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Did anyone of you ever fire the no 8 pistol or the vickers? A deadly weapon the vickers, in training you are given the bits and you have to build the whole thing , the big problem was preventing the water leaking from around the barrel because it is moving all the time and you fail the trade...

Baz, That sniper rifle had to be zeroed with the tele sight at 28ft God knows why it was a b----r to set up. Dave

There was also a .220" no 9 rifle which weighed the same as the .303" of which I had one of in the armoury Ever heard of a Piat? It basically was a spring loaded tube with a half rounded platform at the front which fired a small bomb 80yds the only problem was you had to be over 6ft tall to load...

Paul, I did not keep a single bit of my kit, mores the pity As you can imagine with all the facilities to Bull up my brasses they were in demand when I left, I had cut the buckles through on my belt and draw filed the inner edges of them, this enabled me to remove them so the belt could be...

Baz, The short barrel replaced the Enfield 303 in 1955, it was called the F.N made in Belgium it was a lovely thing to fire because the re coil was low which meant you were not waiting for the kick in the shoulder which you got with the Enfield. The gasses were used as with the Bren to...

Paul, ammunition and weapons are not things you take chances with. The R.S.M at devises, a smashing bloke who I got on very, very well with, came to me one morning and asked me to check the STEN ammo in the Guard room because it was loaded into the mags every night during guard. some of the...

Nobody responding so I will "Tell you a story" The C.S.M at Devises who I did not get on with was Always poking his nose in to things which did not concern him but we had to tolerate him. I was heading to the N.A.F.F.I one morning walking alongside the square when Roger Dicks one of the Cadre...

I will tell you another story Lads. Recruits can be unpredictable at times, you have to instil into them the danger of misuse of weapons, never point even a unloaded weapon at anybody. I was up on the ranges early one Summers day at Devises with a new batch of recruits who were firing the Bren...

Paul I agree, I thought it was part of book which been copied. Very well written Chris Dave

Paul Stacy, Talking about falling asleep, when you are in the army you can fall asleep on a clothes line and you never know how long you have been asleep when you wake up. We were out on exercise at Barton Stacy being instructed on the use of giving signals by hand instead of...

Paul, I went to Tidworth to fetch some coloured Parachutes to cover the wall bars in the gym as we were going to have a dance on site and the people of Devises were invited to come free of charge( get that free of charge) Three or four of us corporals were asked if we could organise it, so...

Bernard, We had a R.P l/cpl at Devises who wanted a baton type stick about 30 inches long, so I told him to get an old snooker cue and I would see what I could do, thinking old Charlie would not bother. He lived in Swindon and sure enough after the week end he was back with the cue, he...

OldMoHawk I took cherry blossom with me and the corporal said it was not any goodand i must agree, I changed. Dave

Eric I do know Compton Basett not as a place where I worked but the coach from the Pay corp camp used to go that way up to Bham and park up alongside the old Bingley hall. I was the only Armourer in the area and I was loaned out to different corp such as R.E :R.A.S.C: R.A.P.C Wilts...

Paul Another one about the C,S.M who I did not get on with, attached services did not do any duties and I knew he did not like me getting away with it as I was R.E.M.E and I was att to the Wilts infantry but I always got one over him at times. As armourer I had to service his Bicycle when...

Cookie273 I will tell you a story about photd's. When I was at Devises,as I said I slept in the Keep, the billet was very homely and isolated because it had to be kept locked when not occupied because of my armoury and stores at night time as well, this meant the orderly segt could...

Hi Paul It was probably the best time because we all look back on life as we get older and think basically of the good times but think of the bad ones and they are there. Paul I do not know what your social life is like but you do not have so many friends talking to you now as you did...

Thanks Chris, I think looking back it was the comradeship which got most of us through those two years, living together almost 24 hrs a day you knew who your good friends were. Some would not pull there weight when it came to the crunch they would skive off on volunteer duties...

National service I reckon a lot of you guys out there had had a lovely 2 years away in the forces, your billets were clean and light, " why was I so unlucky"? I started off doing two weeks at Blandford, the accom was good, it was in the August of 1954 but why the heck a lot of us were sent onto...

Thank you Richard, Would please put your address in with the photo as I would like to pay you for the printing, nothing is cheap these days.I would like to send you some photographs and info in the future which I know you have not got which are of my grandfather, the memories I had of him during...