Description
Object description
British NCO served with 526th Coast Regt, Royal Artillery at South Gare Battery, Hartlepool, 1939-1943
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in West Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, 1912-1939: family background and social circumstances; attending night school; recreations; family discipline; chapel activities; Boy Scouts activities; education and interest in geography; issue of coke during General Strike, 1926; work as deck boy aboard ships with Merchant Navy, 1926-1927; work as labourer in chemical factory. 1927-1939. Recollections of training and service with 526 Coastal Regt at Heugh Battery, Hartlepool and South Gare Battery, Redcar 1937-1943: background to recruitment; mobilisation during Munich crisis and deployment to South Gare, 9/1938.
REEL 2 Continues: background to recruitment and medical; kitting out; question of military standards; assignment to key party and deployment on outbreak of war to South Gare Battery, 9/1939; memories of officers and NCOs; minimal training on 6" guns; low gunnery standards of NCOs; role as sergeant in getting 6" gun ready for action and firing warning shots on sighting unidentified ship; training on 6" gun drill; nature of gun site; subsequent introduction of radar and necessity for armed guards, 1941; range finding at observation post; ammunition supply from magazine and precautions; speed of 6" gun fire; discipline; question of home service commitment.
REEL 3 Continues: equipment with light machine guns in anti-aircraft role; offshore mine defences; opinion of Sten gun; various infantry weapons to defend site including Blacker bombard spigot mortar; introduction of Smith AA projector including method of use, problem in unloading and role giving course of instruction; move into administrative roles as NCO, 1942; background to volunteering for posting as conductor to Indian Army Corps of Clerks, 1942; establishment of emergency batteries at Whitby and Scarborough; establishment of radar station at Ravenscar; limited promotion prospects prior to war; background to promotion to sergeant and move into administrative roles, 1942; pre-war state of unit including lack of gunnery training and inadequate gunnery knowledge of NCOs; firing camp at Kinghorn Battery, 1938; mobilisation during Munich crisis to South Gare Battery, 9/1938; expansion of unit on approach of war; firing camp at Tynemouth Castle Battery.
REEL 4 Continues: firing camp at Tynecastle Battery, 8/1939; pay; background to recruitment and support of employer; mobilisation as member of key party, 8/1939, including role collecting national insurance numbers, move to South Gare Battery and financial impact on wife, reactions to and question of suitability for military life; role as sergeant on No 1 6" gun; gun drill on dummy loader; giving gunnery lectures; question of quality of gunners and standard of mathematics; morning stand to and preparing gun ready for action; rota arrangements on guns and as orderly sergeant; procedure on taking over gun position; sentry and sleeping arrangements; question of readiness of No 2 gun; story illustrating low mathematics standards of gunners; informal Mores code training.
REEL 5 Continues: story illustrating role in getting 6" gun ready for action and firing warning shots on sighting of unidentified ship; story of dealing with shipwrecked seamen as orderly sergeant; AA precautions, German ground strafing attacks and successful use of barrage balloons; question of contacts with Army Territorial Service; reception of conscript drafts and changes in personnel; strength of unit; death of Colonel Groves in road accident; opinion of commanding officers; background to leaving unit; role as orderly sergeant and story of giving anti-gas lecture in front of inspecting general.
