Interview with Robert Bonner

British officer served with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, 4th Infantry Bde, British Army of the Rhine in Germany and GB, 9/1948-5/1951; served with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, Malaya Command in Federation of Malaya, 6/1951-6/1953

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Perth, GB, 1928-1945: family; membership of Boy Scout Movement; education; athletics activities; memories of declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; following progress of war; Boy Scouts' role in distribution of gasmasks and reception of evacuated children; presence of Free Polish troops in area; celebrations at end of Second World War, 1945. Recollections of period with 29th Infantry Junior Leaders Bn at Blackdown Camp, GB, 2/1946-8/1946: enlistment in Black Watch (Royal Highland Regt), 12/1945; role of unit; reception and hutted accommodation; kitting out; rations; drill; physical training including assault course, route marches and cross-country runs; weapons training including rifle, Bren Hun, Ordnance SBML 2 Inch Mortar, grenades and bayonet. REEL 2 Continues: education; selection process; tactical training; preparation for room and kit inspections; relations with recruits and instructors; question of homesickness; selection of potential officers; canteens and visits to Deepcut Barracks; posting as officer cadet to No 127 Officer Cadet Training Unit, Trentham Park, GB, 8/1946-9/1946. Aspects of period attending War Office Selection Board, Westbury, GB, 9/1946: command tests; discussion groups. Aspects of period as officer with Royal Army Education Corps, Salisbury Plain, GB, 10/1946-12/1946: effects of severe winter. REEL 3 Continues: lectures from officers of Army Bureau of Current Affairs and question of their socialist bias. Recollections of period as cadet with Inkerman Coy, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Camberley, GB, 1/1947-8/1948: role as first post-war intake; initial accommodation in New College; military history lectures including lectures given by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; German language lessons; mathematics courses; learning to drive; opinion of Regimental Sergeant-Major Brandt; sand table models; Tactical Exercises With Troops (Tewts); nature of three day tactical exercises; liaison visits to Royal Navy and Royal Air Force; exchange visits with French and American cadets; photography hobby; relations with instructors; visit with tutor to visit senior German officer prisoners of war; training in behaviour as officer. REEL 4 Continues: role of college servants; relations with other cadets; assessment process and final examinations; social life and recreational activities; passing out parade and ball; necessity to have private means to be commissioned in Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment); selection and acceptance for commission in Manchester Regiment; kitting out as officer at regimental tailor; reporting to Manchester Regiment at Dunham Park Camp, Altrincham, 9/1948-9/1948. Recollections of period as officer with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, 4th Infantry Bde, Anglesey Barracks, Wuppertal, British Army of the Rhine, Germany, 9/1948-3/1950: journey from GB to Germany; initial impression on posting to 4 Platoon, C Coy; nature of officers' mess; platoon training. REEL 5 Continues: platoon training and exercise in Wuppertal area; relations with NCOs and Other Ranks; divisional exercises in Sennelager Training Area; composition of Support Coy; internal security role; deployment to cover French dismantling of coal-oil installation as part of war reparations in Oberhausen; internal security training; story of collecting regimental silver from Hamburg; nature of officers' mess guest nights including mess games and drinking habits. REEL 6 Continues: attending Ordnance BL 3 Mortar course at School of Infantry, Warminster including importance of speed in deployment and learning to drive Universal Carrier; posting to command Mortar Platoon in Support Coy; relations with NCOs; opinion of Major Jake Newton, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Archdale and Lieutenant-Colonel George Frampton; reputation of unit; field firing Ordnance ML 3 Mortar on Sennelager Training Area. Recollections of period as officer with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, British Troops Berlin at Wavell Barracks, Spandau, Berlin, 4/1950-4/1951: nature of barracks; exercises to counter possible Soviet invasion of Berlin; move up to take up positions near Brandenburg Gate during period of tension, 5/1950; question of street fighting training; question of evacuation of British families; relations with German civilian camp workers. REEL 7 Continues: relations with German civilians and learning German language; sporting activities and role as athletics officer; recreational activities; administration and guard arrangements for Spandau Prison; story of officer exercising horse being arrested by East Germans; question of relations with American and French authorities; question of overseas posting; preparations for handover. Aspects of period as officer with 1st Bn Manchester Regt in Dale Barracks, Chester, GB, 4/1951-5/1951: hutted accommodation; reception of National Service drafts; opinion of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Woolsey; reception on exercising battalion right to march through Manchester, 11/5/1951. REEL 8 Continues: question of deployment to South Korea or Federation of Malaya; reception and training of National Service recruits. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Empire Halladale from GB to Singapore, Malaya, 5/1951-6/1951: shipboard training; conditions on board; captain's inspection; visits ashore; reception by advance party. Aspects of period as officer with 1st Bn Manchester Regt at Selarang Barracks, Singapore, Federation of Malaya, 6/1951-7/1951: nature of barracks; role of Indian contractor providing char wallahs; acclimatisation and jungle training; state of Mortar Platoon and question of role in jungle; social life and recreational activities. Recollections of operations as officer with 1st Bn Manchester Regt, Malaya Command, Federation of Malaya, 7/1951-5/1953: conditions during voyage aboard Landing Ship Tank (LST) to Perai; posting as second in command of C Coy; precaution necessary on lorry journey to Kroh near frontier with Thailand; role of British District Officer and Federation of Malaya Police officer. REEL 9 Continues: nature of camp compound and tented accommodation; mosquito and malaria precautions; rations; water supply; latrines; relieving Gurkha unit; daily intelligence meetings at Federation of Malaya Police local headquarters and subsequent briefings of platoon commanders; administrative role as second in command; opinion of National Service officers; nature of typical jungle patrols including avoidance of routine; story of setting abortive ambush for Malayan National Liberation Army insurgent, size and armament of patrol, single file formation, nature of jungle vegetation, leech problem and use of Dyak guides. REEL 10 Continues: overnight bivouacs, discovery of former Malayan National Liberation Army camps and bivouacs, question of contacts with Malayan National Liberation Army insurgents, length of patrol and debriefings; importance of co-operation with Federation of Malaya Police; role on detachment as liaison officer to Federation of Malaya Police in Alor Star; nature of intelligence sources including photographs of known insurgents and briefing military personnel; state internal security meetings; enjoyment of liaison role and social life; accompanying Federation of Malaya Police patrols; replacement of unit with Malay Regiment; posting back to Mortar Platoon, Support Coy; situation and dispositions on move to Pandang Terap District, Kedah, 4/1952. REEL 11 Continues: replacement of time-expired National Service drafts and consequent necessity for retraining; background to ambush of patrol of D Coy based in Cameron Highlands, 19/6/1952; role of Mortar Platoon in support of large scale operations against identified Malayan National Liberation Army camps; story of contact with Malayan National Liberation Army insurgents whilst accompanying Federation of Malaya Police patrol; story of ambush of patrol and their successful reaction; success of internal security operations; move to Penang Island; period of retraining in basic military skills; background to posting back to GB, 6/1953. Aspects of period as officer with Manchester Regiment in GB and West Germany, 1954-1958: role as adjutant of Manchester Regiment Regimental Depot, Ladysmith Barracks, Ashton-under-Lyne, GB, 1954-1955; period with B Coy, 1st Bn Manchester Regt at Minden, West Germany, 1956-1958, including question of Soviet threat, dispute between unit and brigadier and reaction to amalgamation of Manchester Regiment and King's Regiment (Liverpool); subsequent success of amalgamation. REEL 12 Continues: decision to leave British Army, 1958; successful role as chairman of Regimental Museum of Manchester Regiment at Ashton-under-Lyne, GB, 1986-2007,