Interview with Stanley Percival Ronald Foster

British private and NCO served with 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 71st Infantry Bde, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in GB and North West Europe, 7/1943-12/1944

REEL 1 Background in Plymouth, GB, 1925-1942: family; education; employment. Aspects of period as civilian in Plymouth, 9/1939-12/1942: German Air Force bombing of family home; service with 16th (Plymouth) Bn Devonshire Home Guard; problems with ammunition; nature of German Air Force bombing of Plymouth. Aspects of enlistment and training as private in training with Hampshire Regiment in GB, 12/1942-7/1943: enlistment and reasons for choice of Hampshire Regiment; journey to Colchester Garrison; reaction to joining British Army; posting as driver; reaction of parents to his joining British Army; issue of uniform; light infantry pace; memories of Regimental Sergeant-Major Tom Tyler; schemes; reaction of army to bout of sickness; description of barracks; sleeping arrangements; guard duties; pride in regiment; receiving news of transfer. Aspects of period as private and NCO with 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 71st Infantry Bde, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in GB, 7/1943-6/1944: joining battalion near Salisbury; training with Universal Carrier; driving instructor; relations with fellow troops; accommodation; composition of Universal Carrier crew; schemes; opinion of entrenching tool; supply of rations during schemes; reactional activities; posting in A Coy; accommodation in Faversham; route march on return from scheme; fitness; leave; visits to London; story of landmine scheme; firing on fixed lines. REEL 2 Continues: lifting of mines; provision crossfire with Bren Gun; opinion of Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank (PIAT); question of eventual destination; composition of 71st Infantry Bde; signs of approaching overseas posting; journey to Tilbury Docks; landing craft training; boarding of ship at Tilbury Docks, 6/1944. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in North West Europe, 6/1944-12/1944: voyage from Tilbury, GB to Normandy, France, 6/1944; problems with terrain in Normandy, France; command during first weeks; advance Cahier, 7/1944; fighting at signal box; German Army sniper activity; movement of advance; arrival at Cahier; story of German convoy; incident of soldier shot by sniper at Cahier, 31/7/1944; rations; accommodation; prisoners of war taken at Falaise Gap, Normandy, France, 8/1944; Allied use of Ordnance 25 Pounder Field Gun; withdrawal of German forces, 8/1944; advance to Lille, France, 9/1944; treatment of collaborators in French towns; story of prisoners of war taken; opinion of German Army troops and weapons; opinion of who he was fighting; mail; advance towards Nijmegen. Netherlands, 9/1944; Bren Gun team members; leave in Brussels, Belgium; liberation of 's-Hertogenbosch and Herzogenbusch Concentration Camp, Netherlands, 10/1944; death and burial of commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel James Hare at 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, 28/10/1944; nature of Herzogenbusch Concentration Camp at 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. REEL 3 Continues: state of camp inmates on liberation of Herzogenbusch Concentration Camp at 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, 10/1944; move to Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944; winter conditions, terrain and temperature; situation in Ardennes, Belgium; presence of Germans dressed as United States Army troops; drive to forward companies under mortar fire; use of sandbag lining in Universal Carrier and wounding from landmine; degree of armoured protection in Universal Carrier; speed of exit and problems with balance; force of blast from landmine. Aspects of hospitalisation in France and GB, 12/1944-9/1945: nature of wounds; medical downgrading; description of ambulance; nature of hospitalisation in Lille, France; opinion of medical treatment received; return to GB; during of hospitalisation in Lille, France; leave; recuperation in Clacton-on-Sea, GB; VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; accommodation in Clacton-on-Sea; memories of Kenneth New. Aspects of period as NCO with Royal Engineers in GB, 10/1945-8/1947: accommodation and duties in Nottingham; marriage; impressions of wartime service; opinion of NCO and officers, including 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry's commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel James Hare; opinion of Field Marshal Montgomery; opinion of American service personnel. REEL 4 Continues: driving duties at Nottingham; staff at sorting office; dances; transfer to Birmingham; journey from France to GB; prior recollection of period at Clacton-on-Sea; reaction to medical downgrading; lasting effects of injuries; pension; demobilisation at York; civilian employment. Reflections on military service: memories of chaplain, including religious service for battalion's casualties in GB; contact with Royal Army Medical Corps; contact with Corps of Military Police; story of Canadian Army troops shot by Waffen-SS in Normandy, France, 1944; instances of troops' cracking under psychological strain; noise of artillery fire and German multi-barrelled mortars; sights witnessed in Falaise Gap, Normandy, France, 8/1944; opinion of war profiteers and black market; rations; opinion of dropping of atomic bombs on Japan and possibility of posting in Far East; lasting effects of wartime military service; story of going Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) in Bristol.