Description
Object description
British NCO served as driver with 249 (Oxfordshire Yeomanry) Battery, 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery in North West Europe, 1945, including liberation of Bergen-Belsen camp, Germany, 4/1945.
Content description
REEL 1: Background in South Wales and Oxfordshire, 1920-1938: family and childhood in Rhondda Valley; father's employment as miner; story of father moving with family to Didcot, Oxfordshire, to obtain work; reason for joining Oxfordshire Yeomanry, 1938; training; attached to Motor Transport section as driver; duties as divisional dispatch rider. Aspects of operations with 249 (Oxfordshire Yeomanry) Battery, 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery in North West Europe, 1945: role in driving Crusader tank and towing limber of ammunition; description of crossing River Rhine at Wesel and watching 6th Airborne Div landings, 3/1945; attitude to rumours of Nazi death camps. Aspects of operations with 249 (Oxfordshire Yeomanry) Battery, 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery at Bergen-Belsen camp, Germany, 4/1945: arrived at camp at night; first impressions; reaction of camp inmates; description of camp at dawn, 15/ Apr/1945.
REEL 2 Continues: estimated number of bodies; description of smell of bodies and condition of inmates; layout of camp and organisation of prisoners; attitude to Hungarian and German guards; arrested and imprisoned camp commandant and SS guards; opinion of SS women guards; use of POWs to collect bodies; reaction to treatment of inmates; memories of inmate named Sonia; use of clothing from bodies by other inmates; water supply; story of feeding inmates with Maconochie stew and deaths from overeating; interviewed by Richard Dimbleby; medical facilities; attitude to role of unit in camp; attitude to shooting of captured SS guards; post-war psychological effects of experiences; description of photographs of Bergen-Belsen taken by 6th Airborne Div photographers.
REEL 3 Continues: further comments on water supply; collection and burial of bodies; opinion of Crusader tank; story of taking photographs at dockyards in Kiel; story of portrait drawn by disabled German soldier; story of taking watches as souvenirs from SS 'loot pit' of confiscated items; reflections on period at Bergen- Belsen and reason for wanting to discuss experiences.