Description
Object description
British signaller served with A Troop, 425 Bty, 107th Regt, <South Notts Hussars> Royal Artillery in GB, Palestine and North Africa, 1938-1942; POW in Italy and Germany, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Radford, Nottingham, 1917-1939: social conditions; education; work at iron foundry, hosiery factory and as bus conductor; Boy Scouts' activities. Recruitment and training as signaller with 425 Bty, 107th Regt, <South Notts Hussars> Royal Artillery at Derby Road Drill Hall, Nottingham, 4/2/1938-3/9/1939: original intention of joining Royal Corps of Signals; uniform; training in Morse code and phonetic alphabet; drill; weekend training exercises including use of radio and telephone line to link observation post and gun position; opinion of various ORs, NCOs and officers including Sergeant Jack Gore; nicknames; journey to Larkhill for King's Cup competition.
REEL 2 Continues: attending Redesdale Camp including role as signallers, relationship with 426 Bty; participation in King's Cup competition, 1938; reaction to Munich crisis, 9/1939; posting to A Troop; attending Redesdale Camp, 6/1939; question of approach of war. Mobilisation and initial period at Hollins Lace Factory, Garden Street, Nottingham, 9/1939: question of role with key party; story of short sighted gunner passing medical; drinking in pubs; problem with low personal weight; opinion of Medical Officer J Finnegan; status of signallers. Recollections of periods at Scampston, Wragby and Holton cum Beckering, 9/1939-1/1940: reception from SNH band at Rillington; opinion of food rations; billet; story of evading kit inspections as signaller; story of new recruit taking bed; opinion of drafts of conscripts and regulars; learning to drive including overuse of clutch and double de-clutching.
REEL 3 Continues: effects of vaccinations. Recollections of journey to Palestine, 1/1940: codes employed in letters to inform relatives as to destination; embarkation at Southampton; crossing Channel; cigarette ration; card games; visit to Cherbourg, France; train journey to Marseilles; voyage aboard HMT Devonshire; meningitis outbreak. Various aspects of period in Palestine, 2/1940-6/1940: attending horse riding course at Wragby, 12/1939; mosquito problem; question of being charged for not shaving at Asluj Firing Camp.
REEL 4 Rail journey to Mersa Matruh, Egypt, 6/1940. Aspects of period at Mersa Matruh, 6/1940-1/1941: digging slit trench; reaction to high level Italian air raids; duties as signaller; question of food rations and lack of specialist cooks; opinion of various officers including Major Peter Birkin and question of his homosexuality; recreations and question of gambling; Christmas celebrations, 25/12/1940; sandstorms; blood poisoning from desert sore and hospitalisation in Cairo; importance of returning to unit. Period in Suez Canal area, 1/1941-4/1941: magnetic mine spotting on Suez Canal; visit to brothel; training for invasion of Rhodes including carrying signals equipment and story of landing practice; opinion of Sergeant Major Jim Hardy.
REEL 5 Continues: reaction to re-equipment with 25pdrs and Quad gun towers. Drive to Tobruk, Libya, 4/1941. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during period in Tobruk, 4/1941-12/1941: initial attachment as signaller to Major Peter Birkin and Captain Graham Slinn; story of coming under sniper fire during truck reconnaissance patrol, ca 4/1941; Stuka dive bomber raids and question of personal morale; static nature of gunners duty; role as linesman maintaining telephone lines to OPs based on mid-line dugout; period on duty at OPs including method of giving firing orders and nature of OP poles; dispute with Captain William Pringle over behaviour on visiting gun position and consequent posting to Sergeant Flint's gun team; 25pdr gun drill; relationship with gun team.
REEL 6 Continues: pulling through guns; dugout; playing cards; food, water and rum rations; recreations including visit to rest camp; stories illustrating stress amongst ORs; use of captured Italian artillery; opinion of Australian troops and opinion they were mainly ex-convicts; accidentally firing unloaded guns; reaction to noise of guns; circumstances of return to signals duties; origin of signallers' nicknames; story of officer accidentally using signaller's nickname; stories of desert faunae including gunner bitten by scorpion, brown rat kept as pet and shooting at jerboas; method of making tea when in convoy.
REEL 7 Continues: state of health including constipation; breakout operations, 11/1941-12/1941, including waiting for code word to start operation, preparations, German coffin mines, use of tapes to mark gaps in wire, laying telephone wire behind 1st Bn, Durham Light Infantry during advance, German small arms fire and question of importance of smoking in maintaining personal morale; party at Tmimi; concert parties in cave. Period in Egypt, 1/1942-4/1942: making tea on train; relationship with Egyptian women during leave in Alexandria; opinion of Troop Sergeant Major Jack Gore; regimental football matches; opinion of various NCOs; new radio sets; decorating guns.
REEL 8 Continues: stealing from NAAFI. Move to Knightsbridge sector, Gazala area, 4/1942-5/1942. Recollections of Knightsbridge action, 5/6/1942-6/6/1942: wireless messages concerning withdrawal; barrage before moving forward into Cauldron, 5/6/1942; role as bombardier in assisting Captain Jack Attewell in distribution of ration; use of Indian dialect phrases; casualty and effects of German air burst shelling; question of digging in; situation; wireless messages concerning withdrawal; German flares surrounding position; personal morale; role collecting casualties and taking them to regimental aid position; dispute with Major Robert Daniell over joining gun crew; view of German tank; firing gun unaimed; receiving slight head wound.
REEL 9 Continues: effects of slight head wound and medical treatment; situation; surrender. Journey by truck, via various camps to Trig Tarhuna POW Camp, 6/1942-8/1942: question of uniform and kit; RAF air raid in minefield sector treatment by German NCO; transfer to Italian guards; question of bartering for water; discovering minor nature of head wound; dysentery cases; learning bridge. Voyage to Naples, Italy, 4/8/1942: latrines; rats; injury to Gunner Sam Hill; speaking Italian; food; reception from Italian civilians. Period at Capua POW Camp, 8/1942-10/1942: story of entering boxing match for extra food.
REEL 10 Continues: story of entering boxing match for extra food. question of personal weight. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine at PG 53 POW Camp, Macerata, 10/1942-5/1943: question of over crowding; hut accommodation; food; Red Cross parcels; parcels from GB; bartering with chocolate and cigarettes; KLIM tin clock; use of wood and KLIM tin blowers to brew tea; stories of stealing wood from Italian guards; organisation of POWs; question of escape; role in editing camp broadsheet newspaper; football activities.
REEL 11 Continues: sea bathing trip; relationship with Italian guards and story of POW being shot. Period on working party in rice fields in Garbagna sector, Po area, 5/1942-7/1943. Period with working party digging canal based at Garsino POW Camp, Turin area, 8/1943-9/1943: news of Italian surrender; conditions; departure of Italian guards; raiding canteen; escape due to news of German approach. Period as escaped POW in Turin area, 9/1943-1/1944: initial accommodation in derelict farmhouse; food supply from Italian civilians; treatment for malaria by Italian doctor; question of notification of parents of POW status; accommodation with Italian woman in Covaretto, Turin; stories illustrating relative freedom of movement; story of re-capture by German troops, 1/1944; question of subsequent treatment of Italian woman; refusal to give any information during interrogation at San Paola Prison, 1/1944; civilian clothes worn.
REEL 12 Period at Mantova, 1/1944-2/1944: work cleaning offices; suspicion as to authenticity of re-captured POW. Train journey via Austria to Germany, 2/1944: latrine arrangements; makeshift cigarettes; air raid whilst in marshalling yards. Recollections of conditions and lifestyle during period at Stalag IV B, ??? 2/1944-3/1944: situation; delousing showers; conditions as friend of senior NCO; homosexual servant; story of football match attended by men dressed as women; account of role in organising 'blue flame' farting contests; well organised nature of German camps.
REEL 13 Continues: -relationship with German guards. Period at Stalag IV F at Penig, 3/1944-12/1944: description of production process during work at paper making factory; question of sabotage; relationship with German civilian workers; use of paper for fancy dress at Christmas, 25/12/1944; camp canteen and dispute over beer; skiing on coal storage stack; deliberately breaking saws and consequent sending to punishment camp. Recollections of conditions at Steinbruck Quarry POW Camp, Bergstadt, ca 1/1945-3/1945: work loading skips with stone; ersatz coffee; food rations; uniform; use of quarry as German training area; indications of approach of Soviet and US forces; escape by walking out of camp unopposed and meeting US troops, ca 3/1945.
REEL 14 Conditions during period with US troops, 3/1945. Journey to British Headquarters in Belgium, 3/1945-4/1945: route; reception and status as missing person. Flight back to GB, 13/4/1945. Leave in Nottingham, 4/1945-9/1945: clash with Military Police over being improperly dressed; amusing story of visiting pub after five years and generosity of landlord; question of mental effects of war service; VE Day, 8/5/1945. Various postings, 8/1945-12/1946: passing driving test at rehabilitation camp; posting as lance bombardier to Royal Army Ordnance Corps camp in Herefordshire area; case of soldiers working part time in local cider factory; posting to camouflage school; posting to Chillwall Ordnance Depot; story of getting married, 10/1945.
REEL 15 Demobilisation, 1/1/1946. Post-war career: Post-war service with 425 Bty, 307 Regt <SNH> RA, 1947-1967: reasons for rejoining as signaller; promotion to sergeant major; question of comradeship and importance of SNH Regimental Association.