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National Service

Did you ever put too much soap inside those creases and get lather in the rain?!!
My Husband was talking about hard-tack biscuits the other day, do they still issue an equivalent?
rosie.
 
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No, no hard tack, my lad is a Para, and we have his 24hr field ration in front of me, curry, chocolate , boiled sweets, mashed spuds, tomato sauce???, light years from our old issue, my favourite with hard tack, creamy porrage, get a bayonet, smash to a powder your hard tack, mix with your condensed milk, brilliant. paul
 
Thank you Paul, I'll tell him. Sounds a strange assortment!
He was saying how they used to smuggle bread, butter and jam back to the billet and one of the chaps had a toaster hidden behind a panel!!
Ordinary food was bendy fried eggs, hard bacon, cauliflower with maggots in...usually OK though, and plenty of bread and butter.
I bet you have tales to tell your lad!
rosie.
 
rosie said:
Did you ever put too much soap inside those creases and get lather in the rain?!!
Click to expand...
Hi Rosie - I'd forgotten about when I used soap on the inside of my trouser creases. Here is a photo from earlier in the thread of an RAF sports afternoon and on that day it looks like trouser creases weren't top priority. Although faintly in the far right hand of the picture, is an airman standing in his underpants pressing his uniform. I remember him - smartest man in the billet !
normal_Inside_Hut_RAF_Melksham.JPG
 
You are making me feel hungry ,Paul. When I went on excercise on Salisbury Plains we were eating mostly tinned meat for all meals, thank goodness it was for 48 hrs, I do remember having porridge for Breakfast though.
Dave
 
I have to press the trousers now!
He used to mend socks to pay for his train fare home....if they need mending now I throw them out!!
rosie.
 
I wish our billet was like that at Barton Stacey.I have stated before what it was like and believe me it was very bad. The biggest problem was the wood splinters in the floor along with the holes. Is there anybody out who was at Barton Stacey and verify what it was like. We were told that they (the billets) were built in the first world war and the had been condemned years before.
Dave
 
Another thing we did not have any wardrobes to put our kit in, it all had to go into the kitbag, wet and all, terrible conditions!!!.
Dave
 
rosie ,I have a wife who does that and then I wonder where all my socks have gone. I was lucky in the forces as I was not heavy on socks, I think it was all do with the fit of your boots, if they were easy on the feet they rubbed and put holes in the socks and I did not do much walking while working in my Armoury only up tp the N.A.A.F.I for break.
Dave
 
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I did't know about maggots in the cauliflower Rosie, but if I smell cabbage cooking, it takes me right back to my army days though, Barton Stacey was shut down in my days Dave, but whenever we went to Sailsbury plain on exercise there were snide remarks, about " shall we call in and see your dad Stacey" or "nearly home Stacey". paul
 
Having a look through this thread I was thinking about when we were marched to compulsory Sunday Church Parades and remember the NCOs always shouting 'Fall Out Roman Catholics and Jews' We often had thoughts about a quick change of religion so we could skive off while the majority were in the church, but the Sarge had a way of looking at you which made most of us decide to be C of E and into the church we went.
 
National Service and the ' Duke of Edingburgh 'award.
Is this a modern equivalent in some of it's forms? I hear some us old N/S guys say from time to time
" They ought to bring back National Service " this mainly I think when we think that we observe inadequacies in some of our young people. We then put a bit of thought into the Economics of this and then shut up again.
I recently talked with a young family relative engaged in trying to acquire his ' Duke of Edinburgh ' awards.
He explained to me the programmes he has completed and then the programmes that he still has to complete in the future.
It struck me that here was a ' Young persons activity ' that goes part way to giving young people similar
experiences to those that had done National Service.
One of the major differences of course is that these young people do these programmes of activity
' Voluntarily ' and are not ' Conscripted '.
Another is that their programmes do not include ' Hostility' training .
I was interested though in the similarity in terms of Discipline, Team work ,Comradeship , Exercise ,
Character building and Social skills.
I say therefore good luck and well done to all these young people who have been on or who are involved at the moment in these D of E awards. I would guess also that it will not do them any harm as an addition to their personal CV's.
 
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Hi Roy,

As an oldie who did National Service from 1955-57, I appreciate what you are saying. Those who say "bring back National Service" are generally relating it to the ne'er do wells, thugs and layabouts, whereas those who volunteer for the D of E Award don't have those sorts of problems and are well-behaved and have self-discipline, the very qualities that are missing in the thugs and layabouts. We have too many politically correct laws for National Service to take place today. Can you imagine a drill sergeant shouting a few well-chosen expletives into the face of a recruit and being up before a Court a few days later for abuse or whatever?

Maurice
 
Roy,
What the army did was take the rough and smooth them out, when I went in it was "The Teddy Boys" who were not Teddy Boys after six or eight weeks training. They would take the p--- out of the next intake and they were proud to wear the uniform of the Reg. We had some lads who came from Dr( Banardoes)? and the army was their home, they made very good soldiers as it was the only home they knew.
Dave
 
I think the main reason for a national service army post WW2 was in those far off days we were still an 'Empire', and required large amount of troops to police it. The "ethos" it instilled into young men conscripted, was a sense of "duty, pride in ones self, and pride in an ideal, self sacrifice, self discipline" and finally a feeling of being able to take on most jobs in later life, as well as an ability in inter personal relationships. In some blokes it also included, anger management ,cleanliness, an ability to accomplish a set task to a finished product.paul
 
The Girlfriend. An observation during the early days of some of the lads just beginning their N/S.
The Conscriipts that had a serious Girlfriend or a Fiancée at the time of ' call up ' seemed to be under extra pressure to get
' soon as possible ' week-end ' leave passes. Pressure on Pressure for these Lads.
 
Roy Blakey said:
The Girlfriend. An observation during the early days of some of the lads just beginning their N/S.
The Conscriipts that had a serious Girlfriend or a Fiancée at the time of ' call up ' seemed to be under extra pressure to get
' soon as possible ' week-end ' leave passes. Pressure on Pressure for these Lads.
Click to expand...

There were also the lads that received the dreaded 'Dear John' letters
Nick
 
brummie nick said:
There were also the lads that received the dreaded 'Dear John' letters
Nick
Click to expand...
The 'Dear John' letters received by lads in our billet were always a good excuse for us all to go into Melksham to drink a local brew called scrumpy. A few glasses of scrumpy could make you forget you were doing National Service. Probably not now sold in these 'health and safety' days.
3150438
 
Oldmohawk.
The first time I had scrumpy was in Devises right at the end of my service, I had to do Town patrol in devises with a Sgt from the R.A.P.C and it was a hot week end, Saturday to be exact and opposite the pool is a pub, we were due a break so we went in and I had half of Scrumpy, It was a good job nothing happened until the evening when the T.A came to town as I felt a bit on the drunk side, it was potent stuff that drink
Dave
 
I did not get the letter but it finished 5 months after I went in, 54 years later we are still together but I do not know how.
Dave
 
Scrumpy isn't confined to Devizes but is a beverage of Somerset (and parts now in Avon), Devon and Cornwall. Not sure about Dorset.

Not something you would ideally drink regularly. People regularly inebriated were usually "scrumpy drinkers": not an appellation to be welcomed.
 
I was in the REME in Taunton and we went into town a consumed plenty of Scrumpy both cheap and strong.havent had
any since.That was 1952.
 
"Scrump" ? Look no further than Hereford. While stationed there, we Boy Soldiers were celebrating something and drank it out of freezing cold mess tins. In fact, in the 60s, I saw a pub in Bromsgrove advertising it as "Lunatic Soup" !
 
I was down in 'Bovington', with the Centre Regiments Sergeants Mess, and went into the little thatched Pub in Lolworth Cove, I had a couple of pints of "Scumpy", all else was a mystery to me till the following morning. Never touched since.paul
 
maypolebaz - I remember the unconscious lads being brought into camp whilst being held up by their mates and screened from the Guard Room by as many bodies as could be mustered from those getting off the Credenhill bus. They had been having an "enjoyable" night on scrumpy for only a few pence but they paid dearly for it the day after! Memories! willey
 
maypolebaz - Yes, it was 1958 and I was on both the copy typist course and shorthand course. By the time I got posted to H.Q. Signals Command I had already completed eleven months service. Had good fun at Credenhill and some good mates. Were you there? willey
 
I was trained as a clerk personnel at RAF Hereford in 1956. Presume your typing and shorthand course was organised there. willey, or had the RAF moved on by then and left it to the SAS. I was then home posted for the rest of my National Service to RAF Hillingdon - cushy life there after. Will.
 
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