Description
Object description
British private served with 4th Bn Royal West Kent Regt in GB, Middle East, India and Burma, 1940-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Woolwich. London, 1915-1940: social circumstances; education; various jobs; work on family vegetable stall on Woolwich market, 1931-1940; night school studies; approach of war and question of joining territorials; recreations; outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; building Anderson shelter; effects of blackout and rationing on market stall; question of volunteering; call up, 4/1940. Recollections of conditions of period training at Royal West Kent Depot, Maidstone Barracks, 4/1940-6/1940: kitting out; billets; food rations; drill; training in rifle, bayonet and 3" mortars.
REEL 2 Continues: training on 3" mortar; tactical exercises; relationship with recruits and instructors; kit inspections; discipline. Recollections of period with D Coy, 4th Bn, Royal West Kent Regt in GB, 1940-1942: first impressions on joining unit at Pakenham Park, Birmingham, ca 6/1941; status as conscript; field work and exercises; hand grenade training; live firing exercises; coastal defence duties in Dungenness sector; relationship with ORs; aircraft observation duty; opinion of NCOs and officers; issue of tropical kit; visits to Woolwich including story of being late back, dispute over drinking in officers' only bar and reception on visit to Jewish club; marriage.
REEL 3 Continues: marriage and leave; train journey to Liverpool. Voyage aboard Liconia to Port Suez, Egypt, 1942: hospitality of South African civilians in Capetown; conditions. Aspects of service in Middle East, 1942-1943: opinion of Egyptian civilians; move into desert; latrines; story of dispute over digging slit trenches and period in wagon lines; selections as company clerk, 10/1942; story of guiding military police through minefield; reaction to shell fire; story of reconnaissance patrol and problem with password; advance after Battle of El Alamein, 10/1942; method of boiling water for tea; duties as company clerk; water supply; food rations; flies; move back to Alexandria; flies; story of having pocket picked; necessity of discretion as company clerk.
REEL 4 Continues: necessity of discretion as company clerk; opinion of Majors Bobby Shaw and Donald Easten; story of soldiers buried by shell; transfer of unit to 5th Indian Div; move to Iraq; role drawing daily company parade strength; document security; story of visit to horse races; question of company runners; lorry convoys. Aspects of period in India, 1943-1944: arrival at Bombay; purchase of gift for wife; move to Calcutta; storm; preparing equitable rolls for pay parade; march into Arakan area, 1/1944; story of taking up water after action in tunnels; defensive positions on Tortoise Hill. Recollections of operations in Kohima sector, 4/1944: arrival at Dimapur; movements; D Coy Headquarters position; propaganda shouted by Japanese; story of taking grenades forward to 16 Platoon.
REEL 5 Continues: story of taking grenades forward to 16 Platoon; nature of D Coy HQ; opinion of Sergeant Major Frank Haynes; story of taking message to Major Donald Easten; Japanese attacks; reconnoitring to find new position of D Coy HQ; casualties; opinion of Lance Corporal Jack Harman including story of him shooting cow in Arakan and circumstances of his death while attacking Japanese machine gun post; taking up new position with Company Quartermaster Sergeant; physical and mental state; relief by Berkshire Regt; role as part of D Coy HQ defence force; state of D Coy; move back to Dimapur; padre's intervention to prevent return unit premature to front; story of visit by canteen van. Aspects of operations in Burma, 1944-1945: jungle conditions; role as company runner; reinforcement drafts.
REEL 6 Continues: questions of discipline and comradeship; opinion of Regimental Sergeant Major; rare bread and beer rations; advance to Rangoon; orders not to fire at Japanese aircraft carrying negotiation party, 8/1945; story of stealing bottles for VJ Day, 8/1945; Japanese comfort girls in Rangoon Jail; question of demobilisation; leave in Calcutta and New Delhi and question of victimisation by MPs; return to GB, ca 11/1945. Period in Milton Barracks, Gravesend, 11/1945-12/1945: leave; demobilisation. Post-war career: story of selling demob suit; reception party; return to work on vegetable stall; story of dispute with Inland Revenue; attacks of malaria.
REEL 7 Continues: story of application for disability pension; question of skin cancer caused by sunburn; mental effects of war service and acclimatisation to civilian lifestyle; attending reunions of 4th Bn Royal West Kents Association; story of being awards from Prince of Wales Regt.