Interview with James Charters

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Description

Object description

British private served with 7th (Machine Gun) Bn Northumberland Fusiliers, 51st (Highland) Infantry Div in France, 4/1940-6/1940; prisoner of war in Stalag XX-A, Thorn, Stalag IX-C, Bad Sulza and Arbeitskommando E737, Menteroda, Germany, 7/1940-4/1945

Content description

REEL 1 Background in Ashington, GB, 1918-1939: family; family home; education; employment as miner. Recollections of period as private with 7th (Machine Gun) 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 Gun. 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 (Machine Gun) Bn Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, 51st (Highland) Infantry Div in France, 4/1940-6/1940: landing at Le Havre, 4/1940; joining 51st (Highland) Div 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 Saint-Valery-en-Caux; casualties; supporting attack, 2/6/1940; effects of German air superiority; question of lack of evacuation from Saint-Valery-en-Caux. REEL 4 Continues: morale and conditions in Saint-Valery-en-Caux, 6/1940; orders to surrender, 12/6/1940; destruction of stores. Aspects of period as prisoner of war 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 prisoner of war in Stalag XX-A, Thorn, Stalag IX-C, Bad Sulza and Arbeitskommando E737, Menteroda, Germany, 7/1940-4/1945: arrival in Stalag XX-A, Thorn; conditions in camp; physical condition, including lice infestation; move to Stalag IX-C, Bad Sulza, 11/1940; allocation to Arbeitskommando E737, Menteroda; conditions; character of local German civilians. REEL 5 Continues: cold conditions; description of Arbeitskommando E737 at Menteroda; 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; Soviet prisoner of war casualties to Allied bombing, 1944; German Army guards; question of escape. REEL 6 Continues: escape committee; camp members; hearing war news; contact with local German civilians; attitude of Germans towards war; removal from Arbeitskommando E737 at Menteroda, 3/1945; food poisoning on march; arrival in main camp of Stalag IX-C, Bad Sulza; liberation by 6th Armoured Div, United States Army, 10/4/1945; evacuation to GB; leave on arrival in GB and duties guarding German prisoners of war; demobilisation and return to civilian life, 1946; attitude towards period as prisoner of war.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1990 to the present day (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Moses, Michael (Recorder)
Charters, James (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 2003-09-04
Dimensions: whole: Duration 18, Number Of Items 6
Catalogue number: 25214

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Interview with James Charters

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