Showing 23 results

Collection includes five postcards, four of which are of British troops from 1 Airborne Div at Hotel De Tafelberg, Oosterbeek, Netherlands, during Operation MARKET GARDEN, the Allied attempt to establish a bridgehead across the Rhine river at Arnhem, 17 Sep-25 Sep 1944, and one of the Airborne Monument at Oosterbeek, built by J Maris, 1946; and a personal account by Henk B van der Horst entitled, Paratroopers Jump, Fury over Arnhem (Boekhandel Romijn, Oosterbeek, 1946), relating to the Allied airborne offensive at Arnhem, 17 Sep-25 Sep 1944.

Look back with pleasure', typescript memoirs covering his life and career, 1897-1965, notably his service in Mesopotamia and Palestine, 1915-1918, India, 1919-1925 and 1957-1962, Africa, 1939-1944, Germany, 1945-1950, and Cyprus, 1964-1965, written in 1971.

Various papers relating to his family, life and career, dated [1988 and 1991], notably including a brief draft memoir covering his life and career, 1902-1991, written in 1991 and a brief account of the life of his grandfather, Louis Anthony Vintcent, 1865-1891, a member of the Pioneer Corps who accompanied the British South Africa Company Police on their trek to occupy Mashonaland in 1890, sent to Buckle by J P A Sutton in 1988.

Copy of 'A soldier's story', a memoir of his life and career, 1905-1984, notably his service in India, 1935-1938, North West Europe, 1939-1940 and 1944-1945, including the arrest of the Grand Adm Karl Doenitz (Operation BLACKOUT) in May 1945, Palestine, 1947, Germany, 1948, and Egypt, 1954-1957, including the Suez Crisis, 1956, written in 1984. Photographs relating to the arrest of Doenitz, Germany, 1945.

The papers cover the period 1914-1965 and include papers relating to service in England, France and with British Army of the Rhine, 1914-1919 in particular 35 Division Artillery Signals; Iraq, including diary, 1920-1921; Nigeria, including field message book, 1924; Quetta, India, including earthquake diary, 1935; newspapers covering death of King George V, 1936; command of Northern Rhodesia Regt, Lusaka, 1937-1940, including scrap albums; command of 26 (East African) Infantry Brigade, East Africa and Abyssinia, 1940- 1941, including operation reports; command of 22 (East African) Infantry Brigade, Madagascar, 1942, including operation reports; command of 28 (East African) Infantry Brigade and 11 (East African) division, Burma and India, 1944-1946 including accounts of operations; General Officer Commanding East Africa, 1946- 1948, including official circulars, speeches and addresses; General Officer Commanding Aldershot Command, 1948-1951, including speeches and lectures; Representative on Military Staff Committtee, United Nations, 1951-1953, including diary; Col Commandant of Northern Rhodesia Regiment, King's African Rifles and Kenya Regiment, including correspondence, 1952-1964, committee papers and publications; papers relating to Army Cadet Force Association including minutes of meetings, 1956-1959; Inter-Parliamentary Union, including account of journey to Warsaw, Poland, 1959; maps, 1914-1943, including Western Front, Iraq and India, Nigeria and Madagascar.

Typescript account, 'The Second Battalion in the battle of the 100 days in 1918'; letters home, Western Front, 1917-1918; four manuscript signal messages relating to an attack by 1 Div, Western Front, 17-19 Oct 1918; photograph album, 1918-1922, including captioned photographs of individuals, Western Front and Germany, 1918-1919; letters home from British Army on the Rhine, 1919-1920; edition of The story of the Fourth Army in the Battles of the Hundred Days, August 8th to November 11th, 1918 (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1920) by Maj Gen Sir Archibald Armar Montgomery (known as Montgomery-Massingberd from 1926), General Staff, 4 Army, with volume of related published maps and panoramic photographs. Papers relating to Gracie's service in World War Two,1939-1945, including manuscript notes on postings and pay details, 1942-1945; letters relating to the award of the OBE, and promotion to the rank of honorary Lt Col, 1945.

Papers relating to his military service during World War Two, dated [1939-1945], 1948, 1965-1966, notably including account of the service of 1 Welch Regt in Crete, May 1941, written in 1966; silk map of North Africa and the southern Mediterranean, [1939-1945]; account of his imprisonment in Salonika in 1941 and his subsequent transportation to Germany, [1945]; typescript copy of 'Per anum ad astra', an account by Alexis Casdigli of the smuggling of maps from Oflag IX A-H to Oflag XII B in 1944 by a group of POWs, including Casdigli and Griffith, written in 1948, copied in 1965.

The Private War Journal of Generaloberst Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff of the Supreme Command of the German Army, 1939- 1942 is a microfilmed copy of the desk journal of Generaloberst Franz Halder. In 1938, Generaloberst [Col Gen] Franz Halder took office as Chief of the General Staff of the German Army, Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), openly declaring himself opposed to the Nazi leadership of the German Armed Forces. By 1939, however, Hitler had begun to direct much of the operational decision making of the OKH. Although Halder would continue to voice opposition to the more impractical military directives, he nonetheless complied with the strategic demands proposed by Hitler and the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces. From 1938-1942, Halder's duties were confined to operational decision making and desk planning, analysing reports sent to him by his subordinates and conferring with officers of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), the Supreme Command of the German Army, over administrative, operational, and logistical matters. Halder's short-hand notes and daily entries in his Kriegstagebücher summarised each day's work and acted as an aide mémoire to events, 1938-1942. The journal reflects the detail, routine, and bureaucracy encountered by Halder and his staff, as well as the decision making process between Halder, the General Staff, and Adolf Hitler. Kept by Halder personally, the journal should not be confused with the official War Diaries kept by the Supreme Command of the German Army. Intended to serve as a notebook, the diary does not furnish a complete record of all activities, 1939-1942; rather it reflects the German High Command decision making structure as well as the character of many German senior officers, including FM (Karl Rudolf) Gerd von Runstedt, FM Erich von Manstein, and Col Gen Heinz Guderian. After the war, the journal was introduced by the Prosecution as a documentary exhibit in the record of the case entitled the United States of America vs Wilhelm von Leeb et al, brought before Military Tribunal V (FM Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, Commander Army Group North, was tried for minor war crimes in 1948). The journal was subsequently translated and reduced to typewritten form from the original notes under the guidance of Phillip Willner, Chief of the Reporting Branch (German) of the Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes, Office of the Military Government for Germany. It was then reviewed with Halder for continuity and published soon thereafter.

Liber in vinculis or the Mock Turtle's adventure , a meditation on his life and career, with particular reference to the Battle of Crete, 1941, written as a POW in Germany, 1941-1945, and including a short essay on the Battle of Crete, 1941, by Dr Mark Mazower, privately published by Trinity College, Cambridge in 1989.

The peace divided', an account of his life and career, 1905-1948, notably his service in India with the Queen's Royal Regt, in Africa with King's African Rifles, and in UK, 1938-1940, 1941-1944, Gibraltar, 1940-1941, South East Asia, 1945, East Africa, 1946-1947 and Berlin, 1948, compiled in 1970 by Ben Lockwood, Hart Dyke's stepson, from notes left by Hart Dyke and printed in1995. 'Normandy to Arnhem, a story of the infantry', an account of his service with 4 Bn, (Hallamshire Bn), York and Lancaster Regt in the UK, 1943-1944, and North West Europe, 1944-1945, written using regimental war diaries in 1946 and originally printed in 1966, reprinted by 4 Bn, Yorkshire Volunteers in 1991.

Papers relating to his life and career, 1915-1991, dated 1963, 1969 and [1991], principally comprising 'Nine lives, a soldier's story', a typescript memoir covering the period 1915-1991, including his service in North Africa and the Western Desert, 1939-1942 and 1943, the Middle East, 1942-1943 and 1954-1956, Normandy, 1944, and France, Belgium and Germany, 1945-1947, and hiswork as Director General of Fighting Vehicles, 1964-1966, and General Officer Commanding, Malta and Libya, 1967-1968, written in [1991].

The collection covers Pyman's career from 1937 until 1963 when he suffered a severe stroke which forced his retirement in 1964. The earliest papers date from Pyman's work with the Royal Tank Cadre in converting the 17/21 Lancers from a cavalry to an armoured regiment. There are also papers from Pyman's period as an instructor at the Staff College in Quetta, India, 1939-1941. Pyman was involved in the World War Two campaigns by the 8 Army in the Western Desert, in 1941 as General Staff Officer with 7 Armoured Div, 30 Corps and in 1942-1943 as Commander of the 3 Royal Tank Regiment, 10 Armoured Div, 30 Corps. The papers consist mostly of Pyman's assessments of lessons learned from the ongoing campaigns particularly with regard to tanks and armoured units. In 1944-1945 Pyman was Brigidier General Staff, 30 Corps, 2 Army in the Normandy landings and the invasion of Northern Europe, with particular responsibility for organisation and planning of the Rhine crossing and advance to the Baltic. This is reflected in the papers which largely consist of planning studies and reports for the operations involved, this section also contains maps used in the campaign. Pyman's next appointment was as Chief of General Staff, Allied Land Forces, South East Asia, 1945-1946 which is documented by a series of diaries which reflect the tasks faced by Pyman in this command including dealing with the build up of tension between newly liberated former colonies keen to assert their right for independence and the former colonial powers such as France and Netherlands. Pyman spent 1946-1949 as Chief of Staff, Middle East Land Forces and kept monthly diaries which form the bulk of this section of the collection. The diary entries and additional papers reflect the debate over policy in the Middle East in the British Government and Military command, they include detail on the British withdrawal from Greece, the problem of illegal Jewish immigrants and their internment in Cyprus, the end of the British mandate in Palestine and the the effect of this on relations between Britain with Egypt and the other Arab states and the subsequent Arab Israeli conflict. This section of the collection also contains correspondence between Pyman and Maj Gen Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey on personal matters and on the Middle East. There are also papers from Pyman's work at the Ministry of Supply as Director General of Fighting Vehicles, 1951-1953, Director of Weapons Development, War Office, 1955-1956 mostly brief diary entries and lecture texts. Pyman was also General Officer Commanding, British Army on the Rhine, 1953-1955 and General Officer Commanding, 1 British Corps, 1956-1958 and the papers relating to these commands consist mostly of lectures, reports and directives reflecting his interest in armoured divisions and training. There are some papers, mostly personal correspondence and press cuttings, from Pyman's final command as Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Northern Europe in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The collection also contains correspondence relating to Pyman's role as Colonel Commandant of the Royal Tank Regiment and The Royal Armoured Corps and a series of letters covering the reorganisation of the Berks and Westminster Dragoons, of which he was Honorary Colonel. The rest of the collection consists of diaries, correspondence, speeches, writings including the draft copy and papers relating to his autobiography, some preparatory work on a history of the 2 Army and reference works. The collection also includes the Boer War diaries and other papers of Col James Redmond Patrick Gordon who commanded the 1 Cavalry Bde of the South African Field Force 1900-1901 which were given to Pyman by a friend.

Some recollections of a Scots Guardsman, 1935-1947', a memoir covering his military career during the period 1935-1947, notably his service at General HQ, Middle East Land Forces, 1940-1943, and with the Scots Guards in Italy, 1943-1944 and 1947, and Germany, 1945, written in [1992].

Papers relating to his life and career, 1936-1961, principally comprising diary of tour of Germany to assess capacity of industrial installations, Apr-Jun 1945, written in [1945-1946] and including related reports and photographs of sites visited, 1945; record of service pocket book, 1936-1948.

Copies of papers, 1940-1982, including narrative manuscript diary covering service with 3 Div Royal Engineers, Belgium and France, May-Jun 1940, with printed map entitled Lille-Ghent, North West Europe, sheet No 2, scale 1: 250, 000 (GSGS 4042, War Office, 1938); narrative manuscript diary covering service with 51 Highland Div Royal Engineers, North West Europe, Oct 1944 and Feb-May 1945, with typescript nominal roll of officers, list of casualties between Jun 1944 and May 1945, and typescript programme for the 51 Highland Div victory parade, Bremerhaven, Germany, May 1945; five printed maps of North West Europe entitled 'Brussels and Liege', 'Walcheren and Amsterdam', 'Osnabruck', 'Hamburg', 'Hannover' (no publication details or scale), with printed map of the Rhine entitled 'Outline of 51(H) Div RE plan, Operation PLUNDER', annotated with dispositions of Royal Engineers units for the Rhine crossing, 1945; correspondence with Maj Karol John Drewienkiewicz, 25 Field Sqn Royal Engineers, 1982, concerning operations of 3 Div Royal Engineers (May 1940); typescript text of lecture, given at Antwerp, 1982, on operations to clear the Scheldt Estuary, 1944.

Copies of extracts from 'Wells, a family history', produced by Tessa J Harfield, 1988, principally comprising a brief account of the life and RAF career of Sidney McLeod Wells (Wg Cdr Maurice Clunes Wells' brother), 1906-1941, written by Harfield in 1988; transcription of Brig (then Lt) Brian Gordon Wells' account of a big game hunt in Northern Rhodesia, 1931, written in [1931-1932], with his record of service, 1923-1955, dated 1955; transcription of 'My career in the RAF, 1935-1950' written by Wg Cdr Maurice Clunes Wells, written in [1980-1985]. Original manuscript of 'My career in the RAF, 1935-1950'. Photographs relating to Wg Cdr Maurice Clunes Wells' army career, dated [1940-1945] and [1980-1988], notably his internment as a POW, [1940-1945].

Wartime diaries, typescript correspondence, memoirs and poetry by Victor West, concerning the campaign in Greece, Crete and as a prisoner of war during World War Two, with recent poetry, 1941-1999; notably including a bound typescript memoir, 'The loss of Creforce Reserve: "The side show"', written 1981, including list of officers and other ranks of 9 Bn, King's Royal Rifle Corps, killed in Greece and Crete, 1941, and a copy article, 'The Rangers in Greece and Crete: a story of devotion and toil', printed 1941 in the house magazine of the Gas Light & Coke Ltd; 3 volume bound typescript memoir, 'Wash me in the water: a personal account of the first Greek campaign, 1941. The battle for Crete, including the story of the loss of Creforce Reserve', written 1983; bound typescript 1941 personal war diary, a transcription of West's original diary; bound typescript copy letters to West from a Spanish fellow POW, Sgt Basilio Marin, 1944-1945 and photocopy typescript and manuscript notes (untitled) on the Crete campaign, 1941; bound typescript 'We from Crete: Pep talks in Stalag 383', written 1982, relating to life in a POW camp (first and second drafts); bound typescript, 'Escape involuntary (we couldn't help it)', recounting West's escape from a POW camp, Germany, Apr 1945; Victor West, The horses of Falaise: poems on the experiences of a fighting soldier in World War II (Salamandar Imprint, London, 1975), bound photocopy; Victor West, Part 2 orders: WWII poems (Salamandar Imprint, London, 1999), bound photocopy; notes on West's career and on the history of 1 Rangers, King's Royal Rifle Corps; copy correspondence and illustrations relating to a painting by West presented to Winston Churchill, 1955.