Garwood, Leonard Morris (Oral history)

British gunner served with Essex Yeomanry in Colchester, GB, 1939; clerk served with 39 Signal Training Regt, Royal Artillery in Scarborough and Nostell Priory, GB, 1939-1943; officer served with Pioneer Corps with 7(S) and 109 (S) Groups in GB, 1943-1944; served as staff officer with Civil Labour Control Units, Pioneer Corps in India and Burma, 1944-1946; served with Mauritian Guard Company, Pioneer Corps in Libya and with Royal Army Pay Corps in Libya, Egypt and GB, 1953-1959

REEL 1 Recollections of period as gunner with Essex Yeomanry in Colchester, 1939: family military service; apprehensions of war; background to enlistment in Territorial Army; initial training parades and basic drill movements; lack of expertise and equipment; limited training available; lack of uniforms; issue of civilian lorries, 9/1939; attending church parade, 10/9/1939; opinion of battledress; limited contact with officers; selection of NCOs; character of recruits. Aspects of period as gunner with 39 Signal Training Regt, Royal Artillery in Scarborough, 11/1939-3/1941: contrast between unit and Essex Yeomanry: character of accommodation; daily routine including physical exercise and breakfast; obtaining work as clerk in Records Department; incident of being caught by regimental sergeant-major wearing leather gloves. REEL 2 Continues: character of regimental sergeant-major and clerks; work in records department; learning to drive with Transport Bty; bribery of noisy recruits; recreational activities. Aspects of period as bombardier and sergeant with 39 Signal Training Regt, Royal Artillery at Nostell Priory, 3/1941-10/1942: move to Nostell Priory, 3/1941; background of clerks; attended courses in recruit training; promotion to sergeant in charge of headquarters office; reasons for rejection for officer training; accommodation; invasion alarm; advise to apply for commission; reasons for medical downgrade. Aspects of period as officer cadet at OCTU at Beckingham, 11/1942-1/1943: acceptance by War Office Selection Board or commission into Pioneer Corps; pre-OCTU course training recruits. REEL 3 Continues: fate of signallers who failed course; use of live firing during OCTU training; fatalities during course; duration of course. Recollections of period as officer with 7 (S) Group in GB, 1943-1944: posting to unit at Hall Green, Birmingham; use of smoke pots to generate smoke to screen targets from aircraft; procedure for deployment on receipt of air raid warnings; accommodation for troops; character of control centres; posting to headquarters as adjutant; character of pioneer platoons; motorisation of Naval Haslar generators; training requirements; role as adjutant; court martial offences; effects of transfer to Anti-Aircraft Command; organisation of redeployment of smoke units to protect southern ports and South Wales, 3/1944. Aspects of period as officer with 109 (S) Group in Plymouth, 5/1944-11/1944: set up training school in Plymouth; deployment from Falmouth to Southampton; organised company to operate in North West Europe; transfer of Royal Artillery officers to Pioneer Corps. Recollections of period as officer with Pioneer Corps in India and Burma, 1944- 1945: origins and use of civil labour control units. REEL 4 Continues: character of voyage from GB to India aboard Batory; impressions of conditions in India; contracting malaria; character of train journey to Calcutta; posting to civil labour control unit at Akyab, 1/1945; situation in Akyab, 1/1945; method of returning to Calcutta on recall; appointment as staff captain with No 1 Area to administer Rangoon; route planning; role of units in providing civil functions; lack of training in staff work; story of use of Indian Tea Units in Burma, 1943; setting up labour exchange for skilled workers in Rangoon; lack of problems recruiting qualified workers; outbreak of bubonic plague; consequences of having squatters in hotels; use of Gurkha porters, Madrassi and Bengali companies; recruitment of labour for docks; situation in Rangoon. REEL 5 Continues: restoration of order; formation of paper chase hunt using remount horses; role as third judge; relations with Burmese civilians; visit to Aung San's house; role as Deputy Assistant Director of Labour at Army Headquarters; command structure in Burma; visits to units; story of precautions taken whilst travelling by jeep; under fire from Japanese stragglers whilst crossing River Irrawaddy; taking pot shots at stragglers; Japanese POWs in camps; impressions of Lord Louis Mountbatten; troop's attitude to General Oliver Leese; opinion of General Stopford; celebrations in Rangoon on news of atomic bomb attack on Japan; plans for restoration of normal life in former Japanese territory; accommodation and messing at Army Headquarters; memories of Colonel 'Elephant Bill' Williams. REEL 6 Continues: visit by Secretary of State of War; nomination for Staff College at Quetta; return to civilian life in GB, 1946. Recollections of period as officer with Mauritian Guard Company, Pioneer Corps in Libya and with Royal Army Pay Corps in Libya, Egypt and GB, 1953-1958: background to re-joining Pioneer Corps, 4/1953; staff and strength of company; problems with other ranks; incident of knife being drawn on second lieutenant; accommodation in old Italian Barracks near Tripoli; communicating with Mauritian troops; case of homosexual rape; degree of homosexuality amongst Mauritians; threat to dumps and stores; ban on Mauritians mixing with civilians; troops lacked discipline; church parades in Tripoli; transfer to Royal Army Pay Corps in Canal Zone of Egypt. REEL 7 Continues: situation in Canal Zone; membership of Freemasons; opinion of Royal Army Pay Corps handling of finances in Canal Zone; decision to restore regimental paymasters; posting to Royal Army Ordnance Corps pay office in Halifax; opinion of National Service clerks; decision to leave army, 1958; return to civilian employment; advantages of military service.