Description
Object description
British driver and NCO served with Royal Army Service Corps in GB, Malta and France, 7/1933-8/1941, including sinking of HMT Lancastria, off Saint-Nazaire, France, 17/6/1940; served with Royal Army Service Corps in North Africa and Italy, 1941-1945; served with Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in Italy, Germany and GB, 1945-1958
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Exeter and London, GB, 1916-1933: childhood and family; employment; story of running away from home. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Army Service Corps in GB, 1933-1935: reason for volunteering for service with British Army; question of age; enlistment, 4/1933; posting to Buller Barracks, Aldershot Garrison; assignment to training squad and memories of NCO; story of visit from uncle; uniform and kit; opinion of rations; pay; leave in Aldershot; amusing story of toy soldiers; basic training; cleaning kit; kit inspection; attitude to military life and discipline; training as driver at Royal Army Service Corps driving school, Feltham, 7/1933; theory classes; qualifying as Driver Class 3; pay; sporting activities; weapons training; posting to Royal Army Service Corps depot, Bulford Camp, 10/1933; gas training. Aspects of voyage from Southampton to Malta, 4/1935: living conditions aboard ship. Aspects of period as driver with Royal Army Service Corps on Malta, 4/1935-10/1937: daily routine and duties as driver; story of fight with Australians military personnel.
REEL 2 Continues: attitude to posting to Malta; communication with family. Aspects of period with Royal Army Service Corps in GB, 10/1937-9/1939: duties as coach painter in GB and Northern Ireland; story of meeting future wife; posting to camp on Hampstead Heath; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 9/1939. Aspects of period as driver and NCO with Royal Army Service Corps in France, 9/1939-6/1940: move to camp at Nantes, then transit camp; duties cooking for troops; move to western France and set up workshop; promotion to lance-corporal; relations with French civilians; preparation for evacuation following German invasion, 5/1940, including destruction of workshop and vehicles; march to Saint-Nazaire; rations; story of mutinous behaviour towards officers. Recollections of sinking of HMT Lancastria off Saint-Nazaire France, 17/6/1940: embarkation at Saint-Nazaire; manning Bren Gun; question of ship being overloaded; German Air Force attack and abandoning ship; dead and wounded in sea; sight of ship sinking; memories of trapped men singing as ship went down; rescue by French vessel; transfer to Royal Navy destroyer; receiving food and cigarettes; sailing to Plymouth, GB; filling in card to send to family; orders not to talk about sinking; issue of new uniform and kit; casualties among Royal Army Service Corps personnel on board; number of survivors from HMT Lancastria.
REEL 3 Continues: further memories of sinking of HMT Lancastria; attitude to secrecy about sinking. Aspects of period as NCO with Royal Army Service Corps in GB, 7/1940-8/1941: posting to Luton; work as motor mechanic at Vauxhall Motor Coy works; pay; German Air Force raid on works and casualties; transfer to bus station; work repairing engines; receiving posting to Middle East, 8/1941; embarkation leave; inoculations; marriage. Aspects of voyage from GB to Egypt via South Africa, 8/1941: embarkation at Gourock; issue of tropical kit; action stations; shore leave in Durban, South Africa; disembarkation at Suez, Egypt. Aspects of operations as NCO with Royal Army Service Corps in Egypt and Lebanon, 1941-1942: setting up workshop on attachment to 8th Armoured Div; maintenance of Long Range Desert Group vehicles; moved to wadi in Qattara Depression area, 10/1942; preparations to evacuate; guard duty; problem of thefts by Arabs; opinion of Arabs; story of hitting Arab in face with pistol; use of Italian prisoners of war in workshop; opinion of Gurkhas; morale of Italian prisoners of war; use of Italian condoms in workshop; posting to workshop in Beirut, Lebanon; waterproofing and camouflaging vehicles for use in landings on Sicily, Italy; communication with home; censorship of letters; six weeks hospitalisation with dysentery; story of theft.
REEL 4 Continues: story of death of officer in officers' mess; move to transit camp in Egypt; period confined to barracks; return to GB, 5/1945. Aspects of period as NCO with Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in Italy and Germany, 1945-1955: period in Italy, 1945; joining British Army on the Rhine in Germany, 3/1947; disbandment of unit; living conditions in Germany; black market; daily routine and duties; story of former Schutzstaffel (SS) officer; opinion of Germans; return to GB, 5/1955. Aspects of period as NCO with Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in GB, 1955-1958: posted to Instow; nature of work with experimental vehicle waterproofing; demobilisation, 8/1958; post-war life and employment in GB and Australia; reflections on period of military service; reunions for HMT Lancastria survivors and visits to wreck site.
