Black, Jack (Oral history)

British NCO served with 389 Coy, 47th Anti-Aircraft Bn, Royal Engineers in GB, 1938-1940; served with 389 Coy, 47th Searchlight Regt, Royal Artillery in GB, 1940-1942; served with 364 Bty, 112th Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery in GB, North West Europe and Middle East, 1942-1946

REEL 1 Recollections of background in South Shields, 1920-1939: family background and social circumstances; Boys Brigade activities; education; sporting activities; work in time office of ship builders, 1935-1939. REEL 2 Continues: pay; death of father; awareness of approach of war. Recollections of service with 389 Coy, 47th Searchlight Bn, Royal Engineers, Northfield Gardens Drill Hall, South Shields, 1938-1939: background to recruitment, 10/1938; nature of drill hall; reception; prior conversion to searchlights from 7th Bn, Durham Light Infantry, 1936; drill; kitting out; weekend training; pay; weekend searchlight training; crew roles manning and operating 90cm searchlight, sound locators, generators and Lewis gun; call up, 24/8/1939; composition of unit; opinion of various officers. REEL 3 Continues: opinion of various NCOs and ORs. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during periods with 389 Coy, 47th Searchlight Bn, Royal Engineers and 389 Coy, 47th Searchlight Regt, Royal Artillery in Easingwold, Middlesbrough and Sedgefield areas, 8/1939-1/1941: accommodation in huts and tents; role on sound locator; prior call up to drill hall, 24/8/1939; convoy; preparing searchlight positions; sentry duty; routine maintenance of searchlights; hut accommodation and inspections; latrines; food rations; relationship with local civilians and farmers; morning routine; case of stealing; routine duties; gas mask training; recreations. REEL 4 Continues: family connection with 7th Bn, DLI and unit connections with DLI; question of rifle and Lewis guns training; move to occupy various searchlight sites in Middlesbrough area, 10/1939; tent 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 activity; identification of RAF aircraft; daily routine; winter conditions; reception of conscripts within unit and suicide case; relationship with farmers; liaison with RAF 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 aircraft; ineffectiveness in fog; improved sound locators; re-equipment with 120cm searchlights; hut accommodation; situation following evacuation of Dunkirk, 6/1940; loss of Lewis gun to equip Norway expeditions; state of morale; move to sites in Sedgefield area, 1/1941; failed German air raids on ICI works; picking up German bombers in searchlight beams; moving searchlights using Guy lorries; move to cover magnesium extraction plant; role on promotion to lance corporal; opinion of various officers. Recollections of period under training with 364 Bty, 112 Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, Royal Artillery at Sedgefield Camp, Buxton, Stiffkey and Tewkesbury, 10/1941-3/1942: formation and organisation of unit; reactions change in role. REEL 6 Continues: composition of unit; nature of 40mm Bofors gun including crew roles, automatic fire using Sperry Predictor, accuracy and use of tracer; Bofors gun drill and training on attachment of unit for intensive training with 238 LAA Training Regt, RA at Buxton, 1/1942 including role locating suitable gun sites, speed of getting into action, hotel billets, opinion of battery sergeant major and various officers, gun maintenance and changing barrels, recreations, pay on promotion to bombardier and church parades. REEL 7 Continues: training on attachment with unit for intensive training with 238 LAA Training Regt at Buxton, 1/1942; move to firing camp with 11th LAA Training Regt, RA 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. Recollections of period in anti-aircraft role in GB, 4/1942-7/1944: movements; training in mobile deployment based at Eastleigh Camp; relationship with civilians; move to Kemble airfield; flights; conditions of service and movements; brief deployment to Biggin Hill; German air raids. REEL 8 Continues: movements on south coast; 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 AWOL cases; role of padre; communications; punishments; guard duties and standard of appearance; radar warning system; move to Barnstaple airfield; move to Sidmouth, 12/1942; suicide of NCO; basic infantry training; move with advance party to Featherstone Camp, Haltwhistle, 1/1943. REEL 9 Continues: conditions of service; 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 south coast; opinion of colonel; build up of troops, 1943; attitude to US troops; sergeants' mess; personal morale prior to D Day; practice in embarkation on landing craft; practice in anti-tank and ground fighting role. REEL 10 Continues: firing at drogues and wireless controlled aircraft at firing camp at Clacton; move in regimental convoy to Egremont firing camp, 2/1944; postponement of deployment following D Day, 6/6/1944; casualty while firing at V1s from site at Penshurst Castle; marriage, 1943; embarkation at Grays, 7/1944; waterproofing MT, Voyage aboard William H Phipps to Gold Beach, Normandy, France, 12/7/1944: searching for souvenir for US merchant seaman; situation on beach; move inland; view of corpses. Recollections of operations in France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany, 17/1944-10/1945: reception from French civilians. REEL 11 Continues: move towards Falaise area; holding role relieving 197 Bde, 59 Div in front line position including personal morale, view of attack by Royal Sussex Regt, terrain, reactions to German shell and mortar fire, air support, occupying front and support lines, German sniper fire, food 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: scenes during advance through Falaise gap, 8/1944; German POWs; reception from Belgian; relationship with French civilians and reaction to treatment of female collaborators; commandeered German vehicles; period at Brussels; standby during German Ardennes offensive, 12/1944; recreations in Brussels; question of VD problem and precautions; advance to provide AA barrage cover defending Eindhoven, Grave and Nijmegen during Arnhem operations, 9/1944, including view of effects of AT shell on tanks and situation; move to billets at Weert, 10/1944; training on conversion to Landmattress 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 rocket; method of firing and adjusting fire of rockets; range; effect of rocket practice on ranges; speed of loading and firing; move up to Rhine, 3/1945; preparations and participation in barrage across Rhine at Xanten, 25/3/1945-26/3/1945; re-equipment with Bofors guns; advance into Germany; role guarding German military hospital and relationship with German medical personnel; role protecting factories during activities of specialist White Force investigating engineering and munitions factories; damage in Harburg and Hamburg areas; reaction of German civilians and POWs; nature of administrative duties at 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 under 220 Military Government; guard duties; brother's contact with German general negotiating surrender of Hamburg; role processing DPs including food, delousing, problems with drunk Russian DPs attacking German civilians; VE Day, 8/5/1945; transfer of unit to 3rd Div; changes in officers. Period running Truppenubungsplatz POW Camp, 9/1945-10/1945: necessity for thorough cleaning programme; relationship with German internees and POWs; strip searches; sergeants' mess facilities; leave arrangements; relationship with German camp workers; relationship with Military Police; 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. Billets during period in Brussels area, 10/1945. Flight out to Mena airfield, Cairo, Egypt, 10/1945. REEL 15 Period in Egypt, 10/1945-: movements between camps; lectures. Recollections of period at Hadera Camp, Palestine, 10/1945-3/1946: nature of camp; Jewish insurgent attacks on coastguard station; casualties; patrols accompanied by Palestine Police; firing Bofors gun at caves used by Jewish insurgents in support of infantry patrols in hills; recreational visits to Haifa; relationship 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. Demobilisation procedure, 4/1946. Post-war career: return to work in time office of shipbuilders; pay; comradeship in army.