Interview with Norman Bradley

British trooper served with 54th Training Regt, Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 2/1943-6/1943; served with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in GB and Normandy, France, 6/1943-7/1944; served with 1st King's Dragoon Guards in Middle East, 1945-1947

REEL 1 Background in Everdon and Coventry, GB, 1923-1939: family; character of Everdon; education; civilian employment in Coventry. Aspects of period as civilian in Everdon and Coventry, GB, 9/1939-11/1942: declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; rationing; German Air Force raids on Coventry, including character of surface air raid shelters; reason for return to Everdon; civilian employment. Aspects of enlistment and training with East Yorkshire Regiment Regimental Depot, Victoria Barracks, Beverley, GB, 12/1942-2/1943: background to joining British Army; medical; opinion of training period; prior training with Home Guard; journey to and arrival in Beverley; issue of kit and bedding; description of barrack room; dentistry work; relations with fellow recruits; problems with NCO; morning procedures; opinion of rations; drill; weapons and bayonet training; grenade training; opinion of training received; trade tests; opinion of posting to Royal Armoured Corps. Recollections of period as trooper with 54th Training Regt, Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 2/1943-6/1943: posting to Deerbolt Camp, Starforth, near Barnard Castle; accommodation; training as tank driver, including with Crusader Tank. REEL 2 Continues: discipline; selection of stickman from guard parade; story of being chosen to be stickman; Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) concerts; maintenance work; friends in unit; story of fight; reaction to swearing; visits to Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) and into Barnard Castle; wireless and gunnery training; opinion of Ordnance QF 2 Pounder Gun. Recollections of period as driver with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in GB, 6/1943-6/1944: posting to Bridlington; accommodation; initial impressions of unit; troop and squadron posting; relations with fellow troopers; memories of troop members including Trooper George Wooldridge and formation of tank crew; relations with Scottish members of unit; problems with rations; description of M4 Sherman Tank; driving M4 Sherman Tank including visibility from driving position; opinion of tank driving; driving practice; time spent on ranges at Kirkcudbright. REEL 3 Continues: opinion of M4 Sherman Tank's engines; waterproofing tests in river at Richmond; knowledge of exercises; awareness of problems with M4 Sherman Tank; role of co-driver; M4 Sherman Tank's armament; composition of tank crew; opinion of turret work; wireless and gunnery training; tank evacuation; posting to Aldershot Garrison; story of journey from Bridlington to Aldershot Garrison; accommodation; relations amongst troopers; memories of tank crew members; contact with officers; waterproofing of tanks including testing; living conditions; discipline out of barracks; degree of contact with Corps of Military Police; awareness of approaching invasion. REEL 4 Continues: aerial activity on D-Day, 6/6/1944; move to Gosport; reactions to D-Day landings, 6/6/1944; sleeping arrangements; boarding of Landing Ship Tank at Gosport and crossing English Channel, 6/1944. Recollections of operations as trooper with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-7/1944: arrival; removal of waterproofing; dropping of chestnut fencing; arrangements and camouflage of tanks at Cully; sleeping arrangements; storage of rations; rations; cigarette ration; latrines; reaction to being under fire; advance on first day of Operation Epsom, 26/6/1944; description of his M4 Sherman Tank being hit on River Orne; evacuation from tank; dressing down received from Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Scott; continuation of advance without crew; period spent under road bridge; rations; sight of bodies in river; briefly joining an anti-aircraft unit; withdrawal and reunion with unit; formation of new tank crew; injuries amongst unit; opinion at time of M4 Sherman Tank; move into camp; reaction to being under fire; opinion of General Bernard Montgomery; activities in camp; night-time laagers. REEL 5 Continues: start of Operation Goodwood, 18/7/1944; advance of unit; role in sights witnessed from inside tank; firing from tank; German artillery shelling of tank; casualties; evacuation from tank; state of tank; small arms fire faced and cover taken in cornfield; withdrawal to glider field; tanks taking cover in field; taking cover during German Air Force raid and wounding; nature of wounds sustained in German Air Force; evacuation to and medical treatment received at field hospital. Aspects of hospitalisation and convalescence in GB, 7/1944-1/1945: journey to Ascot; medical treatment received; hospitalisation in Liverpool and Wrexham; state of wounds; reaction to wounding; convalescence at No 122 Medical Convalescent Depot at Trentham Park and medical grading received; posting to Catterick Garrison; reunion with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry comrades; awaiting posting and near posting to Far East. REEL 6 Continues: length of time spent at Catterick Garrison; journey to Greenock on draft. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Volendam from Greenock, GB to Port Said, Egypt, 1945: at anchor in Irish Sea; seasickness; living conditions on board; time spent in transit camp on arrival in Egypt; train journey to Cairo, Egypt. Aspects of period as trooper with 1st King's Dragoon Guards in Middle East, 1945-1947: posting at Beni Youssef, Egypt; reaction to posting to regiment; character of regiment and discipline; driving of Staghound Armoured Car; composition of armoured car crew; recreational activities in Cairo, Egypt; unit activities in Egypt; punishment for washing under a tap; training in desert; VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; availability of beer and use of glasses made with bottles; situation in and posting to Palestine; patrol duties; training and qualification as fitter in Tel-el-Kebir Camp, Egypt; period spent in Lake Tiberias area, Palestine; story of journey to Cairo; death of brother; attitude towards demobilisation; duties during posting in Iraq; attending welding course in Canal Zone, Egypt; demobilisation; civilian employment on demobilisation, GB, 1947.