Interview with Leonard Morris Garwood

British gunner served with 104th (Essex Yeomanry) Regt, Royal Horse Artillery in Colchester, GB, 1939; NCO served as clerk with 39th Signal Training Regt, Royal Artillery in Scarborough and Nostell Priory, GB, 1939-1943; officer served with Pioneer Corps with No 7(S) Group and No 109 (S) Coy, Pioneer Corps in GB, 1943-1944; staff officer served with Civil Labour Control Units, Pioneer Corps at Headquarters, Fourteenth Army in India and Burma, 1944-1946; served with Mauritian Guard Coy, Royal Pioneer Corps in Libya and Royal Army Pay Corps in Libya, Egypt and GB, 1953-1958

REEL 1 Recollections of period as gunner with 104th (Essex Yeomanry) Regt, Royal Horse Artillery in Colchester, GB, 1939: family's 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 NCO with 39th Signal Training Regt, Royal Artillery in Scarborough, GB, 11/1939-3/1941: contrast between unit and 104th (Essex Yeomanry) Regt, Royal Horse Artillery; 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 battery; bribery of noisy recruits; recreational activities. Aspects of period as NCO with 39th Signal Training Regt, Royal Artillery at Nostell Priory, GB, 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 Officer Cadet Training Unit at Beckingham, GB, 11/1942-1/1943: acceptance by War Office Selection Board and commission into Pioneer Corps; pre-Officer Cadet Training Unit course training recruits. REEL 3 Continues: fate of signallers who failed course; use of live firing during training; fatalities during course; duration of course. Recollections of period as officer with No 7 (S) Group, Pioneer Corps in GB, 1943-1944: posting to unit at Hall Green, Birmingham; use of smoke pots to generate smoke to screen targets from German Air Force 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 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 No 109 (S) Coy, Pioneer Corps in Plymouth, GB, 5/1944-11/1944: set up at 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 Civil Labour Control Units, Pioneer Corps at Headquarters, Fourteenth Army in India and Burma, 1944-1945: origins and use of civil labour control units. REEL 4 Continues: voyage aboard MS Batory from GB to India; impressions of conditions in India; contracting malaria; train journey to Calcutta, India; posting to civil labour control unit at Akyab Island, Burma, 1/1945; situation on Akyab Island, 1/1945; method of returning to Calcutta, India on recall; appointment as staff captain with No 1 Area to administer Rangoon, Burma; 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, Burma; lack of problems recruiting qualified workers; outbreak of bubonic plague; consequences of having squatters in hotels; use of Gurkha porters; character of Madrassi and Bengali companies; recruitment of labour for docks; situation in Rangoon, Burma. 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 Headquarters, Fourteenth Army; command structure in Burma; visits to civil labour control units; story of precautions taken whilst travelling by Willys Jeep; under fire from Imperial Japanese Army stragglers whilst crossing River Irrawaddy, Burma; taking pot shots at Imperial Japanese Army stragglers; presence of Japanese prisoners of war in camps; impressions of Lord Louis Mountbatten; troop's attitude towards General Oliver Leese; opinion of General Montagu Stopford; celebrations in Rangoon, Burma on news of atomic bomb being dropped on Japan, 8/1945; plans for restoration of normal life in former Japanese territories; accommodation and messing at Headquarters, Fourteenth Army; memories of Lieutenant-Colonel James 'Elephant Bill' Williams. REEL 6 Continues: visit by Secretary of State of War; nomination to attend Staff College at Quetta; return to civilian life in GB, 1946. Recollections of period as officer with Mauritian Guard Coy, Royal Pioneer Corps in Libya and with Royal Army Pay Corps in Libya, Egypt and GB, 1953-1958: background to joining Royal Pioneer Corps, 4/1953; staff and strength of company; problems with other ranks; incident of knife being drawn on officer; accommodation in old Italian Barracks near Tripoli, Libya; communicating with Mauritian troops; case of homosexual rape; degree of homosexuality amongst Mauritian troops; threat to dumps and stores; ban on Mauritian troops mixing with civilians; lack of discipline amongst Mauritian troops; church parades in Tripoli, Libya; transfer to Royal Army Pay Corps in Canal Zone, Egypt. REEL 7 Continues: situation in Canal Zone, Egypt; membership of Freemasons; opinion of Royal Army Pay Corps handling of finances in Canal Zone, Egypt; decision to restore regimental paymasters; posting to Royal Army Ordnance Corps pay office in Halifax, GB; opinion of National Service clerks; decision to leave British Army, 1958; return to civilian employment; advantages of military service.