Description
Object description
British rifleman served as dispatch rider with A Coy, 2nd Bn King's Royal Rifle Corps in GB and France, 1939-1940; captured at Calais, 5/1940 and POW in Germany, 5/1940-1943
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of period in GB and India, 1912-1939: family background in Walthamstow, London; left school age 14; employment; story of joining King's Royal Rifle Corps, 8/1930; training; posted to India until 1937; length of service; worked for gas and coke company in India, 1938-1939; mobilized at Bury St Edmunds on outbreak of war, 9/1939; acclimatised for service in Far East; duties patrolling east coast; further training and manoeuvres; duties filling up petrol tanks before embarkation; disembarked Calais, France, 5/1940. Aspects of operations as dispatch rider with A Coy, 2nd Bn King's Royal Rifle Corps in Calais, France and period as POW in Germany, 5/1940-1943: role of Bn in pushing back German patrols; problem of French dock workers not unloading equipment; opinion of French; description of advancing through streets; German artillery fire on docks; nature of terrain and positions; role as dispatch rider; story of seeing German tanks; opinion of Boys anti-tank rifle; story about British tank running out petrol; opinion of British tanks; story of being wounded in head by shrapnel and medical treatment at dressing station, 24/May/1940; taken to field hospital; death of Lt Philips; opinion of treatment by Germans while waiting for repatriation; opinion of food; post-war problems with health caused by wound.
REEL 2 Continues: further comments on head wound and medical treatment; attitude to operations in Calais and loss of friends; problem of lack of training, poor equipment and shortage of ammunition; reaction to death of friend; question of operations at Calais not being adequately covered by historians; opinion of German soldiers and equipment; question of stopping Hitler in 1930s; opinion of Churchill; attitude to evacuation from Calais; story of journey from hospital to monastery near Brussels, Belgium; transferred to POW camp in Poland; opinion of conditions; moved to old school near Posen; further medical treatment from army surgeon; story of repatriation in Rouen being cancelled, 1942; opinion of army surgeon; further comments on medical treatment for head wound; description of embankment near railway at Calais; location of Bn HQ in street; opinion of French civilians; problem with bread ration; story of being repatriated, 1943; reason for refusing discharge and attitude to not being allowed to continue military service; posted to non-combatant unit in Southampton; duties with movement control; demobilization; reflections on operations in Calais.