Description
Object description
British private served with 8th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 1938-1940; private served with 11th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB and France, 1940; POW in Germany, 1940-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Penshaw and Ilkley Moor, GB, 1918-1938: family; area and community grew up in; pit accidents; details of his thirteen siblings; leisure activities; religion; education; breaking of leg and recovery; time in Boy Scouts; odd jobs on leaving school; employment at colliery.
REEL 2 Continues: leisure activities as teenager; First Aid Classes and competitions; story of small girl's death; conditions in mine; conditions in mine; helmets used in mine; methods of gas detection; pit ponies; activity of union; details of pay; items spent pocket money on; work in Convalescent Home on Ilkley Moor; visits to Ilkley market; work in coke works; period unemployed; reasons for joining Territorial Army; process of joining. Aspects of period as private with 8th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 2/1938-9/1939: uniform and equipment; description of Houghton-le-Spring drill hall; issue of rifle; weapons trained on; opinion of Lewis and Bren guns; organisation of unit; officers and NCOs in D Coy; discipline; story of visit to Alnwick while on camp; wearing of puttees; boots worn; shirts worn on camp; equipment issued.
REEL 3 Continues: drill; exercises; stove; marching at Light Infantry pace; weapons training at drill hall; accommodation at Whitburn; firing on ranges at Whitburn; accommodation on weekend camps at Hart; 3" mortar training; make-up of mortar teams; social activities; drill meetings; bounty; punishments given; kit inspections and cleaning of webbing; reaction of mother to joining Territorial Army; attitude towards war; opinion that training based on First World War; route marches; items carried on route marches; brigade camp at Alnwick; accommodation and aircraft drill; storage of equipment; rations and eating of meals; reveille; fatigues and duties in camp; role of camp; discipline; guard duties; exercises; visits into Alnwick and Regimental Police duties; signs of approaching war; recruitment parades; call-up of first militia.
REEL 4 Continues: description and opinion of Boyes Anti-Tank Rifle; grenade training; bayonet training; sports at drill hall; physical training; issue of gas masks; wet weather clothing; new greatcoat; opinion of training; outbreak of war and mobilisation; reactions of family to war; attitude of civilians to Territorial Army; advised to apply for Medical orderly post; First Aid training before war in colliery and with St John's Ambulance; billets at dog track; formation of the 11th Bn; posting to 11th Bn after hospitalisation. Aspects of period as private with 11th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 9/1939-4/1940: reaction to transfer; move into drill hall and issue of equipment; posted to D Coy; medical room; visits of medical officer sick parades; common health complaints; inoculations; duties in medical room; sleeping arrangements; rifle issued; posting to Sunderland; accommodation; training at Seaburn; medical room; charge for entertaining; protection stripe; equipment situation; gas training.
REEL 5 Continues: leave; reaction of family to going abroad; journey to Southampton; crossing to Le Havre and reaction to going abroad. Aspects of operations as private with 11th Bn in France, 4/1940-5/1940: first impression of France; train journey to Bolberque; march through village; accommodation; marching; train journey to second posting; work on airfield runways and accommodation; pay and leisure activities; relationship with civilians; drink available; story of lift with 10th Bn troops; daily routine and parachute searches; weather; opinion that wouldn't be used in fight; memories of Captain Martin; NCOs and troops in platoon; memories of Sergeant Major Hutchinson; discipline; engineer support; air activity; move to east of Arras; dug-in along railway; French troops; order to withdraw; left behind for night; overtaken by Germans; hid in garden hut; removal of rifle bolts and cap badges.
REEL 6 Continues: surrender. Aspects of period as POW in transit, 5/1940-7/1940: initial treatment; arrival of SS; driven to Cambrai; chopping of firewood; officers put to work; drink given; time in garage and church; letters written and burned; physical condition; march to tennis court; photographed by Germans; food; marched to Belgium; spent nights in open fields; conditions on march; butchering of cows by Algerian and Moroccan POWs; hunger; attitude towards French; food continually promised; chicory drink given; story of drunken German jabbing POWs with bayonet; arrival in Bastogne; powdered milk at station; train journey to Trier; march to Hitler Youth camp; bread and jam eaten; train journey to Thorn; condition of POWs; soup from Red Cross. Recollections of period as POW in Germany, 7/1940-4/1945: arrival at area outside Fort 13; sleeping arrangements; soup kitchen; POW disc; latrines; rations; morning procedures; parades; expansion of camp; working parties; moved into Fort 13; work on airfield near Gdynia; accommodation; washing facilities; move to work with mechanical digger; Kaiser Wilhelm's batman; stealing of turnips.
REEL 7 Continues: saluting of German soldiers; newspapers shown; entertainment at weekend; story of boiled sweet found; start of day; relationship with guards; rations; letters written home; German newspaper for POWs; news from radio; discipline; turnip field story; punishment for POW stealing bread; morale in camp; book passed round; washing facilities; delousing in Gdinya; onset of winter and issue of second set of battle dress; Red Cross parcel; internal punishment for stealing; journey to Fort 15, Thorn; description of fort; sleeping arrangements; stove in wall; weather conditions; overcoats issued; shirt made from paliasse; Christmas and New Year; formed into German Labour Bn; accommodation in Graudenz; work building; situation for civilians; pay; story of bread brought in by civilians; front line troops moving through for Russia.
REEL 8 Continues: improving organisation of camp; distribution of Red Cross parcels; lunch on working party; relationship with guards; method for stealing bread; story of German officer giving out extra soup; work discipline; start of day; evening activities; air raid shelters moved; troop movements seen; movement of Jewish people; work on a farm; accommodation and visit to pub with farmer; discipline; possibility of escape; rations; Red Cross parcels; chickens stolen; stove in billets; distribution of Red Cross parcels; visits to the village store for beer; local pub; jobs on farm; work with animals; relationship with farmers; identification worn by non-Germans; news from Eastern Front; moved to Rahmal Sagorsh; accommodation; latrines.
REEL 9 Continues: comradeship on farm; news of war; harvest work; baking of bread; relationship with civilians; discipline; moved to Marienburg; accommodation; latrines; roll calls; entry of America into war; journey to Graudenz; building work at German Military Hospital; punishment for poor work; time in quarentine following outbreak of chicken pox; German methods for dealing with cold; issue and storage of shaving soap; heating; items sent from Regiment and Durham miners; parcels from home; censorship of mail; discipline; placed in 40th German Labour Bn; news of German victories; move to Heydebreck; Labour Battalions present; roll calls; items stolen from factory; entertainment; accommodation; rations; morale life from Red Cross parcels; bartering with items from parcels; visit from Gestapo to search for stolen items; signal given as warning; methods of hiding items; work at factory; methods of sabotage; civilians working in factory.
REEL 10 Continues: morning procedures; clothing given; washing facilities; details of the building of factory; other prisoners working on factory; treatment of Russians; lectures; news of war; acceptance of treatment and stories of the treatment of Russian prisoners; guards in factory; funeral of Fowle; camp defences; population of camp; medical facilities; laying of cables; refusal to work with French; method of French POWs to make work easier; attempts to sabotage and delay; canteen; rations; Italians in camp; length of day; shorts made for work in summer; overalls; news of D-Day and Battle of the Bulge; smoking in factory; bombing raids; death of POW from bombing; reactions to air raids; plotting of time bombs; anti-aircraft activity; signs of the Russian advance; effect on Germans; German criminals working in factory.
REEL 11 Continues: story of prisoners killed while digging up a time bomb; asked to fight Russians; further details of bombing raids; pantomime costumes and camp band; deaths of POWs in woods; taking cover in woods; camp padre; situation in New Year 1945; destruction of factory; winter conditions. Aspects of period as POW in transit, 1945: condition of prisoners brought from Auschwitz and start of march; announcement of march; first night on march; conditions on march; sledges made; length of march; state of POWs; stealing of pigeon; punishment; guards; relationship with civilians in Czechoslovakia; looting of countryside; treatment of ill; burial of fireman; ice in boots; night in hotel; trip to bakery; attitude of guards; arrival in Bavaria; raiding of a spud cellar; air attack on column; end of march at Bayreuth; damage to railway station; air raid at Bayreuth; funeral of casualties and reactions to; orders to march back east; arrival of Americans.
REEL 12 Continues: accommodation and relationship with civilians; revenge against one guard; food from Americans; time to west of Bayreuth; taken to Munich airfield; showers and delousing; uniform given; stay in Brussels; journey to Tilbury via Ostend; taken to American camp at High Wycombe; issue of new uniforms; journey to Co Durham and leave; reception from family; camp money taken out of army pay; problems settling back into life in GB; training in High Wycombe; story of cleaning showers at the Military Hospital in Graudenz; bread stolen from hospital; humour in camps; army work in Colchester; story of missing telephone duties; punishment; demobilisation in Northampton; final pay; return to civilian work with ICI; worst moments as POW; importance of Red Cross parcels; stories of mail received; best time as POW; joining of British Legion and Fellowship of Servicemen.