Interview with Douglas Trevor Gerrard

British trooper and NCO served with 2nd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, 22nd and 1st Armoured Bdes, 1st Armoured Div in GB and North Africa, 9/1939-1/1943; NCO served with 8th King's Own Royal Irish Hussars, 4th Armoured Bde in Cyprus and North Africa, 1/1943-11/1943; served with 8th King's Own Royal Irish Hussars, 7th Armoured Div in GB and North West Europe, 12/1943-5/1945

REEL 1 Background in GB, 1918-1939: family; education in Chesterfield, Haslemere and Cranleigh; interest in wireless; employment; reasons for move to Cheltenham; background to joining Territorial Army. Aspects of period as trooper with 2nd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, 22nd Armoured Bde, 1st Armoured Div in GB, 9/1939-10/1941: character of yeomanry regiment; declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; background of fellow troopers; uniform and equipment shortages; move to Minehead; training and opinion of NCOs; accommodation and training in Ilfracombe; teaching of Morse Code; duties as commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Normand Birley's wireless operator; memories of Lieutenant-Colonel Normand Birley; changes to tank crews; details of intial tanks operated; move to Nottinghamshire and regimental deployment; communications; pattern of postings in GB, 1940; aerial activity; exercises; details of A13 Cruiser Mk IV and A15 Cruiser Mk VI Crusader Tanks; opinion of gunnery training; exercises and role at Warminster; changes to tank crews; role in echelon communications; knowledge of posting abroad; details of voyage to Egypt. Recollections of operations as NCO with 2nd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, 22nd and 1st Armoured Bdes, 1st Armoured Div in North Africa, 10/1941-1/1943: initial activities; plans for attack on Libya, including transporting of A15 Cruiser Mk VI Crusader Tank into desert; degree knowledge of Axis opposition; morale; Deutsches Afrika Korps breakthrough and problems created during withdrawal, 6/1942. REEL 2 Continues: description of AEC Armoured Command Vehicle; German withdrawal; make-up of M3 Honey Tank crew; problems with tank during advance; withdrawal from German Army; activities during period left out of battle; description of Honey tank; posting to Sidi Bishr, Egypt; details and opinion of intelligence course undertaken; description of M3 Grant Tank; return to front and activities at Sollum, Egypt; camouflage of tanks; role during action against German Deutsches Afrika Korps tanks at Knightsbridge Box, Libya, 6/1942; collection of M3 Stuart and M3 Grant Tanks; subsequent action including death of commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Normand Birley, 6/6/1942; activities of H Sqdn; posting to Alexandria, Egypt; move to El Alamein Line; initial activities of regiment; nature of actions and casualties; attachment to 9th Queen's Royal Lancers; hit on tank and damage caused, subsequent withdrawal, cover taken and return to tank; return to regiment. REEL 3 Continues: period of hospitalisation and convalescence in Egypt; visit to Port Said, Egypt; problems with desert sores; leisure activities in Cairo, Egypt; nature of base depot; theft of watch; return to and disbandment of 2nd Gloucestershire Hussars. Aspects of period as NCO with 8th King's Own Royal Irish Hussars, 4th Armoured Bde in Cyprus and North Africa, 1/1943-12/1943: journey from Egypt to Cyprus to joining regiment; posting to C Sqdn and regiment's prior involvement in campaign in North Africa; description of camp; training undertaken with armoured cars; posting to Benghazi, Libya; role of unit; collection of British armoured cars; hospitalisation; voyage aboard HMT Duchess of Richmond from North Africa to GB. Aspects of period as NCO with 8th King's Own Royal Irish Hussars, 7th Armoured Div in GB, 12/1943-6/1944: moves to Norfolk and Bognor Regis; issue of Cromwell Tank; role in unit; opinion of senior officers; boarding of landing craft. Aspects of operations with NCO with 8th King's Own Royal Irish Hussars in North West Europe, 6/1944-5/1945: crossing of English Channel to Normandy, France, 6/1944; problems during disembarkation; opposition during landing; terrain in Bocage, Normandy, France; degree of knowledge of situation; aerial activity; nature of advance in Normandy, France; sleeping arrangements; supply and details of ration including cooking of meals; scenes of dead animals; communications; contact with German forces. REEL 4 Continues: advances into Belgium and toward Arnhem, Netherlands, 9/1944; contact with United States Army troops; activities of unit troopers' serving with infantry; details of role in unit as signals sergeant including use of Fullerphone; crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; morale; story of wine; relations with civilians in Belgium and Netherlands; advance through Germany, 3/1945-4/1945; post-war activities in Berlin and relations with German civilians; final unit action, 4/1945; acquisition of typewriter. REEL 5 Continues: VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; posting to Northern Germany. Aspects of demobilisation, 1946: involvement in amateur radio and duties during period in transit camp at Dieppe, France including building radio station; demobilisation, 3/1946; prior recollection of correspondence course taken in Benghazi, Libya; reunions with former comrades.