at Broom Hall, Canterbury, 10/1939-11/1939: transfer to Carrier Platoon, Headquarters Coy; learning to drive and opinion of Bren carrier; role of Carrier Platoon; story of punishment for wearing civilian shoes when digging trenches; recommendation for commission. Period at 162 Officer Cadet Training Unit at Bulford, 11/1939-3/1940: volunteering for machine gun training course.
REEL 2 Continues: general training as officer; training in Vickers machine gun including opinion, stoppages, and tactical employment; influence of Guards and 'trooping the colour' practices; commission into Middlesex Regt, 3/1940. Period at Middlesex Regt Depot at Mill Hill Barracks, 3/1940-5/190: lectures from officers on leave from France; approach to training recruits; wiring parties and method of crossing barbed wire; anti-parachutist measures. Recollections of periods with 2/7th Bn, Middlesex Regt at Tidworth Barracks and Brightstone, Isle of Wight, 5/1940-7/1940: state of unit; establishing coastal defences; failed attempt to establish underwater obstacles; relationship with civilians; opinion of Major George Flavell; officer guilty of fraud; question of relationship between territorial and 'ranker' officers in officers mess. Various postings in Scotland, 7/1940-2/1941: coastal defence role in Largo Bay; period with mobile reserve at Cupar; winter quarters at Selkirk. Periods in Great Yarmouth and Sherringham, 2/1941-9/1941: German air raids; adapting Vickers to anti-aircraft role; divisional exercises; role as motor contact attached to Headquarter, 46th Div.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of Major General Miles Dempsey. Period with 70th <Young Soldiers> Bn, MR at Bexhill and Hounslow Barracks, London, 9/1941-9/1943: state of unit; opinion of Colonel Humphreys; role as assistant adjutant and adjutant; opinion of officers; qualifying for regular commission; opinion of ORs and problems with men going AWOL; training; recommendations for staff college; background to volunteering for Parachute Regt. First impressions on joining 9th Bn, Parachute Regt at Kiwi Barracks, Bulford, 9/1943. Recollections of training course at Parachute Regt Depot, Hardwick Hall, Chesterfield, 9/1943-10/1943: physical nature of training regime; policy of mixed rank training; fear of being returned to unit; live firing exercises; weapons training and opinion of 2" mortar, PIAT, gammon bomb, Sten gun, Thompson gun, pistol and hand grenades; assessment and effect on personal fitness.
REEL 4 Recollections of training at Parachute Training Centre, Ringway Airfield, 10/1942: ground training on rolling including use of 'fan' apparatus; first static line parachute jumps from balloon; parachute jump in high winds; visit to parachute packing sheds; issue of numbered parachute and static line; fitting parachute; dragging quick parachute release drill; procedure on static line parachute jumps from Whitley; death from parachute not opening; problem with thrown line and consequent injury to shoulder in parachute landing tactical exercise. Hospitalisation with fractured shoulder, 10/1943-1/1944: medical treatment; physical training during convalescence; medical board classifications initially as Category 'C' and then Category 'B'; return to unit. Recollections of period at Kiwi Barracks, Bulford, 1/1944-5/1944: role as administrative officer including acting as president of officers' mess and regimental institute and administering regimental welfare fund; role as MT officer; role supervising supply of food rations to ORs; role as replacement platoon officer.
REEL 5 Continues: danger of 'ringing the bell' on jumping from Whitley; posting to command Vickers machine gun platoon; method of dropping and moving Vickers; opinion of Major Terence Otway; opinion of Colonel Martin Lindsay and story of his arrest and dismissal for breach of security on dropping zones; parachute jump and failed attempt to be reclassified as Category 'A'; promotion to captain and assignment to seaborne role as administrative officer; unit move minus administrative section for special training in capture of battery; waterproofing MT; MT signs; loading stores on lorries. Period in transit camp in Essex, 5/1944. Recollections of Channel crossing aboard US Liberty Ship MT 21, 5/6/1944-7/6/1944: embarkation and initial period in Thames estuary; relationship with US crew; long range German coastal gun fire; move towards US beach area on arrival; landing at Crepon, 7/6/1944; briefing aboard ship.
REEL 6 Recollections of operations in Normandy, 6/1944-8/1944: drive along coast to join unit at Benouville, ca 8/6/1944; German shell fire; move forward to Bois du Mon, 12/6/1944; situation; role visiting forward positions to deliver food and ammunition; German artillery bombardment and attack; action to stop retreat by soldiers from 5th Bn, Black Watch; taking over Vickers , opening fire and problem with stoppages from damaged gun lock; taking up position in ditch; ordering opening fire on Tiger tank, effects of retaliatory fire and subsequent visit to scene; arrival and destruction of Centaur tanks; slit trenches; casualties; importance of Bois du Mon position; acting as advance party during move to Brickworks, Le Mesnil; digging slit trenches; close escape from German shell whilst attempting to replace water cart; move to Ranville, ca 20/6/1944; unit morale; reports from captured German officer of effectiveness of demolition of guns of Merville Basttery; question of unit performance at Merville Battery, 6/6/1944; rest period at Ranville; situation on return to Le Mesnil.
REEL 7 Continues: situation; compo rations; water supply; latrines; posting to command Support Coy; question of fighting, standing and reconnaissance patrols; rest period by River Orne; looking after horses; German air attacks; Allied bombing raid on Caen; move to Bois du Bavent; exchanges of mortar and artillery fire; problems with noisy trailers and use of reversing jeeps to deliver supplies; evacuation of wounded Colonel Otway; opinion of Colonel Napier Crookenden; interrogation of German deserter; story of trip to obtain extra rum and cigarettes from beach area; unopposed attack on Bois du Bavent, 19/8/944; crossing fascine bridge over River Deve; problems organising food rations; situation facing Dozule; capture of Dozule railway station, 20/8/1944; German shell fire whilst taking food forward.
REEL 8 Continues: prior heavy calibre shell fire; advance into Dozule; abandonment of inessential equipment for flying column role; advance to Annebault; rum ration; fatigue and story of sleep walking prior to attack in Annebault sector, ca 23/8/1944; nebelwerfer fire; advance by road to Pont L'Evique; abandoned plans for further parachute attack; story of visit by Major General Gale during night advance; preparation of cooked meals and haversack rations; ammunition supply role during attack on Beuzeville, ca 26/8/1944; reception from French civilians on entering Beuzeville to find unit billets; looting from French collaborators' home used as officers' mess; reactions to return to GB, 9/1944. Period at Kiwi Barracks, Bulford, 9/1944-11/1944: leave; question of Arnham operation. Period in command of Rehabilitation Coy, Parachute Regt Depot, Hardwick Hall, Chesterfield, 11/1944-6/1945: background to posting and promotion to major; role rehabilitating veterans with mental problems; question of locating appropriate duties for individuals; VE Day, 8/5/1945; question of demobilisation or taking regular commission.
REEL 9 Recollections of attending course at Staff College, Sandhurst, 6/1945-10/1945: nature of course; work of syndicates; story of TEWT involving defence of farmhouse; paper exercise planning route for armoured division; success in passing course; question of modern focus of course; question of posting as liaison officer to Royal Navy in Far East. Period as GO2 staff officer with Norfolk Sub District, Easter Command at Norwich, 10/1945-6/1946: role in liaisiing with Royal Engineers in clearing minefields in beach and coastal areas; use of high pressure hoses in clearing mines from beaches; checks made prior to signing clearance certificates; question of casualties; unclearable sand dune areas; role inspecting conditions in German POW camps; liaison with local infantry units; safety inspections of old comrade clubs proposed rifle ranges; regeneration of Army Cadet Force; relationship with Norfolk Regt; staff roles; organisation of Eastern Command; background to decision to leave army and return to tobacco firm; demobilisation, 6/1946. Post war career: decision not to use army rank; career as sales and senior executive with tobacco firms in GB, North Africa and Middle East, 1946-1957.
REEL 10 Continues: career as sales and senior executive with tobacco firms in GB, North Africa and Middle East, 1946-1957subsequent management consultancy career; effects of shoulder injury; story of charity parachute jump into sea aged 70, 1989; mental effects of military service; membership of various Parachute Regt Assocs.