Description
Object description
British trooper served with 57th Training Regt, Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 4/1942-12/1942; trooper served with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in GB and North West Europe, 12/1942-5/1945; NCO served with 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in Germany, 1945-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Pontypridd, GB, 1922-1942: family; education; civilian employment and involvement with boxing, Aspects of enlistment and training as trooper with 57th Training Regt, Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 4/1942-12/1942: call-up for military service; attitude towards military service; journey and march to barracks at Warminster; settling into military life; brothers' military service; issue of uniform; pay; desire to become driver; drill; story of disciplinary charge received for punching NCO; involvement with boxing and fighting; pattern of training; story of breaking hand; posting to Catterick Camp and brief attachment to regimental police; move to Bovington Camp; dismissal of disciplinary charge on arrival at Bovington Camp; advantages gained in training from sporting activity; near posting to North Africa. Recollections of period as trooper with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in GB, 12/1942-6/1944: joining regiment at Chippenham Park Camp, Newmarket; reaction to posting; first disciplinary charges received in regiment.
REEL 2 Continues: accommodation; story of Trooper Tommy Rumnell driving a lorry through a tent; officers serving in regiment; driving training; role in tank crew; memories of Sergeant Jack Wann; characteristics of Crusader Tank; gunnery training; leisure activities at Chippenham Park Camp; characteristic of M4 Sherman Tank; opinion of German tanks; confidence instilled during training; communications and use of wireless set in tank; story of driving in Kingston upon Hull area; incident of fire in M4 Sherman Tank; problems driving M4 Sherman Tank through soft ground; participation in exercises including contact with United States Army troops; memories of Major Douglas Hutchison; nature of terrain in North and East Yorkshire and Normandy, France; training in living rough.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of training; story of fight with NCO cook; reason for not seeking trouble; later story of repair of tank track near Dortmund-Ems Canal, Germany; later story of action against German forces, capture of German prisoner of war and reprimand received from infantry officer for his treatment of prisoner of war, Germany, 1945; interview about promotion; memories of Trooper Bill Oliver and Corporal Croney; knowledge of oversea posting; comparison of fighting in North Africa and Normandy, France; further memories of Corporal Croney; story of setting off thunder flashes in Bridlington, GB.
REEL 4 Continues: contact with Salvation Army; move to Aldershot Garrison, 1944; story of fight with Canadian Army troops; activities in Aldershot; story of fight between Trooper Bill Oliver and a guardsman; medical problem with eyes; collection of tanks from Liverpool; different types of tracks; waterproofing of tanks; opinion of organisation behind D-Day; opinion of Canadian Army troops; journey to Gosport; loading of tanks onto landing craft tank; landing craft tank crew; rations; opinion of United States Army troops; crossing English Channel, 6/1944. Aspects of operations as trooper with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: arrival and disembarkation; details of waterproofing of tanks; German activity in landing areas and move inland; air activity during removal of waterproofing; reaction to sight of first dead bodies; opinion of reason for fighting and military discipline; opinion of conscientious objectors; knowledge of war outside own tank including daily routine; boxers in regiment; attitude following promotion.
REEL 5 Continues: period in laager; sleeping arrangements; weather; rations; laagering at Cairon; advance to Cheux and nature of surrounding terrain, 26/6/1944; sighting of German Army tank and change of direction; composition of tank crew; continuation of advance and drive past wood; orders for retreat and shell hit of tank, 26/6/1944; evacuation from knocked out tank; nature of wounds; situation outside of tank; wounds suffered by and evacuation from tank of Trooper Tom Parsons and Trooper Bill Oliver; near miss from blast and taking cover in ditch; death of Trooper Tom Parsons, 26/6/1944; period in ditch hiding from German forces; arrival of personnel from 49th (West Riding) Infantry Div and rescue from ditch; sight of Corporal Jim Scott's body during evacuation; period in dressing station; water drunk during stay in ditch; state of Trooper Bill Oliver's wounds.
REEL 6 Continues: reception on return to unit; regimental casualties at Cheux; rest period; posting to forward delivery squadron; story of a tank crew's refusal to take him on as driver; rejoining of A Sqdn. Recollections of operaitons as trooper with 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 29th Armoured Bde, 11th Armoured Div in North West Europe, 8/1944-51/1945: nature of advance across River Seine, France, 8/1944; reaction to being back inside a tank; advance into Belgium; state of Antwerp, Belgium on liberation, 9/1944; reception from Belgian civilians; period in Antwerp, Belgium; memories of Trooper 'Mush' Vadewell; stories of death of officer and shell shocked trooper; preparations for move to Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944; action in Little Amerika, Netherlands; attack across canal; memories of chaplain; reaction to being in leading tank.
REEL 7 Continues: rotation of leading tank; leave in Brussels, Belgium and Paris, France; contact with civilians; opinion of Major Sir John Gilmore; memories of regimental sergeant-major and Squadron Sergeant-Major David Grainger; infantry work of unit; story of accident with grenades; need for teamwork in tanks; events at Little Amerika, Netherlands; training on Comet Tank at Ypres, Belgium; problems with M4 Sherman Tanks collected for service in Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944; accommodation in Ypres, Belgium including illness of Trooper George 'Geordie' McCrae; story of visit to café and fight with Trooper Bill Oliver; guard duty at Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium; story of boxing match; advance into Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944; contact with United States Army troops; action at Namur, Belgium
REEL 8 Continues: hit on tank evacuation to echelons; refusal of cook corporal to serve him and reaction of Squadron Sergeant-Major David Grainger; period spent with regimental echelons; German breakthrough in Ardennes, Belgium; story of trooper killed by United States Army troops, Christmas 12/1944; weather conditions; return to A Sqdn; opinion of M4 Sherman Tank and Comet Tank; leave in Brussels, Belgium and visits to First World War battlefields; adaptations made to Comet Tank; crossing of Rive Rhine, Germany; work with other arms of service; in action on Dortmund-Ems Canal, Germany, 4/1945; incident of advancing beyond German lines.
REEL 9 Continues: in action around locality of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany; arrival in Lübeck, Germany; sight of ship sunk in harbour at Lübeck, Germany; proximity of Soviet Army; details of captured Italian 4-wheel steer vehicle at Lübeck, Germany; story of trooper visiting Soviet Army at Lübeck, Germany; opinion of regiment; accommodation; story of singing trooper; memories of Trooper George Geordie Davison; contact with Displaced Persons; VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; story of incident at end of war and apology made later to Sergeant Jack Wann. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in Germany, 5/1945-12/1946: duties in stables.
REEL 10 Continues: possibility of posting in Far East; attitude to posting in regiment; exchange of tanks for armoured cars; story of preparing horse for regiment's second in command; show jumping event; demobilisation in Catterick Camp, GB; marriage; reaction to leaving British Army. Reflections on military service: lasting effects of war including problems with arthritis; contact with United States Army troops; details of tanks driven; joining of 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry; story of trooper wounded by phosphorous grenade; meeting future wife; attitude towards military service; boxing after and during war; opinion of Fife and Forfar Yeomanry; story of fire in officers mess at Chippenham Park Camp, GB.