Description
Object description
British private served with 7th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers in GB and France, 1938-1940; POW in Stalag XXA, Thorn, Poland and Stalag IXC, Germany, 1940-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Ashington, GB, 1918-1939: family; family home; education; employment as miner. Recollections of period as private with 7th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers in GB, 1938-1940: joining Territorial Army in Ashington, 4/1938; uniform; drill nights and pay; story of shortage of ammunition for Vickers Machine Gun practice firing; attending annual camp, 1939; mobilisation 9/1939; billeting at Gosforth race track; origins of unit members; training on Vickers Machine Guns.
REEL 2 Continues: route marches and weapons training; off duty activities winter conditions; move to Alton, 12/1939; in civilian billets in Alton; daily routine; nature of training with Vickers Machine Gun; lack of other training; opinion of training; attitude towards posting to France, 4/1940; issue of battledress. Recollections of operations as private with 7th Bn Royal Northumberland Fusiliers in France, 1940: landing at Le Harve, 4/1940; joining 51st Highland Division on Maginot Line.
REEL 3 Continues: billeting in farm buildings on arrival; composition of machine gun section; rations; latrines; question of how time was passed; lack of information on situation; expectation of war; impressions of first action; withdrawal at first day of action; ammunition supply; withdrawal; sight of General Erwin Rommel after capture at St Valery; casualties; supporting attack, 2/6/1940; effects of German air superiority; question of lack of evacuation from St Valery.
REEL 4 Continues: morale and conditions in St Valery; orders to surrender, 12/6/1940; destruction of stores. Aspects of period as POW in France and Germany, 1940: treatment on capture; processing on capture; handing over to second line troops; smuggling letter to parents via French civilian; character of march through France; embarkation on barges; conditions during train journey through Germany. Recollections of period as POW in Stalag XXA, Thorn, Poland and Stalag IXC, Germany, 1940-1945: arrival in Stalag XXA, Thorn, Poland; conditions in camp; physical condition including lice infestation; move to Stalag IXC, Bad Sulza, 11/1940; allocation to sub camp, Work Camp 737; conditions; character of local Germans.
REEL 5 Continues: cold conditions; description of Work Camp 737; nature of work; description of salt mine; working routine; Red Cross parcels; contact with home; passing free time; weekend work on local farms; sight of Allied air activity; foot injury and hospital treatment; Russian POW casualties to bombing, 1944; German guards; question of escape.
REEL 6 Continues: escape committee; camp members; hearing war news; contact with local Germans; attitude of Germans towards war; removal from Work Camp 737, 3/1945; food poisoning on march; arrival in main camp of Stalag IXC, Bad Sulza; liberation by US 6th Armoured Division, 10/4/1945; evacuation to GB; leave on arrival in GB and duties guarding German POWs; demobilisation and return to civilian life, 1946; attitude towards period as POW.