Description
Object description
British driver served with 23rd Field Regt, Royal Artillery in GB, 1940-1941; served with 452 and 440 Btys, 74th Field Regt, RA in North Africa, Sicily, GB and North West Europe, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Warsop and Tollerton, 1920-1939: social circumstances; education; cricket `activities; interest in farming and move as farm worker to uncle's farm Hall Farm, Tollerton, 1938; agricultural classes; realisation of approach of war; reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; attending delayed poultry course at agricultural college, 1/1940-6/1940; call up and question of reserved occupation, 10/1940. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine with 23rd Field Regt, Royal Artillery, Wooton under Edge, 10/1940-1/1941: initial reception at Aldershot; billets; food rations; drill; relationship with instructors and recruits; equipment with French 75mm guns; learning to drive 13 cwt lorry; rifle training; routine lorry maintenance; movement exercises.
REEL 2 Continues: Period in Croydon, London, 1/1941-2/1942: hotel billets; German air raids. Periods at Bovey Tracey, Culhampton and Chagford, 2/1941-4/1942: exercises dropping into action with 30cwt lorries and 75mm guns; opinion of newly issued Quads and 25pdrs, 7/1941; kit inspections; relationship with officers; recreations; demonstration of 25pdrs to munitions workers; volunteering for overseas service. Voyage aboard Queen Mary to Port Tewfik, Egypt, 5/1942-6/1942: prior issue of tropical kit and embarkation leave; joining ship at Gourock; duties manning guns; cabin accommodation; route. Period at Royal Artillery Depot, Almaza, Cairo, 6/1942-7/1942: first impressions of Egypt; acclimatisation to climate. Recollections of period as driver with 452 and 440 Btys, 74th Field Artillery in Western Desert, 7/1942: state of F Troop, 452 Bty on joining unit.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of Colonel Collett-White and story of being disciplined for not disabling Quad during overnight stop; opinion of various officers and NCOs; playing chess; move to Gaza Camp, Palestine; personal morale on move up to El Alamein area; digging gunpits; question of sandbag protection against mines used on floor of Quad; positions facing Italians; morning parade; latrines; midday break; food rations; tea; night firing from advanced positions; bombardment prior to offensive, 10/1942; Stuka attacks on rear gun positions; advance to EL Adem, 11/1942; convoy road discipline; adjusting tyre pressure and routine lorry maintenance; water and petrol supply.
REEL 4 Continues: Christmas celebrations and concert party, 25/12/1942; letter contacts with GB and censorship; move to Benghazi; incidence of snow; role as driver of Sergeant Tommy Pattinson's gun crew; move to Mareth, 3/1943; problems with Quads bogging down; advance to Enfidaville, 4/1943; state of engines during drive back to Alexandria, Egypt; re-equipment; burying shells in desert; embarkation of liberty ship S17, ca 7/1943; waterproofing of Quads; learning to swim in Alexandria harbour. Aspects of operations in Siciliy, 7/1943-10/1943: view of German bombing attack to sink liberty ship S18 carrying 440 Bty; disembarkation at Syracuse; transfer to join rebuilt 440 Bty; move into action in farmland and comparison with desert conditions; relationship with Sicilian civilians; death of Hedley Verity.
REEL 5 Continues: firing across Straits of Messina; climbing Mount Etna; reactions to news of return to GB for D Day role. Voyage aboard Duchess of Bedford back to GB, 10/1943-11/1943. Period in Shelford Camp, Cambridge, 11/1943-5/1944: hut accommodation; relationship with civilians; leave; re-equipment and role collecting new MT; training in disembarking from landing craft onto beaches and briefing film; firing camp; question of promotion. Period in Brentwood Camp, 5/1944-6/1944: security; special rations; move to park on Southend road, 28/5/1944; dock strike and loading ship at Tilbury dock, 30/5/1944. Recollections of operations in North West Europe, 6/1944-5/1945: Channel crossing aboard Lee S Obermann, 7/6/1944; fire from German shore emplacements; landing at Arromanches, Normandy, France, 9/6/1944; view of HMS Warspite shore bombardment; landing on beach and rendezvous with unit; isolated gun positions; smell of dead cows.
REEL 6 Continues: compo food rations; milking cows; hot chocolate; quality of farm land; limited visibility in bocage; German shell fire; moving gun positions; view of German column caught in Falaise gap, 8;/1944; rapid advance; briefing prior to Operation Market Garden; advance into Belgium, 9/1944; reception from Belgian civilians in Brussels; advance to Nijmegen, 2/10/1944; gun positions at Elst; period at Nijmegen; relationship with Dutch civilians; opinion of Quad; observation post duty as driver; crossing River Maas and establishing OP in Arnhem, 12/4/1944; film of faked street fighting in Arnhem; advance into Germany, 5/1945; VE Day, 8/5/1945. Period in Dortmund area, 5/1945-12/1945: relationship with German civilians and question of non-fraternisation.
REEL 7 Continues: question of black market activities; question of early demobilisation as farmer, 12/1945; various prior postings. Post-war career: career as farmer; effects of war service; question of contacts with old comrades.
