Interview with Jack Black

British NCO served with 389th Coy, 47th (Durham Light Infantry) Anti-Aircraft Bn, Royal Engineers in GB, 10/1938-8/1940; served with 389th Bty, 47th (Durham Light Infantry) Searchlight Regt, Royal Artillery, 43rd and 57th Anti-Aircraft Bdes, 7th Anti-Aircraft Div in GB, 9/1939-1/1941; served with 364th Bty, 112th (Durham Light Infantry) Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 61st and 45th Anti-Aircraft Bdes, 9th Anti-Aircraft Div and 3rd Anti-Aircraft Group in GB, 1/1942-3/1943

REEL 1 Background in South Shields, GB, 1920-1939: family background and social circumstances; Boys' Brigade activities; education; sporting activities; employment in time office of ship builders, 1935-1939. REEL 2 Continues: pay; death of father; awareness of approach of Second World War. Recollections of period as sapper with 389th Coy, 47th Anti-Aircraft Bn, Royal Engineers, Northfield Gardens Drill Hall, South Shields, GB, 10/1938-8/1939: background to recruitment, 10/1938; description of Northfield Gardens Drill Hall; reception; prior conversion to anti-aircraft battalion from 7th Bn Durham Light Infantry, 1936; drill; kitting out; weekend training; pay; weekend searchlight training; crew role manning and operating 90cm Anti-Aircraft Searchlight, sound locators, generators and Lewis Gun; mobilisation, 24/8/1939; composition of battalion; opinion of battalion officers. REEL 3 Continues: opinion of battalion NCOs and sappers. Recollections of period as NCO with 389th Coy, 47th (Durham Light Infantry) Anti-Aircraft Bn, Royal Engineers and 389th Bty, 47th (Durham Light Infantry) Searchlight Regt, Royal Artillery, 43rd and 53rd Anti-Aircraft Bde, 7th Anti-Aircraft Div in GB, 9/1939-1/1942: accommodation in huts and tents at Easingwold; role on sound locator; prior recollection of mobilisation at Northfield Gardens Drill Hall, 24/8/1939; convoy; preparing searchlight positions; sentry duty; routine maintenance of searchlights; hutted accommodation and inspections; latrines; rations; relations with local civilians and farmers; morning routine; case of stealing; routine duties; gas mask training; recreational activities. REEL 4 Continues: family connection with 7th Bn Durham Light Infantry and unit connections with Durham Light Infantry; question of rifle and Lewis Gun training; move to occupying searchlight sites in Middlesbrough area, 10/1939; tented accommodation in winter conditions; temporary concentrations of searchlights sections; cooking arrangements and food rations; distance between searchlight sections; sentry duty; latrines; communications; question of German Air Force activity; identification of Royal Air Force aircraft; daily routine; winter conditions; reception of conscripts within unit and suicide case; relations with farmers; liaison with Royal Air Force and difficulties in identifying friendly aircraft. REEL 5 Continues: use of searchlights to guide aircraft into airfield; use of dispersed searchlight beam to confuse German Air Force aircraft; ineffectiveness in fog; improved sound locators; re-equipping with 120cm Anti-Aircraft Searchlight; hutted accommodation; situation following Dunkirk Evacuation, 6/1940; loss of Lewis Gun to equip expedition to Norway; state of morale; move to searchlight sites in Sedgefield area, 1/1941; failed German Air Force raids on Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) works; picking up German Air Force bombers in searchlight beams; moving searchlights using Guy Lorry; move to cover magnesium extraction plant; role on promotion to lance corporal; opinion of various officers. Recollections of period as NCO with 364th Bty, 112th (Durham Light Infantry) Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 61st and 45th Anti-Aircraft Bdes, 9th Anti-Aircraft Div and 3rd Anti-Aircraft Group in GB, 1/1942-3/1943: formation and organisation of unit at Sedgefield Camp, 1/1942; reaction to change in role. REEL 6 Continues: composition of unit; characteristics of Bofors Gun including crew roles, automatic fire using Sperry Predictor, accuracy and use of tracer; Bofors Gun drill and light anti-aircraft training at Buxton, 1/1942 including role locating suitable gun sites, speed of getting into action, hotel accommodation, opinion of battery sergeant-major and various officers, gun maintenance and changing barrels, recreational activity, pay on promotion to bombardier and church parades. REEL 7 Continues: move to firing camp with 11th (City of London) Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery at Stiffkey including use of Sperry Predictor, range of Bofors gun, type of shell and adaptability of unit; reorganisation of unit; use of Morris tractor gun tower in mobile role and convoy moves; movements; training in mobile deployment based at Eastleigh Camp; relations with civilians; move to RAF Kemble; aircraft flights; conditions of service and movements; brief deployment to RAF Biggin Hill; German Air Force raids. REEL 8 Continues: movements along coast of Southern England; move to Newhaven; role as troop sergeant; dispersed gun positions; various training courses; gas mask training; preparing troop rotas; role as troop sergeant major; question of disciplinary problems and Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) cases; role of chaplain; communications; punishments; guard duties and standard of appearance; radar warning system; move to Barnstaple; move to Sidmouth, 12/1942; suicide of NCO; basic infantry training; move with advance party to Featherstone Camp, Haltwhistle, 1/1943. REEL 9 Continues: living conditions; nature of infantry training including assault course and bayonet training; visits home; move to Great Bounds Camp, Southborough, 2/1943; movements and mobile Bofors Gun training on coast of Southern England; opinion of commanding officer. Aspects of period as NCO with 364th Bty, 112th (Durham Light Infantry), Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 100th Anti-Aircraft Bde, XII Corps in GB, 7/1943-6/1944, build up of troops in Southern England, 1943; attitude to United States Army troops; sergeants' mess; personal morale prior to D-Day, 6/6/1944; practice in embarkation on landing craft; practice in anti-tank and ground fighting role. REEL 10 Continues: firing at drogues and radio controlled aircraft at firing camp at Clacton-on-Sea; move in regimental convoy to firing camp at Egremont, 2/1944; postponement of deployment following D-Day, 6/6/1944; casualty whilst firing at German V1 Flying Bombs from site at Penshurst Place; marriage, 1943; embarkation at Grays, 7/1944; waterproofing motor transport, Aspects of voyage aboard SS William H Prescott from Grays, GB to Gold Beach, Normandy, France, 12/7/1944: searching for souvenir for United States Merchant Marine seaman; situation on Gold Beach; move inland; sight of corpses. Recollections of operations as NCO with 364th Bty, 112th (Durham Light Infantry), Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 100th Anti-Aircraft Bde, XII Corps in North West Europe, 7/1944-10/1945: reception from French civilians. REEL 11 Continues: move towards Falaise, France; holding role relieving 197th Infantry Bde, 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Div in front line position including personal morale, sight of attack by British infantry battalion; terrain, reaction to German artillery and mortar fire, air support, occupying front and support lines, German sniper fire, rations, holding nature of role, acting as platoon sergeant-major, dead cattle, question of booby-traps and drinking calvados; ground action role moving into line with Bofors Gun; role siting Bofors Gun positions for ground action and use of camouflage. REEL 12 Continues: sights witnessed during advance through Falaise Gap, France, 8/1944; German prisoners of war; reception from Belgian civilians; relations with French civilians and reaction to their treatment of female collaborators; commandeered German vehicles; period at Brussels, Belgium; standby during German Ardennes Offensive, 12/1944; recreational activities in Brussels, Belgium; question of venereal disease problem and precautions; advance to provide anti-aircraft barrage cover defending Eindhoven, Grave and Nijmegen during Operation Market Garden, 9/1944, including effects of anti-tank shell on tanks and situation; move to billets at Weert, Netherlands, 10/1944; training on conversion to Mattress Rocket unit in Belgium; nature of rocket projectors; use of telephones for communication with observation posts; method of firing rockets. REEL 13 Continues: question of length of training needed on rockets; problems in maintaining supply of rockets; misfire drill; nature of Mattress Rocket; method of firing and adjusting fire of rockets; range; effect of rocket practice on ranges; speed of loading and firing; move up to River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; preparations and participation in barrage across River Rhine at Xanten, Germany, 25/3/1945-26/3/1945; unit re-equipping with Bofors Gun; advance into Germany; role guarding German military hospital and relations with German medical personnel; role protecting factories during activities of specialist White Force investigating engineering and munitions factories; damage in Harburg and Hamburg, Germany; reaction of German civilians and prisoners of war; nature of administrative duties at Wolterdingen Displaced Persons Camp, Soltau, 4/1945; discovery of rail wagons full of corpses; question of attitude to Germans; situation of Displaced Persons. REEL 14 Continues: role with British Military Government; guard duties; story of brother's contact with German general negotiating surrender of Hamburg, 5/1945; role processing Displaced Persons including distribution food, delousing and problem with drunked Soviet Displaced Person attacking German civilians; VE Day, 8/5/1945. Aspects of period as NCO with 112th (Durham Light Infantry), Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 3rd Infantry Div in Germany, 6/1945-10/1945: transfer of regiment to 3rd Infantry Div; changes in officers; duties running Truppenubungsplatz Senne Prisoner of War Camp, 9/1945-10/1945 including necessity for thorough cleaning programme, relations with German internees and prisoners of war, strip searches, sergeants' mess facilities, leave arrangements and relations with German camp workers; relationship with Corps of Military Police personnel; question of posting to Far East and reaction to use of atomic bombs on Japan, 8/1945; question of demobilisation; opinion of officers and unit reorganisation; role as battery sergeant-major. Aspects of journey from Germany to Egypt, 10/1945: accommodation during transit at Brussels, Belgium; flight to Mena, Cairo, Egypt. REEL 15 Continues: activities during brief period spent in Egypt, 10/1945. Aspects of operations as NCO with 12th (Durham Light Infantry), Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery, 3rd Infantry Div in Palestine, 10/1945-3/1946: nature of Hadera Camp; Jewish insurgent attacks on coastguard station; casualties; patrols accompanied by Palestine Police Force; firing Bofors Gun at caves used by Jewish insurgents in support of infantry patrols in hills; recreational visits to Haifa; relations with Jewish and Arab civilians; local leave visiting religious sites; question of signing on as regular and possibility of commission; journey back to GB, 3/1946 and demobilisation procedure, 4/1946. Post-war life and career: return to employment in time office of shipbuilders; pay; comradeship in British Army.