Description
Object description
British NCO served 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, 5/1940-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of period in GB, 1919-1940: family background and military service of father and brothers; enlisted on leaving school age 15, 1934; served with 2nd Bn as driver and bandsman in Belfast and Bury St Edmunds; role as corporal in charge of section; description of driving to Southampton and loading vehicles, 5/1940; story of meeting elder brother Leonard in camp and writing home; embarked aboard MV Royal Daffodil at Southampton; description of voyage from Dover with destroyer escort to Calais, 5/1940; ordered to destroy any documents useful to the enemy before landing. Aspects of operations with A Coy, 2nd Bn King's Royal Rifle Corps in Calais, France and as POW in Germany, 5/1940-4/1945: disembarked and marched to railway station; story of smell from hospital train on platform; taken by truck to position on edge of town; organised section and area of fire; problem of refugees on roads; reaction to seeing French and Belgian soldiers retreating; drove to docks; description of leading section to water tower under sniper fire; took cover in garage; story of first casualty hit by shrapnel in face; story of meeting brother Leonard; description of setting up road block with two 15-cwt trucks; location of section HQ in cellar; armed with Boys anti-tank rifle, Bren gun and rifle; kit stored on trucks; description of firing at houses over canal; story of moving into cellar shortly before trucks destroyed by direct hit; description of German air attacks and artillery fire; story of biting into greatcoat collar to stop teeth chattering; story about friend Bill Austin's section arriving in cellar; reaction to officer allowing men to stay in cellar or surrender; story of German grenade exploding in cellar and wounding ankle; description of journey through houses and gardens to beach; story of officer arranging surrender with Germans; threw away firing pins and left equipment behind.
REEL 2 Continues: story of being ordered by German officer to bury British dead in front of First World War memorial; driven in truck to temporary hospital in French mission hall; description of medical treatment; amusing story of friend Bill Austin losing false teeth; taken to Joan of Arc Hospital to have shrapnel removed from ankle by British surgeon; story of friend Steve Burns losing finger; various memories of officers and men; reaction to being captured; description of work at docks; problem of nightmares; opinion of treatment by Germans; story of being liberated from POW hospital by US forces, 22/Apr/1945; description of journey back to GB and arrival in Portsmouth on VE Day, 8/May/1945; reunion with family; description of work as POW digging trenches for cables; POW in Stalag 20-A, Stalag 20-B and Stalag 383.