Description
Object description
British civilian in France and GB, 1939-1943; served with Free French Forces in GB, 1943-1944; served with Free French Forces attached to US Army in North West Europe and Germany, 1943-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Austria, GB and France, 1924-1943: family including relationship with parents and early years in Vienna; work of father including his service with Royal Navy; reason for leaving GB for France in 1938 including attempted move to Soviet Union; memories of childhood and education including ballet and piano lessons; period in Pyrenees, 1939-1940, including journey to GB during Battle of France; return to education in Littlehampton; air activity and evacuation of school to Llanllwni; details of school and life in Wales; reason for taking work at St Thomas's Hospital in London; uniform and morning prayers.
REEL 2 Continues: evacuation of hospital; story of straining back and end to nurse training; knowledge and process of joining Free French. Aspects of period as civilian with Free French Forces in GB, 1943-1944: background to joining liaison administrative branch; training in Camberley; description of uniform; reason for not being allowed to liaise with English; details of role with American forces to be taken in France; preparatory lectures for role; isolation prior to embarkation; voyage to Normandy, 12/6/1944; equipment issued. Aspects of operations as civilian with Free French Forces attached to US Army in North West Europe, 1944-1945: description of landing on beaches; make-up of group landed with.
REEL 3 Continues: accommodation during first night in Arromanches; details of American landings; different types of resistance groups; story of resistance activities of a monk; methods of making contact with resistance; question of chaos; work evacuating civilians including medical duties; formation of German Army in Brittany; reason for wearing uniform; dangers of liaison work; weapon carried and story of Germans captured; desire to leave Brittany; story of wounding and capture; reactions to wounds; situation for Germans; interrogation and treatment from guards; story of being taken by German soldier on search for medical assistance; medical treatment from nuns; arrival of US paratrooper and his organisation of Willett's evacuation.
REEL 4 Continues: hospitalisation in frontline including air raids; evacuation to Wrexham; discussions over removal of bullet; return to France; news of liberation of Paris; story of return of the Rothschild's flat; fighting within Paris; problems with resistance liaison; question of fear on return to France; joining of AFT; confusion of situation; details of relations in resistance movement; posting with General Alexander Patch; role; story of visit to relatives; care given to civilians; story of escorting French pregnant women to Normandy, 1944.
REEL 5 Continues: liaison work in Caen and story of attempt to stop US bombing of the town; involvement in evacuation of civilians from Caen before bombing including walking through Axis and Allied lines; subsequent order relating to meals; reactions to bombing of Caen; role with US Army in Germany. Aspects of period as civilian with Free French Forces attached to US Army in Germany, 1945: help given to inmates and scenes in Dachau concentration camp; setting-up of displaced persons camp including background of inmates; activities of inmates including discovery of British officers; setting-up of medical facilities by Serbian inmates.
REEL 6 Continues: request of American troops to provide prostitutes and imaginative reaction; story of road accident; wounding of hand and treatment received; involvement in getting correct food into Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp; scenes on arrival at camp; knowledge of Holocaust during war; background to setting-up and details of marriage office in displaced persons camp; opinion of Hitler's mental state and of reasons for Second World War.
REEL 7 Continues: method devised to disembark pregnant women from landing craft including trick played on Colonel Spam; opinion of help gained by gender; opinion of link between death and sex during war; cigarette rations; father's reaction to Munich Agreement; opinion of 2003 Iraq War; attitude to feminism; Quaker family background including involvement in improving asylums and contact with Friends' Ambulance Unit during war; opinion of war service; memories of General De Gaulle; reflections on modern conflicts.