Description
Object description
British private trained with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regimental Depot, Cowley Barracks, Oxford, GB, 3/1940- 6/1940; private and NCO served with 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Support Coy, 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 143rd Infantry Bde, 48th (South Midland) Infantry Div, 148th Independent Infantry Bde and 71st Infantry Bde, 42nd Armoured Div and 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in GB and Northern Ireland, 6/1940-6/1944; NCO served with st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 71st Infantry Bde, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in North West Europe, 6/1944-5/1945; served with 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in Germany, 5/1945-9/1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Windsor, GB, 1919-1940: family; education; employment. Aspects of enlistment with British Army in GB, 3/1940: enlistment at Oxford; attending medical at High Wycombe; reaction to call-up for military service. Recollections of training as private with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regimental Depot, Cowley Barracks, Oxford, GB, 3/1940- 6/1940: opinion that training was based on First World War; reaction to military life; arrival at and opinion of Cowley Barracks; accommodation; first meal; settling in to military life; inoculations; opinion of uniform; background of recruits; NCO instructors; interview; reaction to enlistment; brother's service in Royal Navy and friends' war service; issue of weapon and ammunition; story of soldier who shot a pony; making bed and cleaning of equipment; treatment received from NCOs; coping with lack of privacy; reveille and lights out; cleaning of barracks; morning procedures; physical training; breakfast; getting used to boots; gas mask drill; grenade practice; Molotov Cocktails strapped to bicycle; opinion of Boys Anti-Tank Rifle; guard duties; contact with civilians; use of Light Infantry pace; recreational activities; comradeship; war news; visits to speedway track; commanding officers parade.
REEL 2 Continues: route marches; opinion of cross-country running; enjoyment of physical exercise; weapons in unit; bayonet training; memories of Company Sergeant-Major Plant; comradeship; treatment of awkward troops; fieldcraft training; digging of trenches. Recollections of period as private and NCO with Support Coy, 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. 143rd Infantry Bde, 48th (South Midland) Infantry Div, 148th Independent Infantry Bde and 71st Infantry Bde, 42nd Armoured Div and 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in GB, 6/1940-6/1944: reforming of battalion after Dunkirk Evacuation at Hereford; latrines; visits to Hereford; accommodation; storage of rifles; posting in Yelverton; accommodation; in camp at Hatherleigh; relations with civilians; fieldcraft training; accommodation in St Nicholas at Wade; posting in mortars at Tiverton; posting to Loughermore, Northern Ireland including accommodation, problem with rats and story of finding local pub; battalion's joining 71st Infantry Bde, 42nd Armoured Div at Malton, 7/1942; battalion role in and break-up of 42nd Armoured Div, 10/1943; composition of 71st infantry Bde and joining 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div, 10/1943; exercises on North York Moors; accommodation at Birdsall; ration supply in winter; number of mortars carried by platoon; opinion of later problems during Operation Market Garden in Netherlands, 9/1944; firing mortar, method of cooling barrel and reason for needing to keep barrel cool; composition and roles of mortar crew; memories of Sergeant Ted Smith.
REEL 3 Continues: question of usefulness of weapons; unit transport; regimental history and pride; fights with Non-Combatant Corps; story of recovering United States Army Air Force crew; opinion of conscientious objectors; relations with NCOs; story of private's problems with discipline and subsequent suicide; memories of Lieutenant John Grayburn; story of collapse on birthday; learning to drive and reason for training all troops to drive; shortage of despatch riders; story of soldier scratching number off motorcycle; posting in Faversham; receiving dressing down from Regimental Sergeant-Major Cox on Christmas Day; activities in Faversham; knowledge of coming invasion; embarkation aboard Landing Ship Tank (LST) at East India Docks, London; story of paper doll given to troops and fate of crew who carried it; crossing English Channel. Recollections of operations as NCO with Support Coy, 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 71st Infantry Bde, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: advance via Cheux to Cahier; damage to area from fighting; first night in France; opinion of French civilians.
REEL 4 Continues: accommodation in Cahier; details of mortar pit dug; storage of mortar bombs; reaction in being in action; nature of mortar barrage; situation at Cahier; opinion of problems with advance through Normandy; duration of stay at Cahier; knowledge of situation and opinion of General Bernard Montgomery and his tactics; unit officers. Recollections of operations as NCO with Support Coy, 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 71st Infantry Bde, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Div in North West Europe, 9/1944-5/1945: advance through France, 9/1944; opinion of why Operation Market Garden failed; frequency of changing position; reaction to sights and smells in Falaise Gap, Normandy, France, 8/1944; contact with civilians; problems with ammunition supply; accidental destruction of supplies by United States forces'; discussion with German prisoner of war about various air forces; relief by United States Army troops in Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944; opinion of 82nd Airborne Div and Rangers, United States Army; opinion of Canadian Army troops; digging in overnight; skirmishes with Germans and attitude towards Waffen-SS; adaptation of British Army troops to any situation; incident of German Army soldier seen washing in Ardennes, Belgium.
REEL 5 Continues: reason for not remembering a lot about places; in action at s'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, 10/1944; leave in Brussels, Belgium; opinion of French civilians; story relating to Sergeant Harry Howard; arrival in Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944; patrol work; adaptations made to links on Universal Carrier tracks; damage to clothes from cold; sleeping arrangements; capture of geese; later problems with Polish Displaced Persons; rations; importance of cigarettes; divisional role and casualties in Ardennes, Belgium; description of village in Ardennes, Belgium; reason for avoiding nasty scenes and sight of first dead bodies; smell of dead Germans; story of accommodation in monastery; rank and duties; mail; knowledge of Reichwald Forest, Germany and misinterpretation of aerial photographs.
REEL 6 Continues: road used in Reichwald Forest, Germany; opinion of M29 Weasel Amphibian; story of tea brewed from ditchwater; problems from artillery shells hitting trees in Reichswald Forest, Germany, 2/1945; use of rangefinders; casualties; advance on Goch, Germany, 3/1945; battalion morale; state of Kevelaer, Germany, 3/1945; story of clothes and chocolate given to children; later story of German women swimming potatoes across River Rhine, Germany; role in Kevelaer and conditions in Reichwald Forest, Germany, 2/1945; action at Kevelaer, 3/1945; advance to and crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; nature of fighting beyond River Rhine, Germany, 4/1945; memories of commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Howard; opinion of medal awards; story of taking revolver from officer; opinion of thoughtlessness behind orders; learning from experience; method of street fighting; story of soldier protecting troops from artillery shell; booby traps; prior recollection of plunger coming out of grenade in Normandy, France.
REEL 7 Continues: arrival in Hamburg, Germany, 5/1945; accommodation; story of meeting between Polish and British Jewish soldiers; rounding up of German arms in Hamburg, Germany, 5/1945; opinion of M4 Sherman Tank; hearing news of end of Second World War in Europe, 8/5/1945. Recollections of period as NCO with 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in Germany, 5/1945-9/1946: Polish Displaced Persons killed for raiding farm; story of young officer thanked by German woman; accommodation during patrol; story of Pole arrested and shot at Leverkusen Displaced Person Camp; state of Hamburg; posting to and opinion of Bad Rothenfelde; washing facilities during North West Europe campaign; story of meeting woman originally from London; accommodation in Leverkusen; hospitalisation with diptheria at Bensberg; story of journey to Bensberg; visit to English cemetery; story of uncle's trophy clock; troops suffering from trauma; religion among troops and memories of chaplain; opinion of Roman Catholic priests; burial of casualties; contact with medical staff; guard duties at maternity camp in Hamburg.
REEL 8 Continues: opinion of Polish Displaced Persons; duties guarding in Leverkusen Displaced Person Camp; final rank; news of demobilisation and deafness of mortar crew members; process of demobilisation at Plymouth, GB and treatment given to soldier wounded by shrapnel; later story of receiving call-up papers for Army Reserve at time of Korean War; town patrol in Germany during non-fraternisation period; use of Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI); demobilisation suit. Reflections on military service in Second World War: discussion of civilians during and after Second World War; difficulties adjusting to civilian life; opinion that conscription should be introduced; effects of war and marriage on life; memories of Lieutenant John Grayburn; opinion of officers; stories and advice from father's service in First World War; poverty seen in Germany; opinions on bringing up of children and necessity of war; thankfulness for peace since Second World War.
