Description
Object description
British NCO served with 4 Troop, No.2 Commando during raids on Vaagso, Norway, 12/1941 and St Nazaire, France, 3/1942.
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of training with No. 2 Commando in GB, 1941-1942: description of training for raiding parties at Paignton and combined exercises with Royal Navy; posted to 4 Troop in Lockerbie, Scotland; amusing story about blowing up wall; description of training including rock climbing, mountaineering and field craft; character of commandos; story of capturing regular army HQ during training exercise; opinion of Royal Marines; role in recruitment drive for commandos in Lancashire; billets in Ayr; sailed on ferry to Scapa Flow and transferred to HQ ship HMS Kenya. Aspects of operations with 4 Troop, No.2 Commando during raid on Vaagso, Norway, 27/Dec/1941: reason for raid and objectives; description of voyage to Vaagso; reason for raid being postponed from Boxing Day; role of 4 Troop as floating reserve; embarked on landing craft; description of HMS Kenya firing barrage; ordered in to support No. 3 Commando; description of landing on Vaagso and casualties; role in mopping up and securing embarkation point.
REEL 2 Continues: description of street fighting training in bombed out areas of Plymouth; opinion of Germans in Vaagso; reaction of civilians in Vaagso to raid; description of town; duration of raid; attitude to street fighting; story about capture of German soldier feigning death; casualties in 4 Troop; opinion of German resistance; returned to Ayr on New Year's Eve, 1942. Aspects of training with 4 Troop, No. 2 Commando in GB, 1-3/1942: opinion of press coverage of raid; story of seeing self on newsreel; effect of raid on German strategy; story of refusing commission in regular army; promoted to troop sergeant- major; relations between officers and men; role of 4 Troop in St Nazaire raid as part of protection force for demolition parties; opinion of rehearsal exercise in Plymouth; amphibious training with motor launches on Scilly Isles; description of briefing on model of St Nazaire dock.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of briefing and preparations for St Nazaire Raid; opinion of CO Col Newman; question of commando officers leading from the front; sailed from Ayr to Falmouth and billeted aboard Princess Josephine Charlotte; further description of training with motor launches on Scilly Isles. Aspects of operations with 4 Troop, No. 2 Commando during raid on St Nazaire, France, 28-29/Mar/1942: description of ML 156 fitted with torpedo tubes instead of petrol tanks; position in starboard column; story of ML 156 hitting bridge and knocking out steering gear; reason for throwing bag of grenades overboard; story of giving Dickie Hooper morphine after being wounded; description of fitting emergency tiller onto ML 156; reaction to seeing other motor launches on fire; attitude to lack of air cover; casualties caused by shrapnel; problem of not being able to land ML 156; story of attacking coastal vessel; description of withdrawal to emergency rendezvous point and embarkation aboard destroyer; description of ML 156 being bombed by German plane; medical treatment for minor wounds; casualties in ML 156.
REEL 4 Continues: reason for using reserve petrol tanks on ML 156; description of firing on searchlights; opinion of using motor launches for raid and problem of not being able to land; attitude to casualties; story of being given option by Mountbatten of not going on raid; story of persuading commando to go on raid and reaction to subsequent death; description of commando knife hit by shrapnel and loss of Very light pistol and case on ML 156.