2718480 WOII William Rankin WATTON, 1 Irish Guards

Enlistment Date: 16 June 1936
Army Number: 2718480
Rank: Warrant Officer Class II
Name: William Rankin WATTON
Unit: 1st Battalion Irish Guards ; 1st Battalion Royal Hampshire Regiment

Year of Birth: 1916
Place of Birth: Ballybogey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

 

Irish Guards: Medal Rolls, General Service Medal, Palestine Clasp 1936 - 1939
Unit: 1 Irish Guards
GSM & Clasp: GSM, Palestine Clasp 1936 - 1939
TNA Reference: WO 100/503


Irish Guards: Medal Rolls, General Service Medal, Palestine Clasp 1945 - 1948
Unit: 1 Irish Guards
GSM & Clasp: GSM, Palestine Clasp 1945 - 1948
TNA Reference: WO 100/526
Notes: WATTON W Warrant Officer Class II, Drill Serjeant 2718480 1st Bn. Irish Guards Palestine Clasp 1945 - 1948 WO 100/526

 

Watton, William Rankin (Oral history)

Object description

• British guardsman served with 1st Bn Irish Guards, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1937-1938;
• NCO served with Support Coy, 1st Bn Irish Guards, 24th (Guards) Bde in Norway, 5/1940-6/1940;
• served with 1st Bn Irish Guards, British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in Germany, 1945-1947;
• served with Mortar Platoon, Support Coy, 1st Bn Irish Guards, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1947-1948;
• served with 1st Bn Royal Hampshire Regt in Federation of Malaya, 1953-1955

Content description

• REEL 1 Background in Ballybogey, Northern Ireland, 1916-1936: family; education; reasons for enlisting in Irish Guards, 6/1936. Recollections of operations as guardsman with 1st Bn Irish Guards, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1937-1938: stationing at Nablus; work keeping roads open; method of clearing roadblocks; degree of casualties in unit; use of mortars against insurgents; patrolling the 'Triangle of Terror'; method of conducting house-to-house searches; length of service; use of mortars from back of vehicles; opinion of service in Palestine. Recollections of operations as NCO with Support Coy, 1st Bn Irish Guards, 24th (Guards) Bde in Norway, 5/1940-6/1940: character of voyage from GB to Harstad; reasons for planned move to Bodo; sinking of MS Chrobry carrying unit to Bodo; rescue of survivors by HMS Stork and HMS Wolverine and return to Harstad; in action against Germans forces.
• REEL 2 Continues: relations with Norwegian civilians; withdrawal from Harstad aboard HMT Lancastria, 10/6/1940; attitude towards campaign in Norway; period as instructor in GB after return from Norway, 1940-1945. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Bn Irish Guards, British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in Germany, 1945-1947: stationing at Gummersbach; relations between troops and German civilians. Recollections of period as NCO with Mortar Platoon, Support Coy, 1st Bn Irish Guards, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1947-1948: role guarding illegal immigrants; method of house searches; unit casualties; conditions illegal immigrants kept under; contact with kibbutzes; preference for service in Palestine in 1947-1948; leaving Palestine, 5/1948. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Royal Hampshire Regt in Federation of Malaya, 1953-1955: background to joining unit as regimental sergeant-major, 1951; jungle training at Nee Soon Camp, 1953-1954; operations in Bentong area; supply of rations to troops in jungle; weapons carried; snake bites; removal of insurgent bodies from jungle; unit's accounting for eighteen insurgents south of Kuala Lumpur, 1955.
• REEL 3 Continues: visit by Field Marshal John Harding and Anthony Eden; problems negotiating swamps in Bentong area; state of troops' health; degree to which army used aircraft; accidents to unit members; performance of National Servicemen; lack of offensive actions by insurgents.