Description
Object description
British NCO wireless operator served with forward headquarters of RAF, Sicily, 1943; served with 225 Sdn, RAF and Headquarters, 285 Wing in Italy. 1943-1945; served with RAF in Palestine, Iraq and GB, 1945-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Peckham, London, 1923-1943: Jewish family background and social circumstances; education including anti-Semitism, sporting activities, OTC training and annual camp; membership of Pioneer Peckham Health Centre; activities with Jewish Lads Brigade; comics; awareness of veteran beggars; arrival of Jarrow marchers; father's supply of shoes to one-legged veterans; awareness of First World War, 1914-1918; question of awareness of Nazi Germany and approach of war; work learning trade in shoe factory, 1938-1939.
REEL 2 Continues: reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; work in father's shoe shop, 1939-1942; Anderson shelter; issue of pub cellar as air raid shelter; blackout; 'Phoney War' period; food rationing and black market; reactions to Dunkirk evacuation, 6/1940; effects of German air raids and prior view of Battle of Britain; fire watching; personal morale; brother's call up; recreations; volunteering to join RAF. 1941, including attitude of father, prior learning to drive, medical and acceptance for training as wireless operator; deferred call up, 2/1942.
REEL 3 Period at RAF Reception Centre, Padgate, 2/1942: kitting out; tent accommodation; allowance from father; aptitude test. Period at RAF Reception Centre, Blackpool, ca 2/1942-4/1942: billets; drill; weapons training; PT; relationship with recruits and instructors including question of anti-Semitism; beach rugger and boxing; curfew; visits to relatives; drinking habits. Period wireless training at Compton Bassett, 4/1942-11/1942: wireless theory; Morse code, signal procedure and 'Q' cipher code; question of wireless telephony; PT; passing out as Aircraftman 1st Class wireless operator; question of remustering as wireless operator/air gunner; embarkation leave and parents' reaction. Kitting out with tropical kit for overseas service at Blackpool, 12/1942.
REEL 4 Voyage aboard Queen Mary to Port Suez, Egypt, 12/1942: cabin accommodation; food arrangements; unrationed shops; sailing alone; visit to Freetown, Sierra Leone; cutting hair; recreations; route; story of fight with anti-Semitic Canadian NCO. Periods at Transit Camps at Port Suez and Cairo area, 12/1942-1/1943: first impressions; tent accommodation; story of meeting brother; acclimatisation; move to Cairo; stories illustrating prevalence of stealing amongst Egyptian civilians; father's financial support; visit to Pyramids; question of stomach problems; continuation of wireless training. Period at No 3 Commando Training Centre, Hadera, Palestine, 2/1943-4/1943: reception; nature of training; unarmed combat; landing craft training; route marches.
REEL 4 Continues: stories of train journey from Cairo; stories of special Passover leave granted as Jewish serviceman including relationship with Jewish civilians and visits to Tel Aviv, Yiddish used by Scottish Jewish soldier, attitude to Jewish nationalism and arrest as suspected deserter by MPs; return to Cairo. Period with No 2 F F Headquarters, RAF at Almaza Camp, Egypt, 4/1943: reduced level of kit; volunteering as lorry driver. Drive in convoy to Tripoli, Libya, 5/1943: camouflaging lorry; drinking Italian wine. Aspect's of operation on Sicily, Italy, 7/1943: voyage via Malta; unit role to capture German airfields.
REEL 6 Continues: transport on Landing Craft Tanks (LCT); waterproofing lorry; rough seas and seasickness; shore bombardment; rum ration; landing at Passero, 10/7/1943; absence of Italian resistance; story of meeting brother; composite food rations; initial lack of movement; German night bombing and slit trenches; minimal duties; water supply; sniping casualty; view of DUKWs; move to Mount Etna area; dental treatment; relationship with Sicilian civilians; composition of unit; driving wireless lorry to Messina; waterproofing lorry prior to embarkations on Landing Ship Tank (LST). Recollections of landing and subsequent operations attached to advanced headquarters of 225 Sqdn, RAF at Salerno, Italy, 1943: personal morale; role as wireless operator; German shell fire during beach landing, 9/9/1943; performance of Royal Navy; terrain.
REEL 7 Continues: joining AHQ; inadequacy of selected landing ground and consequent lack of role; digging slit trench; mosquito problem and failure to take mepacrine; role of army air liaison officers and army cooperation role of 225 Sqdn; composition of AHQ; inability to land aircraft and consequent minimal role; wireless call signs; situation; hospitalisation with malaria at 92nd General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps, Naples area; visit to Pompei; rejoining unit at Pompegarno; billets; minimal duties; visits to Naples and relationship with Italian civilians; malaria relapse and hospitalisation. Recollections of period attached to Headquarters, 285 Wing, RAF in Italy, 1943-1945: joining unit at Yaasteo; mobile role as wireless operator housed in lorry; use of 'Q' and 'X' cipher codes; storm damage; composition of HQ.
REEL 8 Continues: move to Adriatic coast; cipher arrangements; volunteering for detachment in wireless armoured car on air artillery observation role; nature of White armoured car; generator to recharge wireless batteries; nature of typical artillery observation mission including prior meteorological reports, location near guns, establishing VHF wireless telephony contact with Spitfire, locating target, dummy run, role of second covering Spitfire, firing gun and pilot corrections using bracketing system, frequency and effectiveness of missions, counter-battery officer's list of targets, cipher coding, air situation, German ability to locate origin of Morse code transmissions, consequent shell fire and move out of artillery range before transmissions; difficulties in cooperation with Polish Corps; winter conditions; liaison with Canadian Corps, 12/1944; black market activities.
REEL 9 Continues: prior detachment during Monte Cassino campaign; quiet situation during winter, 1944-1945; introduction new long range Spitfire armed with 500lb bomb used to directly attack German batteries; relationship with corporal wireless operator; relationship with Royal Artillery personnel; rest periods and recreations.; VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; German POWs sent to North Africa; rejoining HQ, 285 Wing; move to Udine; leave in Venice; cricket activities; minimal activities; background to voting during General Election, 7/1945; flight to Taranto. Voyage aboard Ville de Oran to Alexandria, Egypt, 9/1945: presence aboard of VIP Jewish refugees dropped off at Haifa, Palestine; food; drive in convoy across Sinai Desert. Period at Petah Tikua and Quastina airfields, Palestine, 9/1945. Period at Habbanniyah, Iraq, 10/1945-3/1946: drive from Palestine; health problems and hospitalisation.
REEL 10 Continues: hospitalisation; duties as wireless operator communicating with troop carrying aircraft; recreations; conditions of service and Iraqi servant. Currency transaction during journey back to GB, 3/1946. Period at Witton and Warboys, 3/1946-9/1946: disembarkation leave; minimal duties; driving duties and story of gaining licence; demobilisation and demob suit, 9/1946. Post-war career: return to work for family shoe shops; acclimatisation to civilian lifestyle; question of joining Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen; story of joining 225 Sqdn Assoc, 2007.
