Title:INTERVIEWS WITH P J FREEMAN AND W MILLHOUSE [Allocated Title]
Film Number:RHC 37
Other titles:INTERVIEWS WITH IN-PENSIONERS AT THE ROYAL HOSPITAL, CHELSEA [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: This is a joint interview with P J Freeman ( Irish Guards) and W Millhouse (Lincolnshire Regiment) , mainly about their experiences in Palestine before and after the 1939/45 war, but there is also conversation about aspects of Army life in peacetime.
Description: Mr Freeman, who was in Cairo when the "Arab revolt" started, went to Nablus with the Irish Guards and until September 1938 was engaged with them on searches of road convoys for Arab terrorists (he describes the danger from road mines) and operations to "cordon and search'' villages in order to discover weapons. Mr Millhouse describes the building of defensive positions (sangars) on the hills and, prompted by the interviewer, speaks of the incident which earned him a mention in dispatches: he went out to recover guns which had been left behind by another soldier who was carrying back a wounded comrade. Mr Freeman and Mr Millhouse consider that the tactics used to deal with guerrillas in Palestine were not very different after the war from what they were before it: the Jews, however, were far more sophisticated in their techniques, many of them having had experience in the British or Polish armies.
Mr Millhouse contributes some anecdotes about Army life in Palestine, and Mr Freeman speaks of lengthy tours of public duties with the Irish Guards in London in peacetime, recollecting that when guardsmen went walking out in civilian clothes they had to wear a dark blue or grey suit with a regimental tie and a trilby hat.
Alternative Title:INTERVIEWS WITH IN-PENSIONERS AT THE ROYAL HOSPITAL, CHELSEA [Allocated Series Title]
