Description
Object description
British private served with 6th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, 36th Infantry Bde, 12th (Eastern) Infantry Div in France, 5/1940-6/1940; served as medical orderly with Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regimental Depot, Invicta Park Barracks, Maidstone, GB, 6/1940-4/1942; private and NCO served as medical orderly with 4th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, 132nd Infantry Bde, 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Div in North Africa and Iraq, 7/1942-1/1943; NCO served as medical orderly with 4th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, 161st Indian Infantry Bde, 5th Indian Infantry Div in India and Burma, 2/1943-8/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in London, GB, 1918-1939: family origins; education; father's employment; character of Little Italy area of Farringdon including speaking Italian; employment in Savoy Hotel; sporting activities; living conditions in London during 1920s; growth in political beliefs; degree to which Benito Mussolini was popular in Italian community; working class ethics; recreational activities; obtaining employment with General Ashfelt Coy; interest in union affairs; nature of work with General Ashfelt Coy; degree of anticipation of Second World War; Italian family life.
REEL 2 Continues: reaction to hearing declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; degree to which he felt he would have to take part. Recollections of period as private with Royal Fusiliers at Hounslow Barracks, GB, 12/1939-3/1940: call-up for military service, 15/12/1939; lack of uniforms and use of denims; basic training; cleaning rifle; evening home leave; adapting to army life; officer cadets amongst recruits; reaction to joining army; boxing, physical training and sport; opinion of food; origins of recruits; fieldcraft; drill; gas training; foot problems during route marches; opinion of Bren Gun; route marches; guard duties.
REEL 3 Continues: drafting to 6th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt at Tunbridge Wells. Aspects of period as private with 6th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, 36th Infantry Bde, 12th (Eastern) Infantry Div in France, 5/1940-6/1940: move to France, 5/1940; friends he made in unit; accommodation in Cherbourg; evacuation under German Air Force attack, 6/1940; guard duties on pipeline. Recollections of period of medical orderly with Royal West Kent Regimental Depot at Invicta Park Barracks, Maidstone, GB, 6/1940-5/1942: return to GB and leave, 6/1940; brother's treatment as 'enemy alien'; background to obtaining work in medical inspection room at Invicta Park Barracks; training as chiropodist; importance of foot care; dealing with foot problems.
REEL 4 Continues: move to Maidstone, 6/1940; accommodation above medical inspection room; later story of having to vaccinate unit personnel for smallpox in Burma; dealing with German airman during Battle of Britain, summer 1940; German bombing of Shepherd's Bush; public morale; opinion of Prime Minister Winston Churchill's speeches; background to transferring to 4th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt including removal of parent's nationality from paybook; role of medical section in unit; applying splints; later story of officer lying wounded on stretcher during Battle of Kohima, 4/1944; use of Thomas Splint; story of entering minefield with doctor to aid wounded in Egypt; applying shell and elusive dressings; use of stretchers; problems carrying casualties with head and back wounds.
REEL 5 Continues: morphine and anti-snake venom carried in Burma; disembarkation leave prior to overseas service. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Laconia from GB to Egypt via South Africa, 5/1942-7/1942: conditions in South Africa; arrival at Port Tewfik, Egypt and sight of Italian prisoners of war. Recollections of operations as medical orderly and NCO with 4th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, 132nd Infantry Bde, 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Div in North Africa, 7/1942-12/1942: accommodation in tents; acclimatisation to heat; problems with flies and desert sores; water rationing; route marches in sand; move to front line in New Zealand Box, 8/1942; terrain; character of Regimental Aid Post (RAP); dealing with badly wounded man; promotion to lance corporal; status of medical personnel in infantry unit; blowing up of medical vehicle on mine, night 3/9/1942; evacuation of wounded; types of wounds dealt with; later story of dealing with wounded after accidental shelling of unit in Burma.
REEL 6 Continues: dealing with gunshot wounds; use of American Quaker ambulance; driving through minefield; sight of wounded outside Advanced Dressing Station (ADS); encounter with General Bernard Freyburg; terrain which unit advanced across, 3/9/1942; digging slit trenches; under German 88mm artillery fire prior to breakthrough during Battle of El Alamein, 10/1942; incident of two stretcher-bearers suffering from battle fatigue; second wounding of already wounded man in communication trench; question of effects of imagination and method of dealing with fear; withdrawal of unit to Alexandria, Egypt. Aspects of period as NCO with 4th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, 132nd Infantry Bde, 44th (Home Counties) Div in Iraq, 12/1942-1/1943: move to Iraq, 12/1942; impressions of Iraq; method of dealing with Iraqi rifle thieves; attitude of Iraqis and Egyptians towards British; contrast in climate between Iraq and Egypt.
REEL 7 Continues: embarkation aboard HMT Empire Trooper. Aspect of period as NCO with 4th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, 161st Infantry Bde, 5th Indian Infantry Div in India, 2/1943-11/1943: initial impressions of India; issue of jungle green uniforms. Recollections of operations as NCO with 4th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, 161st Infantry Bde, 5th Indian Infantry Div in Arakan, Burma, 12/1943-4/1944: memories of officer Major P E 'Dodo' Watts; march into The Tunnels area; capture of wounded Japanese prisoner of war; numbers of Japanese prisoners of war captured in Burma; attitude towards Japanese; story of padre who helped set booby-traps; setting up Regimental Aid Post (RAP); supply of medical supplies; under fire from Japanese 75mm Guns and counter-battery fire; air attacks on Japanese strong point; description of Japanese strongpoint on hill; opinion of Japanese as defensive troops; terrain around The Tunnels; story of ascending Kennedy Peak; death of mule by air dropped mule fodder. Recollections of operations as NCO with 4th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, 161st Infantry Bde, 5th Indian Infantry Div at Kohima, India, 4/1944-5/1944: flight from Arakan, Burma to Dimapur, 3/1944; character of journey from Dimapur to Kohima.
REEL 8 Continues: arrival in Kohima under Japanese shellfire; setting up Regimental Aid Post (RAP); importance of staying in trenches; problems of using water point and start of air supply drops; Japanese mortaring of wounded; opinion of surgeons; aiding in amputation of wounded man's leg; evacuation of casualties from front line; dressing wounded man near the Tennis Court; Japanese mortaring and sniping of positions; prior recollection of obtaining flag pole in Western Desert; types of wound dealt with; Imperial Japanese Army tactics in attack; rations available; effect of heat on corned beef; relief by 2nd Infantry Div; reaction to shell landing whilst carrying medical supplies down hill; evacuation to Dimapur; psychological effects of some of the survivors; story of construction of memorial to Lance Corporal John Harman VC.
REEL 9 Continues: Recollections of operations as NCO with 4th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, 161st Infantry Bde, 5th Indian Infantry Div in India and Burma, 1944-1945: advance southwards from Kohima, India; riding on tanks; character of Japanese resistance; discovery of dead Japanese in circle; story of shooting dead Japanese carrying light machine gun; death of medical officer from stray bullet; use of Willys Jeep ambulances; number of Japanese casualties; reaction to hearing of dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, 8/1945; question of limit to which troops could operate; memories of different medical officers he served under; relations with medical officers; degree to which medical officers relied on medical staff; amount of equipment carried; importance of comradeship; difference between regulars and Hostilities Only (HO) troops.
REEL 10 Continues: demobilisation process and effects of malaria, 1945; attitude to having served with 4th Bn Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt in Second World War.