Blaxley, Burnham (Oral history)

British NCO served with 250 Light Composite Company Royal Army Service Corps in GB, North Africa, Italy and North West Europe, 1941-1944; captured at Arnhem, 9/1944, POW in Germany, 1944-1945.

REEL 1: Background in Kettering and Radlett, 1920-1940: family; problem of unemployment; education; employment as butcher; recreational and sporting activities; attitude to outbreak of war; description of duties as ARP runner, 1939. REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of period of training with Royal Army Service Corps in GB, 1940-1943: enlistment; arrival at Bulford camp; description of accommodation and basic training; appointed section leader; drill practise; issue of kit and uniform; mess arrangements and opinion of food; daily routine; driving tests and vehicles; guard duties; appointed temporary Lance Corporal and posted to Mechanical Transport Coy training school, Bournemouth; description of training and vehicles; story of visit to Sandhurst; description of gas and weapons training including anti-tank weapons; promoted full corporal. REEL 3 Continues: memory of playing tennis; recreational activities and social life; reasons for losing stripe; further training on motorcycles and nature of duties; various memories of fellow servicemen; story of requesting transfer to 250 Light Composite Coy Royal Army Service Corps; attitude to discipline. REEL 4 Continues: description of physical training; description of training and organisation of company; responsibilities in charge of section; description of parachute training at Ringway Airport including jumping from plane and problem with landing; question of extra pay for parachutists; attitude to involvement with airborne forces. Recollections of operations with 250 Light Composite Coy Royal Army Service Corps in North Africa and Italy, 1943-1944; embarkation on SS Sterling Castle and arrival in Oran, May 1943; description of accommodation in tented camp. REEL 5 Continues: description of daily duties including unloading of jeeps and maintenance of vehicles; sleeping arrangements; problem of flies; description of uniform; various amusing anecdotes; opinion of sergeant major; posted to Taranto, Italy and description of operations re-supplying troops in Sicily; opinion of accommodation; treatment of wounded; description of methods used to drop supplies from planes; memory of visit by General Montgomery; 10/1943. REEL 6: Continues: story of ammunition dump exploding; memory of night mission over Italy; relations with Italian civilians and supplementing rations; amusing story of milking goat; attitude to Italian POWs; posted to Algiers, 11/1943; story of collecting trucks and problem with brakes; description of duties transporting ammunition and supplies from ships; posted back to GB for further training. REEL 7 Continues: Aspects of further training with 250 Light Composite Coy Royal Army Service Corps in GB, 1944: role in training new recruits; posted to Transport Section, No 2 Parachute Platoon, Holmfirth, Yorkshire; duties in charge of jeeps and trailers; opinion of Commanding Officer; description of training and re-supplying exercises with 6th Airborne Division troops including use of Horsa gliders; amusing story of injury sustained on landing; story of inspection by General Urquhart; further training on Horsa and Hotspur gliders; attitude to not being involved in D-Day operations, 6/1944. REEL 8 Continues: morale of company; amusing story of train journey and problem of returning to unit. Recollections of operations with 250 Light Composite Coy Royal Army Service Corps during Operation Market Garden in Netherlands, 9/1944, and period as POW in Germany, 9/1944-4/1945: description of loading gliders and role of parachute platoons; problem of air pockets and enemy fire during flight; description of landing in cornfield and casualties; problem of locating 156 Bn Parachute Regt; description of battlefield and memory of dead Germans; treatment of wounded; description of German ambush and circumstances of capture; attitude to being under fire; encounter with German officer and arrangements to evacuate wounded. REEL 9 Continues: description of confinement in country house and treatment of wounded; meeting with sergeant from 205 Coy and story of nightmare; moved to underground air raid shelter; problem of RAF bombing; attitude of guards; transfer to POW camp in Limberg and description of conditions; memory of birthday and attitude to imprisonment; work on bomb site in Limberg and problem of smell of corpses; description of journey to Stalag VIII C, Sagan, Germany, including food and sanitary arrangements; description of conditions in camp; accommodation and sleeping arrangements; problem of bed bugs; story of work as butcher in cookhouse. REEL 10 Continues: washing and sanitary facilities; amusing story of latrines and German officers; description of duties as butcher in cookhouse; memory of camp entertainment; story of meat bones; command structure for POWs in camp; opinion of Red Cross parcels and contents; communication with home; story of trading cigarettes; camp newspaper; description of cooking equipment and methods of cooking; personal hygiene; amusing story of inoculations; paid in cigarettes for work in cookhouse; memory of seeing POWs from Stalag Luft III; evacuation of camp and description of forced march. 2/1945. REEL 11 Continues: further description of forced march; rest periods; memory of sympathetic German guard; problem of cold; treatment of sick POWs; billets and sleeping arrangements; memory of Russian deserters and Cossacks; continuing problem of food; amusing story of beetroot. REEL 12 Continues: story of eating wild pigs; arrival at Stalag IX B, Bad Orb, Germany, and problem of overcrowding; sanitary facilities; problem of frostbite in feet; distribution of rations; story of thief in camp; footwear; description of liberation by US troops, 1/4/1945; use of DDT powder; distribution of food and medical treatment. Aspects of post-war period and return to civilian life: return to GB and period of leave, 5/1945: problem of weight loss. REEL 13 Continues: further comments on weight loss and ill health; return to unit and further training; description of Company Sergeant Major's course at Aldershot including amusing story of drill exercise; marriage and family life; further courses and employment; memory of VE Day and opinion of Winston Churchill; demobilisation and period in Army Officers Reserve; role as trainer in GB during Korean War. REEL 14 Continues: further aspects of family life; continuing problems of ill health caused by period as POW. Reflections on period of war service including problem of nightmares and return visit to Arnhem.