Masters, Derek Reginald (Oral history)

British officer served as signals intelligence officer with Y Service in Cairo, Egypt, 4/1942-7/1942; served with No 2 Special Wireless Section, Y Service, Headquarters Eighth Army in North Africa, 7/1942-7/1943; served with No 113 Special Wireless Section, Y Service, Headquarters, United States Fifth Army, and Headquarters, V Corps, British Eighth Army in Italy, 10/1943-5/1945

REEL 1 Background in Egypt, GB and Germany, 1918-1940: family including father's naval career; memories of meeting Mahatma Gandhi; education in GB; description of daily life in Berlin, Germany, 1937-1938; reading Adolf Hitler's book 'Mein Kampf'; relations with Germans and attitude to anti-Semitic laws; reaction to Munich Crisis, 9/1938; return to GB at outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; further education at University of Oxford, 9/1939-6/1945. Aspects of training as gunner with Royal Artillery in GB and India, 1940-1941: call-up for military service at Blackdown Camp, Aldershot Garrison, GB, 8/1940; voyage aboard HMT Empress of Japan from GB to India, via Cape Town, South Africa, 5/1941-6/1941 including accommodation; arrival in Bombay, India. Aspects of training as officer cadet at Officer Cadet Training Unit, Bangalore, India; assigned Indian bearer; daily routine. REEL 2 Continues: messing arrangements; relations with British community; training as infantry officer; commissioning as second lieutenant in 1st Punjab Regiment, British Indian Army; training posting to Signals Intelligence School at Abbottabad, 10/1941-4/1942. Aspects of operations as signals intelligence officer with Y Serivce in Cairo, Egypt, 4/1942-7/1942: story of responsibility of taking 120 men on draft from Indian to Suez; role at Heliopolis Museum, Heliopolis, Cairo; daily routine and living conditions. Aspects of operations as signals intelligence officer with No 2 Special Wireless Section, Y Service, Headquarters, Eighth Army in North Africa, 7/1942-7/1943: background to posting to section with Headquarters, Eighth Army; role of No 2 Special Wireless Section in intercepting and decoding German signals traffic; story of German Air Force Junkers Ju 88 aircraft; other intelligence officers working at headquarters; visit to headquarters by Prime Minister Winston Churchill; attitude to appointment of General Bernard Montgomery; opinion of rations; wounding in neck; role during Battle of Alamein, Egypt, 10/1942-11/1942. REEL 3 Continues: conditions in desert; opinion of Italian forces; posted back to Heliopolis, Cairo, 1/1943. Aspects of operations as signals intelligence officer with No 113 Special Wireless Section, Y Service with Headquarters, United States Fifth Army and Headquarters, V Corps, British Eighth Army in Italy, 10/1943-5/1945: posting to Naples, 10/1943; nature of terrain and operations around Monte Cassino; daily routine and social life; memories of death of Adolf Hitler, 30/4/1945; home leave in GB. REEL 4 Continues: story of visiting Benito Mussolini's villa; role in repatriation of Cossacks who had served with XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps, Austria, 5/1945. Aspects of period as officer with Political Division, Allied Control Commission Austria in Vienna, Austria; demobilisation, 7/1946; civilian employment with Foreign Office in Berlin, Germany, 1947-1956.