Description
Object description
British trooper served with 58th Training Regt, Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 1942-1943; trooper served with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in GB, 1943-1944; NCO served with 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 28th Armoured Bde, 9th Armoured Div in GB, 6/1944-8/1944; served with 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 31st Armoured Bde, 79th Armoured Div in North West Europe, 8/1944-5/1945; NCO served with 14th/20th King's Hussars in Germany, 1945-1947
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Clydach and Slough, GB, 1924-1942: family; education; employment in Slough and Clydach; reason for return to Clydach at start of Second World War; reason for enlistment in Royal Air Force; training in Penarth and reason for rejection; process of joining British Army in Swansea; details of period in 12th (Swansea) Bn Glamorganshire Home Guard in Clydach including guard duties Aspects of period as trooper with 58th Training Regt, Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 5/1942-4/1943: journey to Bovington Camp; joining 32 Troop; background of recruits including Kenneth Butler and David Fitzherbert-Bradstock; accommodation and sleeping arrangements; opinion of boots and alterations made to battle dress; physical training; NCO Instructors; drill; personal weapons carried among tank crew; weapons training; driving Covenanter Tank; posting as driving instructor; instruction on driving tank, including tanks used for instruction and skills required by tank crew members; news from war.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of period as trooper with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in GB, 1943-1944: prior knowledge of Fife and Forfar Yeomanry; joining regiment at Helmsley; passing out parade at Bovington Camp; discipline and punishments; guard duties; recreational activities in Weymouth; contact with civilians; troopers not coping with military life and own attitude to service; Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI); unhygienic trooper; role as instructor; attitude of troopers towards Royal Armoured Corps; visits from senior officers; leave; origins of troopers; opinion of time spent as instructor, Recollections of period as NCO with 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 28th Armoured Bde, 9th Armoured Div in GB, 5/1944-8/1944: reception on arrival and posting to 2 Troop; gunnery training at Kirkcudbright, 6/1944; exercises; wireless training; story of accident during gunnery training at Kirkcudbright, 6/1944; officers; opinion of regiment; composition of tank crew; relations with crew including cooking of meals; story of accident during an exercise; posting to Nunnykirk; accommodation; attending driver maintenance course; characteristics of Cromwell Tank.
REEL 3 Continues: description of accommodation; spread of regiment; squadron training; leisure activities in Ashington; memories of Grace Horden; relations with civilians including trout and rabbit poaching; story from later service with 14/20th King's Royal Hussars; news of change in tanks to be operated; journey to Ipswich; characteristics of Churchill Crocodile Flame Throwing Tank; training received on Churchill Crocodile Flame Throwing Tank and mechanics of flamethrowers; visits of senior ranking officers; degree of knowledge of coming invasion of France; move to Fareham and into sealed camp; secrecy surrounding Churchill Crocodile Flame Throwing Tank; opinion of Churchill Churchill Crocodile Flame Throwing Tank; period in sealed camp at Fareham; visits to public house; impressions of American and Polish troops; boarding of landing ship tank at Gosport; scenes in port; voyage to Belgium.
REEL 4 Continues: Recollections of operations as trooper and NCO with 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 31st Armoured Bde, 79th Armoured Div in North West Europe, 8/1944-5/1945: slit trenches dug on first night; composition of unit; advance through Belgium including sighting of German V1 Flying Bomb at Antwerp; supporting infantry; problems during advance; rest period in Brussels, Belgium; use of tanks on canals; action taken against snipers and Hitler Youth; rotation of infantry and tanks; attitude of infantry to tanks and tank crews to infantry; German forces' anti-tank fire; visit to Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers workshop in Hasselt, Belgium; incident of problem with tank track; support role of tanks; discovery of sniper rifle; evening maintenance activities and rations; ammunition; unit casualties; heater made to cook meals; further details of rations and reprimand for stealing chicken; method of cooking chicken; sleeping arrangements; weather; route taken to Breda, Netherlands and night in canning factory.
REEL 5 Continues: visit to mine at Ottershoek, Belgium; story of a sergeant who shot a lance corporal and funeral in Hasselt, Belgium; contact with German Army troops and tanks; accommodation in Waalre; skating on frozen lake; German V1 Flying Bombs passing overhead; period outside Nijmegen, Netherlands, 9/1944; start of Operation Market Garden in Netherlands, 9/1944; journey to the Reichswald Forest Germany, 3/1945; other types of specialist tanks in 79th Armoured Div; story of piano and drummer; crossing of river; walks through forest including finding an United States Army supply dump; conditions underfoot; journey to Rees and crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; scenes in Emmerich am Rhein; story of journey to Zutphen and details of route north; story of Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoons.
REEL 6 Continues: opinion of German Tiger Tank; attitude to overseas service; humour among troops; atmosphere within tank; story of first bath since embarkation and issue of Canadian Army battledress. Aspects of period as NCO with 14th/20th King's Hussars in Germany and GB, 1945-1947: posting to regiment and promotion, 6/1945; journey to GB including atmosphere in transit camp; earlier visit on leave to Paris, France; posting in Catterick Camp; duties; demobilisation in York, GB; reaction to demobilisation. Post-war life and employment: marriage; employment; relation with those who had not served in armed services. Reflections on military service in Second World War: chaplains and religion; story of receiving treatment for boil; visit to hospital at Nijmegen, Netherlands; Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) concert at Nijmegen, Netherlands; contact with Corps of Military Police; recreational activities after VE Day, 8/5/1945; relations with civilians.
REEL 7 Continues: story of infantryman killed by a mine; burial of casualties; German Army casualty; armour added to Churchill Crocodile Flaming Throwing Tank; security of tanks; nature of advance; debris collected during night journey; sleeping; financial situation on leaving British Army; attempt to obtain military pension; details of civilian life; reaction at end of Second World War, 1945; story of seeing concentration camp inmates; examples of other troops breaking under pressure; description of field showers; relations with civilians; family; opinion of officers, regiment and military service; contact with Soviet Army troops, 1945; memories of comrades; question of homosexuality in British Army.
