Description
Object description
Australian NCO served with 2/3rd Field Regt, Royal Australian Artillery 6th Australian Infantry Div, Second Australian Imperial Force in GB, Egypt, Greece and Crete, 6/1940-5/1941; prisoner of war in Dulag 183, Salonika, Greece, Stalag IV-B, Mühlberg, and Stalag 383, Hohenfels, Germany, 6/1941-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Cottesloe and Perth, Australia, 1919-1939: childhood; family; sporting activities; father's service during First World War; memories of Anzac Day; attitude to patriotism; memories of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Munich Crisis, 9/1938; opinion of Adolf Hitler and Nazis in Germany; effects of Depression on daily life; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; pre-war artillery training with Citizen Militia Forces; attitude to military life; uniform; opinion of artillery; call-up for military service and question of age, 7/11/1939.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of training as NCO with 2/3rd Field Regt, Royal Australian Artillery, Second Australian Imperial Force in Australia, 1939-1940: induction and medical examination; description of Rockingham Camp; gunnery training with Ordnance QF 18 Pounder Field Gun; gun crew; wagon lines; comradeship; rank and question of commission; summary of time spent in training camps, 9/1939-5/1940; attitude to overseas service; train journey from Northam Camp; embarkation at Fremantle; duties as sergeant; story of incident with soldier. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Queen Mary to GB, 6/1940: opinion of conditions aboard HMT Queen Mary; story of shore leave in Cape Town, South Africa; relations between Australian troops and officers; messing arrangements; physical exercise.
REEL 3 Continues: accommodation for NCOs and other ranks; daily routine and training; pay; canteen facilities; sergeants' mess; cigarettes; lectures; security and blackouts; duties as sergeant; gun crews; recreational activities; crossing Equator; story of German Navy submarine; memories of Sierra Leone. Aspects of period as NCO with 2/3rd Field Regt, Royal Australian Artillery, 6th Australian Infantry Div in GB, 7/1940-12/1940: reception received from British people; posting to Tidworth Camp, Salisbury Plain; visit to Stonehenge; training with Ordnance QF 25 Pounder Field Gun; ammunition and firing; memories of London and bomb damage; air raid shelters.
REEL 4 Continues: civilian morale; visit to coastal defences; role of Local Defence Volunteers; reaction to Dunkirk Evacuation, 5/1940-6/1940; voyage aboard HMS Empress of Canada from GB to Egypt, 12/1940; disembarking in Alexandria, Egypt, 12/1940; first impressions of Alexandria. Aspects of period as NCO with 2/3rd Field Regt Australian Imperial Force in Egypt, 12/1940-3/1941: disembarking in Alexandria, 12/1940; initial impressions of Alexandria; calibration of guns; transport of guns; visit to The Pyramids; description of camp and tented accommodation; problem of thefts; communications with home.
REEL 5 Continues: opinion of Italian Army troops; reaction to posting to Greece; voyage aboard troopship from Egypt to Greece; morale. Aspects of operations as NCO with 2/3rd Field Regt, Royal Australian Artillery in Greece, 3/1941-4/1941: disembarkation at Piraeus, 3/1940; relations with local civilians; role of artillery in supporting infantry; opinion of New Zealand Army troops; nature of German artillery fire and aerial attacks; sound of German Air Force Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers; problem of moving guns on congested roads; reaction to deaths.
REEL 6 Continues: evacuation from Greece, 4/1941; disabling guns; embarkation aboard HMS Ajax and conditions on board; voyage from mainland Greece to Crete. Aspects of operations as NCO with 2/3rd Field Regt, Royal Australian Artillery, 6th Australian Infantry Div on Crete, 4/1941-5/1941: duties protecting airfield; calibre and number of guns; nature of German airborne invasion, 20/5/1941; casualties; opinion of German airborne troops; armistice; mortar shells; attitude to surrender; relations with German prisoners of war; instructions in case of being captured; story of being captured; relations with local civilians.
REEL 7 Continues: Aspects of period as prisoner of war on Crete and Greece, 5/1941-7/1941: story of German airborne officer and chocolate; accommodation in girls school; relations with German airborne troops; conditions in camp; sailed aboard German ship SS Arcadia to Dulag 183 in Salonika, Greece; contracted yellow jaundice and medical treatment in hospital; prisoner of war escapes; description of train journey in cattle trucks to Germany; attitude to escaping; rations. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag IV-B, Mühlberg and Stalag 383, Hohenfels, Germany, 7/1941-5/1945: taken to Stalag IV-B, Mühlberg, Germany: delousing; accommodation in huts; story of working party; description of camp; presence of Royal Air Force personnel in camp; escape committee; camp money; digging tunnels; punishments for escaping; problem of lice; NCOs compound; gardening party; searches.
REEL 8 Continues: transfer to Stalag 383, Hohenfels; accommodation in huts; heating and fuel allowance; washing clothes; recreational activities and concert parties; communications with home; parcels; use of cigarettes as currency; rate of exchange; Red Cross parcels; bribing guards; story of prisoners of war being handcuffed, 1942; relations with German Army guards; memories of friends; sporting competitions; educational classes; gymnasium; story of radio; amusing story of German Army officer; nature of forced march, 1945.
REEL 9 Continues: relations with other prisoners of war; sporting activities including football; Red Cross inspections; opinion of treatment in camps; working parties to collect wood; Christmas and New Year celebrations; German captors' searches of prisoner of war huts; studying for apprenticeship; opinion of food; mint tea; organisation of camp; awareness of progress of war; sight of Allied bomber aircraft; story of evacuation of camp and preparations for forced march, 1/1945; use of hand drawn carts; weather conditions; accidental attacks by United States Army Air Force fighter aircraft; clothing; story of Ukrainian guards and death of prisoner of war.
REEL 10 Continues: liberation by United States Army; opinion of United States Army troops; flight from Germany to GB. Aspects of period in GB and Australia, 1945: nature of camp in Eastbourne, GB; visits to London; voyage from GB to Australia; train journey to Perth; reception on arrival; reunion with family; medical; demobilisation.