Description
Object description
British trooper served with 54th Training Regt, Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 10/1942-3/1943; served with 1st Royal Gloucestershire Hussars in GB, 3/1943-7/1944; served with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in North West Europe, 1944-1945; served with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars in Germany, 1945-1947
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Middlesbrough and Nottingham, GB, 1923-1942: family; education; opinion of education; civilian work; call-up and reaction to it including knowledge of war; sports. Aspects of period as private with No 11 Primary Training Centre, General Service Corps at Bodmin, GB, 1942: journey to Bodmin; reception on arrival; opinion of sleeping arrangements and pay; uniform issued; background of recruits; first night in military; trade tests; assault course; coping with military life; opinion of reason for posting to Royal Armoured Corps including further details of trade tests and assault course; physical training; rations; relations with NCOs. Aspects of period as trooper with 54th Training Regt, Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 10/1942-3/1943: posting at Deerbolt Camp, Starforth, near Barnard Castle; discipline; background of recruits; attitude towards infantrymen; proficiency with Morse Code; wireless training; details of pay; reaction to not learning first aid; accommodation including cleaning of floor; story of accident on assault course; marching pace; opinion of parades; role in exercises; gunnery training at Walcott; description of Cromwell Tank; learning to drive; rifle training; opinion of reason for not learning about German tanks; driving of Cromwell Tank; method of increasing speed of rotor arm.
REEL 2 Continues: opinion of training received; exercises; completion of training. Aspects of period as trooper with 1st Royal Gloucestershire Hussars in GB, 3/1943-7/1944: posting to regiment at Ogbourne St George; details of unit; reaction to posting; story of search for prisoner in Daimler Dingo Scout Car; characteristics of Daimler Dingo Scout Car; duties with reconnaissance troop; unit tanks; story of later entertainment show seen in Eindhoven, Netherlands; exercises; crew of Daimler Dingo Scout Car; communications; opinion of exercises; posting to Froghill; reason for volunteering for Parachute Regiment; activities in Norfolk including work picking sugar beet; hearing news of D-Day landings and reaction to possibility of overseas posting; degree of knowledge of wider events; receiving news of posting; journey to transit camp in Normandy, France. Recollections of operations as trooper with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in Normandy, France, 7/1944-8/1944: reception on arrival with regiment including sight fake tanks left in first camp; opinion of authority; background of and relations with troops; memories of officers and Sergeant-Major Neill; description of Humber Armoured Car; duties.
REEL 3 Continues: participation in Operation Goodwood, 18/7/1944-20/7/1944 including sight of tank attacks; role collecting casualties during Operation Goodwood under German Army fire; terrain; orders received; noise of battle; details of night laagers including evening activities; rations; replacement of worn uniform; morale and attitude towards war; maps; rotation of squadrons; rest periods; use of DDT; knowledge of events; impressions of United States Army; story of argument over German Army rations; story of fried treacle pudding; cooking meals; story of dead horses; story of night march to Amiens, France; medical evacuation of officer; witnessing treatment of French collaborators in Bayeux. Recollections of operations as trooper with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in North West Europe, 8/1944-5/1945: story of Germans in cinema at Amiens, France, 9/1944; German prisoners of war; story of bottle of Cointreau; sleeping arrangements; handing in of vehicles in Brussels and move to Ypres, Belgium; accommodation; rapid move to Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944; weather conditions; description of tank overalls; fire in Humber Armoured Car and withdrawal; period in Brussels, Belgium awaiting for repairs; return to regiment.
REEL 4 Continues: advance into Netherlands, 9/1944; German Army troops surrendering; opinion of German Army troops; story of finding German Army officer being beaten; location of brigade headquarters; comparison of pay and conditions with that of officers; search for stores at Amiens, France, 9/1944; pipe smoking; under German fire during reconnaissance on a bridge; use of umbrella; description of interior in Humber Armoured Car; priests and civilians in Netherlands; story of first tank shell fired into Germany from near Deurne, Netherlands, 9/1944; German Army presence in Netherlands; situation at Asten, Netherlands; crossing river; story of crash of Humber Armoured Car under fire and aftermath; waiting for battle to subside and withdrawal on foot; award of Military Medal; reaction to presentation of Military Medal at Ypres, Belgium, 1/1945; question of thoughts of suicide during action.
REEL 5 Continues: impressions of Ypres, Belgium; contact with Belgian civilians; impressions of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; period in fixed positions; composition and organisation of regiment; communications; characteristics of Comet Tanks; crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; story of German casualties; period on River Elbe, Germany; journey past Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, 4/1945; advance through Germany, 4/1945; relations with German civilians; sights in prisoner of war camp; terrain; story of tanks and baby; period spent in Lübeck, Germany; return of German forces from Norway and Denmark to Lübeck, Germany, 5/1945; story of surrendering German prisoners of war taken to brigade headquarters; under artillery fire on airfield; reaction to end of war in Europe, 8/5/1945.
REEL 6 Continues: VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; change in atmosphere on return of peace; move to Husum; orders to arrest Martin Bormann if sighted; presence of German snipers in area. Aspects of period as trooper with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars in Germany, 6/1945-6/1947: posting to regiment, 6/1945; story of threatening to arrest sergeant-major in Itzehoe; accommodation; leisure and recreational activities; details of Aryan Mother's camp visited; opinion of German forces faced during war; contact with Hitler Youth; leave periods in GB during service in Europe; mail sent home and received; demobilisation at York, GB. Post-war civilian life and employment: employment as miner; question of talking about experiences; story of letter received from mother during active service; search for employment after mining work; work for Civil Service; contact with former colleagues; pension received. Reflections on military service in Second World War: memories of 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry chaplain; degree of involvement with religion; opinion of Royal Army Medical Corps.
REEL 7 Continues: discussion on women in the workplace; contact with Corps of Military Police; impressions of troops from other regiments; lasting physical effects of war service; gas training; inoculations; presence of ex-convicts in Canadian Army; contact with Soviet forces; story of war memorial in Yorkshire; impressions of French; Displaced Persons met in Germany; accommodation in Helmond, Netherlands; civilian life and call-up on Z Army Reserve, 1951.
