Interview with George Batts

Sound: © IWM (34595)

207680036
Order this sound recording under fair dealing

All Rights Reserved except for Fair Dealing exceptions otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised.

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.
1388626676
Order this sound recording under fair dealing

All Rights Reserved except for Fair Dealing exceptions otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised.

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.
1874982338
Order this sound recording under fair dealing

All Rights Reserved except for Fair Dealing exceptions otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised.

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.

Description

Object description

British sapper and NCO served with 1033rd and 1049th Port and Maintenance Coys, Royal Engineers in GB and North West Europe, 1943-1945

Content description

REEL 1 Background in GB, 1925-1939: family; education. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Horsham, GB, 1939-1943: membership of Air Training Corps; desire to join Royal Air Force and fate of friends who did; incident of being machine-gunned by German Air force fighter aircraft; visit by Group Captain Leonard Cheshire to his school. Aspects of training as sapper with Royal Engineers in GB, 1943: background to volunteering for Royal Engineers; character of basic training; field training in Wales; guard duties; father's cleaning of his kit during leave. Aspects of period as sapper with 1033rd and 1049th Port and Maintenance Coys, Royal Engineers in GB, 1943-1944: joining 1033rd Port and Maintenance Coy in Liverpool; dock work in Liverpool; Combined Operations training; volunteering for commando training at Longmoor Camp; attitude towards demolition training. REEL 2 Continues: training with booby-traps; character of instructors; street fighting course in Battersea and live fire training; opinion of training; commando training in Scotland. Aspects of operations as sapper with Royal Engineers in Normandy, France, 6/1944: move into camp on south coast; sealing of camp; embarkation at Newhaven; disembarkation into assault craft, D-Day, 6/6/1944; atmosphere on beaches, 6/6/1944; landing on Gold Beach, 6/6/1944; mine clearance duties; personal morale and opinion of training; technique to lifting mines. Recollections of period as NCO with No 1049 Port and Maintenance Coy, Royal Engineers in Normandy, France, 6/1944-9/1944: allocation to work on Mulberry Harbour; duties unloading ships; anti-aircraft shrapnel falling on Mulberry harbour; accommodation. REEL 3 Continues: character of American drivers; description of Mulberry Harbour. Aspects of period as sapper with 1049th Port and Maintenance Coy, Royal Engineers in Ostend, Belgium, 1944-1945: move to Ostend; work with civilian barges; V weapon attacks on Antwerp. Aspects of period as NCO with Royal Engineers in India, Malaya and Java, Dutch East Indies, 1945-1946: move to India; landing in Malaya; duties in Java, Dutch East Indies; attitude towards period in transit camp and in Singapore, Malaya.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1990 to the present day (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
McDonough, Richard (Recorder)
Batts, George (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 2016-03-09
Dimensions: whole: Duration 90, Number Of Items 3
Catalogue number: 34595

Object associations

Our collections information

We have over 1.7 million object records online, and we are adding to this all the time. Our records are never finished. Sometimes we discover new information that changes what we know about an object, such as who made it or used it. Sometimes we change how an object is interpreted. We sometimes make mistakes in our spelling, transcription or categorisation, or miss information out of our records.

Read more about our collections and the information we hold. Developing our collections information

If you have concerns about the language in this record, or you have information to improve it, please share your feedback.

We receive a lot of comments and can't respond to each one, but we do read them all and will respond where we can.

Interview with George Batts

Description

Object description

Content description

Object Details

Object associations

Associated people and organisations

Associated places

Associated subjects

Associated themes

Our collections information

Related content

The Medics Who kept Duxford's Pilots in the Air During the Second World War