Sams, Doug (Oral history)

British NCO served with 3 Bulk Petrol Coy, Royal Army Service Corps in GB, France, North Africa and Middle East, 1940-1942; served with various RASC units in Middle East, North Africa and GB, 1943-1946

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Openshaw, Manchester and York, 1918-1939: family background and social circumstances; food; clothes; education affected by consumptive illness; family involvement in Labour Party politics; opinion of William Wedgewood Benn MP; brother's homemade radio; opinion of Joe Compton MP; question of working on railways; work as apprentice fitter, 1933-1934; training as apprentice French polisher, 1934-1939; studying economics as night schools, 1936-1939; question of awareness of rise of Hitler and approach of war; car ownership. REEL 2 Continues: reactions to outbreak of war during holiday in Wales, 3/9/1939; move to Acomb, York, 9/1939; background to reduced medical classification, question of recruitment into RAF and call up to Royal Army Service Corps, 12/1939. Period of basic training with Driver Training Unit, RASC, Margate, reception; hotel billets; kitting out; food rations; drill; relationship with instructors and recruits; weapons training; PT; driver training in lorry; role assisting in driver training; attitude to army service; visits to pubs; preparations for kit inspections. REEL 3 Recollections of period with C Platoon, No 3 Bulk Petrol Coy, RASC, Ramsgate, 2/1940-3/1940: opinion of officers and NCOs; unit role supplying petrol on active service; nature of petrol tankers and filling up at oil refinery; ruse to secure extra petrol for balck market; composition of unit and MT provision; learning to ride motorcycle; role as convoy controller stopping civilian traffic; story of collection of MT vehicles in convoy from Aldershot promotion to lance corporal; size of petrol tankers; ; background to promotion to corporal; billets and headquarters; training programme on petrol tankers and driving in convoy; role as despatch rider; role as corporal; relationship with ORs and NCOs; standby status, 3/1940. Recollections of operations in France, 3/1940-5/1940: Channel crossing; disembarkation at Dunkirk; impressions of French Army. REEL 4 Continues: move to establish unit headquarters at Hotel Angleterre, Honfleur; factory billets; supervising routine maintenance programme; PT; relationship with French civilians; situation and deployment of C Platoon to provide fuel for retreating units, 5/1940; incident of French shooting collaborators; move to St Pol area; view of German air raids; difficulty in controlling refugee traffic; departure of officer on reconnaissance; story of being sighted by German spotter aircraft; story of surprise attack by German armoured cars and capture of petrol tankers; escape on motorcycles; ignored warnings to officer of approach of German armoured cars; sleeping in burnt out car; German air raids; story of assistance from medical unit and unsympathetic officer; crossing bridge at Dieppe; rejoining unit at Honfleur. REEL 5 Continues: segregation and debriefing interview on rejoining unit; confinement to barracks; story of last visit to French girlfriend; move in convoy to Le Mans airfield; destruction of petrol tankers; journey by lorry to Cherbourg; units present; remaining with rear party of evacuation; reactions to news of Italy joining war, 10/1940; dumping vehicles in sea; evacuation aboard Belgian tramp steamer; attack by German bomber; crossing to Southampton; reception and move to Northwich; leave; effects of active service and personal morale. Recollections of period at Liversedge, ca 6/1940-8/1940: church billets; unit reorganisation and promotion to sergeant; attending drill course with Grenadier Guards in London, including nature of course, uniform adaptations, enjoyment of drill, preparing for kit inspections and value of discipline. Recollections of period at Stoke Newington, London, ca 8/1940-11/1940: steaming out petrol tankers to be used as water tankers; role as coordinator directing water tankers around area; helping in cellar bar during German air raids; factory billet; civilian use of tube trains and stations during German air raids. REEL 6 Continues: effects of air raids; role ensuring water supply. Period at Liversedge, ca 11/1940-1/1941: training; diarrhoea outbreak; question of overseas posting; story of attending party whilst on standby for Middle East posting. Voyage aboard Orion to Port Suez; ca 1/1941-3/1941: conditions; route; story of hospitality of South African civilian during leave at Capetown, South Africa; vaccinations; convoy escort; daily routine; U boat and air threat; stop at Freetown, Sierre Leone; reactions to treatment of Egyptian dock labourers during disembarkation at Port Suez. Period at El Terhag Transit Camp, ca 23/1941: effects of climate; tent accommodation. REEL 7 Continues: story illustrating effects of heat exhaustion in desert; lectures; steaming out petrol tankers to be uses as water tankers at Tel el Kabir depot; problems with large tankers in desert driving conditions; nature of desert roads; German lessons. Recollections of operations in Western Desert, ca 3/1941-4/1941: officers use of jeeps; sand channels used to unditch MT in soft sand; relationship with officer; story of acting as messenger to 'A' Platoon during retreat from Tobruk, 4/1941; Buk Buk well water point; minimal role; dummy tanks; withdrawal of unit to Palestine. Period at Haifa, Palestine, ca 4/1941-7/1941: Arab/Jewish political situation; training in desert navigation. Detachment of C Platoon to Weygand Barrack, Beirut, Lebanon, ca 7/1941-8/1941: nature of barracks; presence of field bakery. REEL 8 Continues: re-conversion to petrol tankers; petrol supply route to Damascus, Syria; supervising routine maintenance programme; problems with engine sand filters; leaving unit. Aspects of period with TA RASC unit in Western Desert, ca 8/1942-12/1942: reception and desert training role; nature of Chevrolet lorries; supply role; equipment with water tankers and role refilling units rubber ring reserve water tanks; food rations and cooking arrangements; forward role organising artillery ammunition supplies behind EL Alamein lines; German shell fire; effects of gunfire on hearing; nature of Stuka raids; shell shock case. REEL 9 Continues: effects of artillery barrage, 10/1942; detachment on motorised infantry role with 9th Australian Div; combatant status and prior weapons training; aftermath of fighting following advance to Fuka airfield; situation; advance to EL Adem airfield; leaving unit. Aspects of period with 1534 Light Artillery Battery, Royal Artillery, ca 12/1942-7/1943: composition and role of unit; story of close escape from Messchermitdt ground strafing at Buk Buk wells; story of rescue of pilot landed in minefield; advance to Mareth; story of detachment with convoy carrying infantry mortar ammunition forward; detachment on motorised infantry role with Ghurkha unit of 4th Indian Div, ca 3/1943. REEL 10 Continues: detachment on motorised infantry role with Ghurkha unit of 4th Indian Div, ca 3/1943, including German bombing passing through Gabes Gap, situation, story of minefield casualty and rejoining unit; driving with convoy to Tel el Kabir, 7/1943. Period with Transport Coy, RASC in Lebanon, 7/1943: move to Aleppo; wearing civilian clothes and preparations for entry into Turkey; background to accepting administrative staff role. Recollections of period with 84 Base Sub Area, Headquarters, Ninth Army, Beirut, Lebanon, 1943-1944: role coordinating transport requirements with Transport Coys and stories of duties; conditions of service and lifestyle; relationship with Lebanese civilian workers; story of arrival of general following rise in tension with Free French community; return to Egypt, 1944. Effects of storm during voyage to GB, 1944. REEL 11 Aspects of period in GB, 1944-1946: leave; duties as guard commander with Leeds Military Prison; nature of prisoners; story of successful measures to counter threatened riot, subsequent breakout and patrols to recapture prisoners; role on posting to MT section, Supply Replenishment Depot, Abingdon; meeting future wife; demobilisation, 1946. Post-war career: work as French polisher and night school teacher; acclimatisation to civilian lifestyle; effects of war service.