Description
Object description
British private served with 11th Casualty Clearing Station, Royal Army Medical Corps in France and Belgium, 1940, including evacuation from Dunkirk, 5/1940; craftsman served with Royal Ordnance Corps and Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in GB and North West Europe, 1942-1946
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Birkenhead and Torquay, 1920-1939: family; education; recreational activities; left school at 17; employment; activities with Boy Scouts; enlisted with Territorial Army, 4/1939. Aspects of training with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1939-1940: attitude to Territorial Army and promotion; opinion of medical training in Plymouth; posted to France, 4/1940. Aspects of operations with 11th Casualty Clearing Station, Royal Army Medical Corps in France and Belgium, 4-6/1940: organisation of unit and staff; question of having no military training; landed at Le Havre, 4/1940; moved to Amiens area; reaction to German invasion, 10/May/1940; story of treating case of cerebral meningitis with penicillin; moved into Belgium; treatment of first casualty; memories of refugees and abandoned houses; story of convoy; story of Germans not bombing hospital train; question of displaying Red Cross; treatment of wounded in house; description of conditions on beach at Dunkirk; use of café as temporary hospital; problem of not being able to treat serious injuries; opinion of evacuation from Dunkirk; use of morphine from syringe; duties clearing bodies from beach; attitude to order not to evacuate wounded; description of underground tunnel used for wounded; burial of dead; opinion of chaplains; problem of German fighter attacks.
REEL 2 Continues: story of lone German fighter; explosion of petrol supply wagon; reason for starting smoking; rations; treatment of wounded from Guards Div; walked to Bray Dunes; story of young officer; sheltered in sand dunes; description of evacuation aboard whaler. 30/May/1940; story of rescuing Catholic padre; weather conditions; transferred to destroyer; reason for sleeping on deck; arrived in Dover, GB, 6.00am. Aspects of period with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 6/1940-4/1942: not allowed to talk or smoke; attitude to leaving wounded behind on beach; story of reception by Military Police; period of leave with family; attitude to working in hospital; question of promotion; story of requesting transfer; description of six month radar course with Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 4-10/1942.
REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period with Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers in GB, 10/1942-1944: posted to Bristol; description of duties as radar craftsman at anti-aircraft gun sites; attitude to military life and discipline; further training; accommodation in billets; opinion of rations; courses; qualified as Class 1 Mechanic; posted to No 2 Radar School, Leicester; use of radar against V1 and V2 weapons; daily routine and hours; posted to workshops in Kent; use of heavy guns to shoot down V1 and V2 weapons; role of radar in tracking V1 and V2 weapons; fired 400 rounds in one night; opinion of new American radar technology; success rate in destroying V2 weapons; opinion of effectiveness of RAF in bringing down V1 and V2 weapons; posted to France, autumn 1944. Aspects of operations with Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers in North West Europe, 1944-1945: duties at workshop; learned to drive; story of driving truck to Holland and breakdown; duties with radar group attached to American forces near Liege, Belgium; reaction to be issued with new rifle; moved into forward position following German breakthrough; duties in workshops on airfield; question of having had no military training; description of duties in Germany; story of ill-treatment of German POW at sports ground.
REEL 4 Continues: various memories of German POWs; opinion of Americans; living conditions in Germany; posted to Hamburg; duties dismantling radar and radios from captured tanks and vehicles; story of helping German POW; opinion of Germans; VE Day celebrations, 5/1945; returned to GB for demobilisation on Salisbury Plain, 6/1946. Post-war life and employment. Reflections on period of military service.