Oral History collection: Cliff Guard (born in St Thomas, Swansea, 1924) interviewed by Peter Hall. Set of three DVDs entitled "Swansea Boy to American GI: the story of Cliff Guard"

Track 1. [00:00:01] Personal Details: Cliff Guard [CG], b St Thomas, 1924. [00:01:01] Poverty: Strikes and unemployment. [00:01:30] Poverty: Dole Office, near YMCA: 1930[?], 18/6d pw for family. [00:04:03] Gospel Mission: Near police station, social centre, refreshments. [00:05:43] Gospel Mission: Start of Swansea Boys Club. [00:06:15] Boys Club: Move to new premises, near Mumbles Railway: facilities. [00:07:04] Boys Club: Provided clothes, footwear, supplied by local businesses. [00:07:55] Boys Club: Mr & Mrs Hopkins, respect. [00:09:21] Boys Club: Installation of good ethos. [00:10:20] Boys Club: Mrs Aaron Thomas, Mumbles, wealthy husband (shipping), MG rides for boys. [00:11:10] Boys Club: Fundraising. [00:11:29] Boys Club: For poor boys, mainly. [00:12:03] Juvenile Crime: Experience of petty crime. [00:13:38] Boys Club: Ethos - honesty, citizenship. [00:15:00] Boys Club: Boxing - influential on subject. [00:16:21] Industry: Welsh Glassworks, bottom of Wind Street. [00:17:00] Industry: Leaded light apprenticeship, 10/- pw. [00:18:13] Sea Cadets: Training. [00:19:08] Missouri: How to get attention. [00:19:57] Merchant Navy: Joined 1939, with father - underage, as cabin boy, at 14. [00:21:41] Merchant Navy: Cargo - canned food, toys. [00:22:12] Merchant Navy: Convoys. [00:22:56] Merchant Navy: Arming of ships, RN personnel, degaussing. [00:24:55] Merchant Navy: Pre-war escort by USN [ie pre 7/12//41]. [00:25:11] Merchant Navy: CG on Atlantic route 21/2-3 years, then Pacific and US west coast routes to NZ and Australia. [00:26:30] Merchant Navy: SS Katuna [?]. [00:27:06] Sierra Leone: Shore visits forbidden, disease; bum boat trade. [00:28:35] Merchant Navy: Monkey problems, danger to wigs. [00:30:31] Kriegsmarine: GRAF SPEE crewmen in Montevideo. [00:33:19] USA: Patriotism. [00:35:02] USA: Impression of democracy, wealth, opportunity. [00:36:28] US Army: Enlistment. [00:37:06] US Army: Camp Upton, NY, induction. [00:38:31] US Army: Fort Leonard Wood, MO. [00:42:18] US Army: 23rd Armoured Engineer Battalion - ordnance (Composition C), demolition, mines. [00:43:08] Teller Mines: Size, use. [00:43:47] US Army: Training: 90 day basic. [00:45:06] FBI: Investigation. [00:46:51] USA: Citizenship post- honourable discharge. [00:49:27] US Army: Indiatown Gap, Pa, 3rd Armoured Division ["The Third Herd"]. [00:50:22] US Army: 23rd Armoured Engineers, comrades. [00:50:36] US Army: Meets Red Army on Elbe. [00:50:42] US Army: Camp Kilmer, NJ; staging area, orientation on UK. [00:52:55] US Army: Embarkation, JOHN ERICSON [?] troopship from Staten Island. [00:56:21] US Army: Atlantic crossing, deal with cooks, accommodation. [00:59:05] US Army: Instructions to servicemen in UK, orientation. Track 2. [00:00:01] Personal Details: Cliff Guard [CG], b St Thomas, 1924. [00:00:02] US Army: UK disembarkation, Liverpool welcome (band). [00:01:38] Railways: Wartime delays. [00:02:31] US Army: Tisbury. [00:02:58] US Army: Units, 3rd Armoured Div. [00:03:27] US Army: 23rd Armoured Engineer billets, c 1200 men. [00:04:12] US Army: Unique "no reveille" day. [00:04:40] Fonthill Bishop: Estate description. [00:10:59] US Army: Relations with British army (paras). [00:11:44] US Army: Pup tents. [00:15:53] US Army: Sports against British army (soccer, gridiron). [00:18:31] US Army: Relations with Tisbury locals. [00:24:44] US Army: Food, excellence of breakfasts. [00:24:59] NEPTUNE: Move to Weymouth. [00:30:45] Free French: Poor relations with 23rd (typical?). [00:31:32] NEPTUNE: Embarkation. [00:32:09] NEPTUNE: Equipment. [00:33:13] NEPTUNE: RCN vessel; food. [00:34:12] NEPTUNE: 23rd landing in France. [00:34:25] Omaha Beach: "Point Charlie"[the 23rd landed at Omaha White sector, near Isigny, on 23/6/44]. [00:34:48] Omaha Beach: German POWs. [00:35:36] Omaha Beach: Proximity and presence of British [RAF FAC teams with US Army]. [00:36:54] Omaha Beach: (False) gas alert, pm, [23/6/44?]. [00:39:08] Normandy: Bocage combat [elements of 3rd Armoured went into combat on 29/6/44; the division as a complete unit went into action on 9/7/44, as part of VII Corps]. [00:39:40] Normandy: Subject wounded by mortar round, leg, self-medication. [00:40:30] Normandy: German army: experience, motivation, misreading of USA. [00:41:52] Normandy: Panzer Division at Omaha [probably a reference to 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division, elements of which went into action near Carentan on D+5; German armoured units encountered on the Cotentin prior to this were from the 100 Ersatz Panzer Bataillon, an independent unit, attached to 7 Armee, and formed from old French tanks captured in 1940]. [00:42:02] Normandy: Story of Panzer units. [00:42:53] Normandy: Bocage manoeuvre solution [Cullen ploughs on tank bows]. [00:43:06] Normandy: Ground-air co-operation, heavy bombers [GOODWOOD? COBRA?]. [00:45:14] US Army: 3rd Armoured Division campaigns (1st US Army). [00:46:40] Normandy: St Lo, Falaise. [00:47:11] Normandy: Falaise Gap: smell. [00:48:18] Normandy: Falaise: many German POWs. [00:49:10] France: Post-COBRA pursuit phase. [00:51:00] Weaponry: Subject used Browning M2 0.5 HMG, ("Ma Deuce"). [00:51:28] Weaponry: Subject had Thompson SMG, and Browning 1911 .45 pistol. [00:51:42] German Army: Skill at rearguard & delaying actions, combined arms, camouflage & fire discipline. [00:54:09] Allied Armies: Determination (underrated by enemy). [00:55:55] PTSD: Subject still has dreams of combat. [00:57:18] US Army: Namur, Liege: memory of welcomes. [01:02:41] Siegfried Line: Attacks on Westwall: combat engineer operations. [01:04:24] Aachen: First German city captured; relations with German civilians. [01:05:13] Aachen: German civilian suicides. [01:06:03] Aachen: Combat engineer operations. [01:06:40] Paris: 3 day pass, leave; hospitality. [01:11:52] US Army: AWOL status. [01:14:16] Concentration Camps: Liberation of Sangerhausen & Nordhausen [Dora-Mittelbau] camps. [01:14:44] Concentration Camps: Condition of prisoners [these were actually the survivors of death marches from the east]. [01:14:59] Concentration Camps: SS guards. [01:15:18] Concentration Camps: Medical help for prisoners: subject's PTSD. [01:17:46] US Army: Christmas movement orders, 3rd Armoured; Battle of the Bulge. [01:19:06] Ardennes: Intense fighting. [00:80:18] Ardennes: SS Skorzeny Kommandos, in US uniforms. [00:81:18] Ardennes: SS killing of prisoners [Malmedy?]. [00:83:32] US Army: 3rd Armoured return to Aachen, 1945. [00:83:55] Aachen: Subject's narrow escape from death, shrapnel in knee. [00:86:36] US Army: Final engagements, 3rd Armoured: heavy fighting. [00:87:51] US Army: River Elbe: meeting with Red Army. [00:88:40] Red Army: Impressions of Red Army. [00:88:55] Red Army: Female tank drivers. [00:89:57] Red Army: Quality of vodka. [00:91:43] US Army: Maurice Rose, CO 3rd Armoured, KIA end of war, 31/3/45. [00:91:54] US Army: Major General Rose, character. [00:92:22] US Army: Demobilisation, points system. [00:93:12] US Army: Demob camps in France, named after cigarettes. [00:93:25] US Army: CG transferred to 92nd Field Artillery. [00:94:35] US Army: Jeep driving. [00:97:28] US Army: Methodology, relations officers/men. [00:98:43] US Army: Post-war occupation, assistance to population. [01:40:38] Hunting: Deer hunting with M1 carbine. [01:51:33] Fishing: With hand grenades & net. [01:55:37] Nazi Party: CG felt people not Nazi supporters - not in 1945, anyway. [01:56:16] Mine Clearance: CG used for mine clearance & ordnance disposal, due to combat engineer background. Track 3. [00:00:01] Personal Details: Cliff Guard [CG], b St Thomas, 1924. [00:00:02] US Army: Demobilisation camps; Camp Chesterfield; hives. [00:00:45] US Army: Demobilisation, Camp Kilmer. [00:01:26] American Legion: Staten Island CO, employment help. [00:01:42] Golf: Silver Lakes golf course, Staten Island, CG caddymaster. [00:02:02] Golf: Famous people - Sugar Ray Robinson. [00:03:08] Shipyard: Staten Island Shipyard. [00:03:14] Education: CG lack of education, marine engineering impossible. [00:03:53] Education: Curtis Evening High School, Diploma. [00:04:13] Education: Fellow students. [00:04:57] Education: Applications, colleges. [00:05:18] Education: Purdue University. [00:05:31] Education: Civil engineering. [00:05:55] Education: Professor Buckman. [00:06:14] Education: Psychology BA. [00:06:40] Education: MA, Northwestern U (incomplete). [00:06:50] Psychology: Pendleton Prison, Indiana,. [00:07:05] Psychology: Bob Harden, psychologist. [00:08:34] Psychology: Tests - Rorsach, etc, on prisoners. [00:09:15] Psychology: Parole Board use of tests. [00:09:58] Psychology: Prisoners - stories, gratitude. [00:16:27] Prison: Currency. [00:17:14] Psychology: Brevity of reports for Parole Board. [00:17:34] Psychology: CG becomes Head of Psychological Services: duties. [00:20:13] Psychology: CG moves to Federal Govt work. [00:21:47] Swansea: Return, post-retirement. [00:23:50] Swansea: Swansea Alcohol & Drug Advice Centre. [00:24:34] US Army: Commemoration, Horseguard Parade. [00:31:28] US Army: Memories of war & comrades. [00:34:52] Education: Talks to SEN pupils on history. [00:38:08] US Army: Dedication ceremony, Newton. [00:41:04] Buckingham Palace: Tea Party. [00:42:30] Queen Elizabeth: Meets CG. [00:44:32] Prince Edward: Meets CG; conversation on war. [00:47:26] War: Sacrifice, necessity of war