Description
Object description
British NCO served with 174 Bty, Durham Heavy Regt, Royal Artillery and 267 Bty, 511 Coast Regt, RA at Heugh Battery, Hartlepool, 1939-1943. Served as able seaman aboard HMS Archer, 1943-1944; served as gunner's yeoman aboard HMS Cowdray, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in West Hartlepool, 1921-1939: social circumstances; children's games; education; Boy Scouts and Boys Brigade activities; work as lorry driver's assistant, 1935; return to school, 1935-193; work as butcher's boy and apprentice, 1937-1939. Recollections of training with 174 Bty, Durham Heavy Regt, Royal Artillery and 267 Bty, 511th Coast Regt, RA, Armoury, West Hartlepool, 5/1938-8/1939: background to recruitment with friend; kitting out including puttees and riding breeches; training on dummy breech loader for 6" gun; drill.
REEL 2 Continues: cleaning rifle; weekend camps at Heugh Battery, Hartlepool and South Gare Battery, Redcar including training as loader, datum board aiming system and firing on .22 rifle range; visits to neighbouring batteries; annual camp at Kinghorn Battery, 8/1938, including tent accommodation, firing 6" gun, use of 3" and 1" bore inserts, church parade and taking up smoking; call up to Heugh Battery during Munich crisis, 9/1939, including billets, pay and allowances and gas chamber test; awareness of approach of war; opinion of various officers and NCOs; annual camp at Spanish Battery and Tynemouth Castle, 8/1939; circumstances of father's attachment to unit.
REEL 3 Continues: mobilisation, 23/8/1939. Recollections of period with 267 Bty, 511th Coast Regt, RA at Heugh Battery, Hartlepool, 8/1939-1943: attachment of regular maintenance gunner; billets; food rations and initial role as butcher; location of 6" guns; Lewis gun anti-aircraft duty; attending weapons training course at Catterick Camp, including opinion of Bren gun, Browning automatic AA rifle, Thompson Sub machine gun, Sten gun, Blacker bombard spigot mortar and revolver; promotion to lance bombardier as weapons instructor; gun team roles; morning parade; daily routine on 6" gun team including initial checks, use of clinometers, lectures, recreations and cleaning gun.
REEL 4 Continues: routine duties; sentry guard duty and story of sentry shooting donkey; story of gunner's dogs; story of gunner stealing coal and cigarettes; singing in pubs; story of being late back into camp; hut accommodation; outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; German air attack on port control vessel and unit claim to have shot it down with Lewis gun; effects of German air raids; German POW; attending lance bombardiers' course; shell types; attending PT course; building assault course for unit; promotion to bombardier, 1941; opinion of various officers; background to marriage, 11/1941.
REEL 5 Continues: nature of Commando course at Bellerby Moor Camp, Leyburn including fatalities, live firing, house to house fighting and story of problems getting back to camp from leave during snow storm; question of promotion to sergeant and gradual disbandment of unit; re-equipment with Mark XXIV 6" high angle gun; rejection on volunteering for airborne service; story of firing warning shot at ship evading examination vessel; volunteering to join Royal Navy, ca 1/1943. Periods at Triphibian I, Harrogate and Triphibian II, Blackpool, ca 1/193-2/1943: kitting out; naval drill; lectures. Recollections of period at HMS Ganges Shore Station, Shotley, ca 2/1943-3/1943: first impressions; relationship with instructors; swimming test; naval 6" guns; seamanship training and masthead drill. Period at Gunnery School, Chatham, 1943. Period as able seaman aboard HMS Archer, ca 1943-1944: joining ship at Loch Alsh; nature of ship as escort carrier; role as PT instructor; US facilities and messdeck.
REEL 6 Continues: move for engine repairs at Belfast; decision to convert ship back to merchant ship. Period at Chatham Barracks, 1944. Recollections of service as gunner's yeoman aboard HMS Cowdray, 1944-1945: background to posting; nature of ship; messdeck and hammocks; role as gunlayer on twin 4" guns; sea and gunnery trials at Scapa Flow; opinion of Oerlicken guns; maintenance of 4" guns; question of seasickness; watch system including bridge lookout duties, preparing ship to sail and cleaning; canteen messing system and food; run ration; cocoa; relationship with ratings; story of fight with leading seaman.
REEL 7 Continues: relationship with leading seamen, petty officers and officers. Latrines; washing clothes; recreations; move to Sheerness; role on East Coast convoys; view of V1s; convoys to Antwerp, ca 9/1944, including visit ashore, story of ramming German midget submarine, taking German prisoners aboard ship, hitting submerged wreck and German air raid on Antwerp; repairs and refitting for Far East service and AA rockets fitted to ship; stories of voyage out to Trincomalee, Ceylon via Malta, Suez Canal, Aden and Columbo; recreational visits ashore; VJ day, 8/1945; voyage to Kochin, India; recreational visits ashore.
REEL 8 Continues: move to oiling station, Australia; stories of recreational visits ashore; sweeps to search for ditched pilots and check health of isolated islands in South Pacific and Indian Ocean; starting 'dhobi firm' washing clothes; buying souvenirs and goods for return on GB, 12/1945. Leave and demobilisation, 12/1945-2/1946. Post-war career: reception from baby son on return; return to work as butcher; acclimatisation to civilian lifestyle; question of contacts with old comrades.