Description
Object description
British armourer served with 800 Sqdn Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Ark Royal in North Sea, Atlantic and Mediterranean, 1939-1940; served with RAF in Egypt, 1941-1942; served with 826 Sqdn Fleet Air Arm in Palestine, Egypt and Libya, 1942-1943, 29 Sqdn RAF in GB and North West Europe, 1943-1944 and 91 Sqdn RAF in GB, 1944-1945.
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of period in GB, 1920-1938: family and childhood in Eastleigh, Hampshre; education; recreational and sporting activities; early interest in aircraft and flying; air shows; left school age 16; educational qualifications; employment in NAAFI shop at RAF Worthy Down, 1936-1937; story of joining RAF at Air Ministry in London, 7/1938. Aspects of training with RAF in GB, 7/1938-5/1939: posted to RAF Cardington for basic training; description of uniform and kit; duration of enlistment; attitude to discipline; accommodation in huts; inspections.
REEL 2 Continues: washing facilities; drill and basic training; off-duty activities; communication with family; messing arrangements; discipline and punishments; method of cleaning buttons; laundry; innoculations; posted to RAF Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey; description of camp; educational classes and weapons training; bombs and flares; role of armourer with RAF; loading and firing Browning machine gun; description of practice bomb; examinations; daily routine in camp; church parades; off-duty activities; pay parade; number of trainee armourers; accommodation; drill and marching; attitude to possible war; leave.
REEL 3 Continues: posted to School of Naval Co-Operation, RAF Ford, 1939; rank; duties as armourer; description of simulated training exercise using stannic chloride bombs; role in training naval personnel. Aspects of period with 800 Sqdn Fleet Air Arm in GB, 5-7/1939: posted to Devonport; problem of finding Sqdn; first impressions of aircraft carrier HMS Furious; joined 800 Sqdn at RAF Worthy Down; accommodation; role of armourer with Sqdn; attitude to naval discipline; command structure; ground and air crew; officers; daily routine and duties as armourer with Blackburn Skua; story of flying in Skua; armaments and role of Skua; personal responsibility for Lt. Roper's aircraft; method of loading ammunition into Browning machine guns; firing of guns; Vickers machine gun used by rear gunner; description of signal pistol and different coloured cartridges.
REEL 4 Continues: opinion of reliability of guns; messing arrangements and NAAFI; off-duty activities in Winchester; posted to HMS Ark Royal, 7/1939. Aspects of operations with 800 Sqdn Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Ark Royal in North Sea, 7-9/1939: first impressions of ship; length of flight deck; accommodation on mess deck; method of stowing hammock; working up in North Sea; description of flight deck and arrester wires; duties moving aircraft into hangars and as armourer; storage of ammunition; description of making up ammunition belts for Browning machine guns; loading of guns on Skua and danger from propeller; guns unloaded after flight; duties on starboard watch; messing arrangements; description of action station in hangar; rum ration; recreation space; films shows in hangar.
REEL 5 Continues: command structure aboard Ark Royal; relations between naval and air personnel; command structure in 800 Sqdn; story of hearing news of outbreak of war while in Kirkwall, Scotland, 9/1939; recalled to Ark Royal at Scapa Flow; issued with asbestos gloves and hood; life jacket. Aspects of operations with 800 Sqdn Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Ark Royal in North Sea and Atlantic Ocean, 9/1939-4/1940: sailed to Denmark; description of attack on ship by German bomber; returned to Scapa Flow then sailed to Freetown, Sierra Leone, 9/1939; climate; role of HMS Ark Royal in hunt for Graf Spee; required to be at action station every morning; attitude to being at sea; description of tropical kit; working conditions in hangar and effects of heat; shore leave in Freetown; rank; description of voyage to Cape Town, South Africa.
REEL 6 Continues: shore leave in Cape Town; story of HMS Renown sinking SS Watussi, 12/1939; sailed to Rio de Janiero, Brazil; no shore leave; duties on firewatch; memories of Christmas in Freetown, 12/1939; communication with family; bombing exercises; shore leave in Dakar; returned to Portsmouth, GB, 1/1940; home leave; re-joined Ark Royal at Scapa Flow; accommodation in huts at Kirkwall; role of 800 Sqdn in dawn patrols and anti-submarine operations; description of bombs carried by Skua; story of being at action station in access lobby during attack on ship.
REEL 7 Continues: Aspects of operations with 800 Sqdn Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Ark Royal in North Sea, 4-6/1940: weather conditions; role of Ark Royal during operations in Norway; conditions on flight deck; winter clothing; sleeping and messing arrangements; location of action station; story of Hurricanes landing on deck of HMS Glorious; casualties in 800 Sqdn; problem of athlete's foot and treatment; returned to Scapa Flow, 6/1940; reaction to sinking of HMS Glorious. Aspects of operations with 800 Sqdn Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Ark Royal in Mediterranean, 6-10/1940: description of voyage to Gibraltar; story of Ark Royal firing on French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir and escape of French battleship Strasbourg, 3/Jul/1940; Ark Royal bombed by French aircraft; carried petrol and ammunition ashore; accommodation; duties guarding aircraft and patrols around Gibraltar; story of Free French plane being shot down over Spanish border.
REEL 8 Continues: role of Ark Royal escorting carrier Argus during delivery of Hurricanes to Malta, 7/1940; airfields on Sardinia bombed by Skuas; comparison of converted and purpose built aircraft carriers; returned to Liverpool for refitting, 10/1940. Aspects of period with RAF in GB, 10/1940-2/1941: story of being posted to RAF Eastleigh; duties as armourer with Fairey Fulmars; lived at home with grandfather; rationing; description of bombing of Southampton; posted to Leigh-on-Solent, 1/1941; posted to Greenock, Scotland and embarked aboard troopship for Egypt. Aspects of voyage to Egypt, 2-4/1941: opinion of accommodation; role of armourers manning Lewis guns; slept on deck; amusing story of Laskar seaman; shore leave in Durban, South Africa.
REEL 9 Continues: story of Lady in White; sanitary facilities aboard troopship; disembarked at Port Said. Aspects of operations with RAF in Egypt, 4/1941-4/1942: posted to armoury at Dekheila; duties at naval dockyard sorting armaments from HMS Illustrious; billeted in Syracuse Hotel; posted to armament depot in Mex; posted to armament depot in Ismailia, 4/1942; off-duty activities; communication with family; organization of armaments depot; daily routine and duties as armourer; opinion of living conditions; Aspects of operations with 826 Sqdn Fleet Air Arm in Palestine, Egypt and Libya, 4/1942-7/1943: role of 826 Sqdn; story of journey to Palestine; description of sandstorm; duties at airfield; hired horses; story of eating prickly pears; story of attending village wedding.
REEL 10 Continues: story of Arab accidentally shot in foot by sentry; flew across Nile Delta to Dekheila; preparations for Battle of El Alamein, 10/1942; description of corrugated iron hangar; duties as armourer on Fairey Albercore; noise of opening bombardment; daily routine and duties during Battle of El Alamein, 10-11/1942; accommodation and messing arrangements; description of flight on Wellington bomber to Benghazi, Libya; story of soldier playing looted piano; description of airfield; conditions in Benghazi; story of cooking Christmas dinner, 12/1942.
REEL 11 Continues: story of army Christmas show in Benghazi, 12/1942; problem of tents flooding; description of Benghazi; story of dog and air raid shelter; left Benghazi, 1/1943; role of 826 Sqdn dropping flares and bombs; description of armaments on Albercore; method of arming and attaching bombs; description of flares and method of firing; delay time; problem of booby traps; travelled by lorry to join 8th Army; method of making fire; moved to Sirte, Libya; terrain and vegetation.
REEL 12 Continues: description of forward landing strip; attacked by German and Italian aircraft; moved to wadi and dug slit trenches; personal hygiene; rations; daily routine and duties; discipline in Sqdn; relations with officers; description of uniform and kit; returned to Benghazi, 2/1943; billeted in house; story of accident in lorry on road to Dekheila; treatment for pharyngitis at hospital in Alexandria.
REEL 13 Continues: left behind when 826 Sqdn moved and returned to station armoury at Dekheila; story of voyage back to GB aboard SS Ile de France, 6/1943; disembarked Greenock, Scotland; communication with family; censorship of letters. Aspects of period with Fleet Air Arm in GB, 7-11/1943: posted to Leigh-on-Solent; leave; marriage, 7/1943; posted to 766 Fleet Air Arm Training Sqdn, Inskip, 8/1943; duties as armourer with Fairey Swordfish; posted to RAF Ford, 11/1943. Aspects of operations with 29 Sqdn RAF in GB, 11/1943-8/1944: role of 29 Sqdn as night fighter squadron; method of arming cannons; daily routine and duties as armourer with Mosquito; cleaning guns.
REEL 14 Continues: promoted to corporal; posted to RAF Drem, Scotland, 1/1944; story of selling German Mauser; drum head service; posted to RAF West Malling, Kent; story of wife's illness; memory of V1 raids; grass runways; posted to airfield near Bishop's Stortford; problem of making mistakes due to tiredness; role as corporal in charge of armourers; posted to camp in Fareham; description of crossing English Channel in tank landing craft to Normandy, France, 8/1944. Aspects of operations with 29 Sqdn RAF in North West Europe, 8-9/1944: disembarked at Arromanches; description of beach; story of journey across France to Louvain, Belgium.
REEL 15 Continues: description of Louvain; moved into former German airfield near Amiens, France; description of camp and accommodation; sanitary facilities and messing arrangements; relations with local civilians; duties as armourer with 29 Sqdn; issued with Sten gun but no ammunition. Aspects of period with 91 Sqdn RAF in GB, 9/1944-11/1945: posted to RAF Manston, Kent; duties as armourer with Spitfires; problem of arming cannons on Spitfire Mk XX1; description of making up ammunition belts; number of Spitfires in 91 Sqdn; relations with air crew.
REEL 16 Continues: story about firing butts; role of 91 Sqdn; frequency of operations; story of hearing news of end of war while on leave, 5/1945; posted to RAF Dyce, Aberdeen; cleaning and maintenance of guns; demobilised from RAF at Wembley Stadium, London, 11/1945. Post-war career as teacher.
REEL 17 Continues: Various recollections of service with Fleet Air Arm and RAF, 1939-1945: story of CO landing Skua without undercarriage lowered; first casualty in air raid; story of two armourers killed in explosion on lorry; story of contracting pneumonia; further memories of Freetown; symptoms of dysentery and treatment; story about parachute; story of sergeant accidentally firing Thompson sub-machine in armoury; duties at station armoury; story of burying food and cigarettes before evacuation from Dekheila; reason for commendation in dispatches at Benghazi.