Description
Object description
British signal officer and signal staff officer served with Royal Corps of Signals in Iraq and Persia, 1942-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Twickenham, London, 1919-1940: family background and social circumstances; education and OTC training at Merchant Taylors School, City of London and Rickmansworth, 1932-1938; interest in wireless and railways; question of Christian Union activities; interest in photography; work as laboratory assistant on colour processing with photographic film company in Borehamwood, 1938-1940; question of taking regular or territorial commission; outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; filling sandbags, 2/9/1939; effects of war; registering as technician, 4/9/1939; interview at War office and question of commission in Royal Artillery; call up for training and possible commission with Royal Signals. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during training with 1st Operator Training Bn, Royal Signals, Le Cateau Lines, Catterick Camp, 5/1940-11/1940: formation of Officer Cadet Training Unit section.
REEL 2 Continues: reception and kitting out; hut accommodation; morning routine; food rations; drill; relationship with recruits and instructors; learning Morse code; training in use of telephone and heliograph; weapons training including rifle, bayonet and Lewis gun; learning to drive lorry; preparing for kit inspections; discipline; recreations and canteen; question of invasion alert, 15/9/1940. Period at No 1, Royal Signals Officer Cadet Training Unit, Mons Barracks, Aldershot, 11/1940-5/1941: train journey; hut accommodation; lectures; workshop training; wireless training exercises.
REEL 3 Continues: smoking; laying telephone cables; wireless exercises; visits to Ruislip; technical nature of course; status as officer cadets; conduct required of officers; low failure rate; kitting out as officer; commission as officer, 5/1941. Period on advanced course at School of Signals, Catterick and Post Office School, Cambridge, 5/1941-10/1941: nature of course; course on commercial telephone systems; meeting future wife; knowledge of circuits of wireless telegraph equipment and teleprinter; nature of officers' mess and guest nights; view of decoy fires to attract German bombers. Period with No 1 Air Formation Signals, Mersthan, 10/1941-6/1942: unit role as holding unit and supplying signal units to RAF stations; initial officer duties; taking over line section; preparations for overseas postings and issue of tropical kit; question of getting married.
REEL 4 Continues: move with line section to join III Corps Signals at Delamere Camp, Chester, 6/1942. Voyage aboard Abassa to Bombay India, 6/1942-7/1942: conditions; convoy route; visits ashore at Capetown, South Africa. Voyage aboard Neuralia to Basra, Iraq, 7/1942. Recollections of period as with Signal Section in Iraq and Persia, 7/1942-2/1943: first impressions of Basra; move to establish Signals Headquarters at Kermanshah; minimal duties of line section; tent accommodation and personal equipment as officer; terrain; move to Hamdan; situation, 10/1942; move to Suleimen Beg; problems in laying line on poles in Khanaguin sector; move to Mosul to lay lines alongside railway, 1/1943; photographic activities; minimal contact with Iraqi civilians.
REEL 5 Continues: tent accommodation; role of officer's servant; repairs to vehicle; line reconnaissance towards Syria. Recollections of period as staff officer with Signals Dept, Headquarters in Iraq and Persia, 2/1943-5/1946: accommodation at Basra Headquarters; role administering and maintaining telephone lines in area; liaison with Royal Navy; use of personal wireless and receiving BBC broadcasts; organisation of signal staff; drive along River Tigris to check lines; train journey to Baghdad.
REEL 6 Continues: officers' mess and drinking habits; question of contact with Iraqi civilians; contact with former unit during their move to India; situation; malaria problem and question of mosquito precautions; attendance of Chief Signal Officer Colonel Martin at Tehran Conference; hospitalisation with jaundice, 12/1943; local leave in Tehran; move of HQ to Tehran, 12/1943; communications situation; visits to line posts and line system; brewing tea; opinion of CSO Colonels Martin and Watson; question of US supplied aid to Soviet Union.
REEL 7 Continues: question of intelligence system; effect of arrival of US Headquarters in Tehran; relationship with US officers; question of US commercial imperatives; reaction to news of D Day, 6/6/1944; efforts to prevent Persians stealing telephone line copper; story of breakdown in line communications in Southern Persia; picking up U Boat signals; signal staff officers' mess; Polish mess servants; administrative role running signal office on promotion to major (G2 Signals); lifestyle; VE Day, 8/5/1944; arrangements to leave Persia; opinion of CSO Colonel L R C Rogers; closure of Tehran Signal Office; role at Baghdad Signal Office.
REEL 8 Continues: officers' mess in houseboat on Tigris; role; squash activities; GB leave, 11/1945, including stories of journeys and marriage; move back to Basra; role as sole signal staff officer covering Iraq and Persia; speed of withdrawal; sale of telephone lines; personal kit and luggage. Journey back to GB, 5/1946. Period at School of Signals, Catterick Camp, 6/946-5/1947: reversion to captain; role testing new equipment including long life batteries, wireless teleprinter links and Marconi short wave transmitters.
REEL 9 Demobilisation process, 5/1947. Post-war career: question of taking regular commission; missed opportunities to attend university and accelerate career by doing advance wireless course; return to work with photographic firm, 1947-1956; career as engineer with General Electric Company, 1956-1987; advantages of army service experience.
