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National Service

  • Thread starter Thread starter RayD
  • Start date Start date
Austin K2 (post 566), Was he on 82(PR) Squadron, if so was he aircrew or ground based, I can remember a lot of my aircrew buddies names but the name Madison does not ring a bell, aircrews tended to stick together so I was not to familiar with the ground staff apart from a few airframe and wireless fitters. i was there 1949 to 1951.Eric
 
paul stacey said:
Those "Champs" were dangerous Baz (Rolls Royce engine), built by Austin and too narrow a wheel base and high suspension I know of at least 2 tipping over & crushing people, the 1 tonner was the duty donkey for us.
paul
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Yes they were Paul.

We had a bloke killed demonstrating how it was possible to go as fast in reverse as you could in the forward gears, (remember the forward/reverse lever ?).
He was right, you can but you can't steer at speed in reverse. He rolled the Champ over.

Even so. 18 year old signallers, shirt sleeve order, the canopy rolled down on a hot German day. We felt like we were the bee's knees !
 
maypolebaz said:
There's a man seated wearing strip webbing. He looks like he could be wearing denims and his boots don't look too clean either.
Is there a story there Bernard ?
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Under his name, Sgt Purcell
you see WT, he was our weapon training instructor. We did sixteen
weeks at Caterham and the photo includes all those who took part
in your training.You can see the PT man as well.The Trained Soldier, that
was his rank, had a room within your barrack room, so he was with
you all the time. If I can quote from a book I recently read"Caterham
is a fine barracks, if soldiers are ever made it is surely here.The training is severe but when one emerges from it , it is of a man knowing his business fully" unquote.We then on to Pirbright Camp
for fieldcraft, and shooting at Bisley. Bernard
 
I did Bernard, I read about it in a magazine once. Thinking right back to through the mists of time , my Trained Soldier was a bloke called "Mitchell", just before a Major Generals Inspection, when the world goes mad for a week. I was detailed to bumper the main spider corridor, any way it got to about 4am in the morning and I was flagging somewhat, when a scream came out of the T.S. billet room, "Stacey 252, RSM's Parade, 0800 hrs". About 7am he came to the ablutions, I said "Why am I on a charge T S", "you wasn't bumpering as detailed"!!. I was T S could't you hear the bumper squeeking, eech, eech, yes I could, that's why your on a charge, it should have been EECH, EECH EECH. Happy days.
Paul
 
When we were in training at Kinmel Park Camp, near Rhyl, we had a Geordie instructor sergeant who was very like that wonderful Drill Sgt in "Full Metal Jacket".

There was a lane that ran from near the camp down to Kinmel Bay.
One day we'd been getting a bit cheeky so he marched us down the lane, across the coast road, down the beach and into the sea.
February in North Wales ? That cooled us down.

Such discipline though !
 
Baz, sounds chilly!!, the point I was trying to make, (not very successfully) was the point Bernard made, about the Trained Soldier (a Guards rank for Lance corporal), always being there with you night & day, you could not get away from him for 21 weeks (except for Sandy's), he even ate with you.
paul
 
paul stacey said:
Baz, sounds chilly!!, the point I was trying to make, (not very successfully) was the point Bernard made, about the Trained Soldier (a Guards rank for Lance corporal), always being there with you night & day, you could not get away from him for 21 weeks (except for Sandy's), he even ate with you.
paul
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I'm with you all the way on the TS thing Paul. It's not a practise I'd ever heard of-must be "a Guards Thing" !

I mentioned our Welsh surf session just to put my two penn'orth in.
 
Someone was talking the other day about the number of Sailors around Brum, I dont
think many National Service men went into the Senior Service did they? One of my
neighbours did. Bernard
 
My brother-in-law was in the Navy on National Service and served on HMS Bulwark in the Suez invasion - I previously mentioned it here
 
Bernard,
It was me who said that there were not many navy lads on the coach from Bham to Gosport, they used to catch the Ferry across to Portsmouth from Gosport.
Dave
 
oldMohawk said:
My brother-in-law was in the Navy on National Service and served on HMS Bulwark in the Suez invasion - I previously mentioned it here
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A mate of mine joined the navy in the early sixties.

For a long time he seemed to be stuck in Portsmouth. I used to joke that I had more sea miles in than him, going from Harwich to the Hook of Holland.

Then he joined Bulwark and went around the world, Japan, all that.

Boy was I jealous !
 
Eddie 14 the name Ron Mathewson does not ring a Bell either, off course this is 60 years ago and at 81yo my memory is not 100 %, have looked through my Albums and cannot see that name on any of my pics. Eric
 
Baz, one point which has never, I don't think, been discussed is did any anybody have the choice what service and Regt they went in to do N/S.

Dave
 
Eddie 14 thats an interesting question. I think apart from the 3 services there was also a period when you had the option of going down the coal mines as a 'Bevin boy, instead, does any one remember that? I also believe if you were a member of the Army or Navy cadets or Air Training Corps you were likely to be called up to the appropiate service, am I right. Personally I was a Regular (June 1948 to June 1956) so it did not apply in my case. I do know that the Army had most of the conscripts. Eric
 
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I was N/S and seem to remember you could state a preference. I was in the Air Training Corps in my early teens so I think that got me into the RAF which was my preference. The 315 in my RAF service number 3150438 identified that I had been in the ATC.​
 
I also spent 2 years in the ATC ( 157 Sqdn Margeret St) and my service no. was 3504465, but I think the 350 merely indicated I was a 'regular' Eric
 
Interesting!!. I cannot remember when I went for my initial check-up whether I was asked then which unit I wanted to join but I was asked at some point and I chose the R.E.M.E because I was very interested in engineering. I know when I was at Blandford the first two weeks I was asked what I did in civvy st and if I played sport or played the Piano, which I did,(I never volunteered for that one) the Officer questioned me for quite a time and said "I am putting you down for W.A.S.B" I had not a clue what that was and I did not want to sound ignorant so I said Thank you and left his Office. Only when I got to Barton Stacy did I find out what it was, that is another story for later.
Dave
 
Eric,
Bevin boys 1948, last year at school we went on a day trip to London and there was a big gathering in Hyde Park at speakers corner of the miners all blacked up as well, happy school days!!!

Dave
 
Yesterday, I was trying to remember my 'demob' day from RAF Topcliffe in Yorkshire, and how I must have felt travelling down by train with my kit bag. All I can remember however, was arriving in my parents house, opening the loft trapdoor and throwing the unopened kit bag through it. I did not look at it again until about 10 years later when my parents wanted the loft insulated. I told them to dump the kit bag and contents except for my best blue hat which I still have.
oldmohawk
 
What has happened here nobody got anything to say.
Demob, I remember the morning I left Devises, I was outside waiting for the bus to Swindon and I looked at the Camp and thought "What the hell am I doing out here, all my friends are in there and I am leaving them". I was thinking that when I got home the house would be deserted because all the family went out to work and I would be all on my Jack Jones. This did happen and I felt very lonely for the first two weeks until I went back to work but it did feel strange not being with a billet of lads I could talk to."Did any of you lads feel the same?
Dave
 
I think anyone, who has served in any arm of the military, will say the same thing Dave, the camaraderie and the fact that (we were all in the same boat), in the beginning although a competitive environment, you have to all learn to work as a team or it goes pear shaped very quickly. Because of this we servicemen put up with a lot and got by but got used to working with other people and sorely missed that, and of course your best mate's of say 2 years or more, still do and will always I think.
paul
 
The exception of course being married families, I was married Dec 1952 by special licence and a week later was on my way to Hong Kong ( Kai Tak which we shared with civilian airlines) I was in normal Station accommodation for 2 months until my Wife joined me in HK, we then shared a private apartment at Observatory Crescent, Kowloon with a young Army couple (as rents are very high in HK) who we got on very well with. 14 months later our names appeared at the top of the married quarters list - in RAF Seletar Singapore 1600 miles away but it was a new 2 bedroom bungalow (9 Lancaster Gate, all the roads had London names) its only draw back it was only 100 yards from end of runway so was somewhat noisy, especially with a squadron of Buccaneers, I was a wireless op on Sunderlands of 205/209 Sqdn so we did not cause any noise, being on water !!, we were there for 15 months and my daughter was born their in Changi hospital. Incidently I went on Google earth and boththe airfield AND married quarters with the same Road names still remain almost 60 years later !! Eric
 
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I remember being told by the Military Police that the "Married Quarters", at Nee soon camp were worse than Boogie Street, and that a packet of OMO in the kitchen window meant "Old man out" , wether true or not never found out.
paul
 
paul stacey said:
I think anyone, who has served in any arm of the military, will say the same thing Dave, the camaraderie and the fact that (we were all in the same boat), in the beginning although a competitive environment, you have to all learn to work as a team or it goes pear shaped very quickly. Because of this we servicemen put up with a lot and got by but got used to working with other people and sorely missed that, and of course your best mate's of say 2 years or more, still do and will always I think.
paul
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I agree Paul. When I rejoined the army and went into the Queens Own Hussars I didn't know a soul (well, I did recognise a REME fitter), but I was able to fit in very quickly. It was all to do with shared experiences and knowing where you stood in the Pecking Order, thanks to the rank structure.
Even nowadays I find it easy to talk to other ex-army veterans, even though I've never met them before.
 
I remember when I joined the army I was ordered to report to Hereford for training. To me Hereford was somewhere on the other side of the world, we weren't well travelled in the mid-fifties and going there was exciting.
Having been stuck in a barrack room overnight I was surrounded by kids with accents I'd never heard before in my life, like Geordies, Scousers, Jocks there was even a kid from Belfast but nobody understood him !
Looking back, we were physically tough in those days but knew very little about the world. Needless to say, the army soon changed that.
 
Hi lads, been very busy renovating the Daughters horse trailer and have been kn-----ed in the evenings but, another little story. I hope everyone is o.k
One day the retired T.A Major at Devises who was in charge of the M.T and the tanks that the hussars used came into the armoury to see me, a very nice down to earth person who had come up through the ranks and acted more like a friend than an officer."Corporal Edwards I'm in the s--t we have had an accident with the B.A.T over Salisbury Plains on night exercise,it looks bad" "Will you come down to the M.T sheds and have a look, I have cleared it with your C.O and he said O.K". We walked down to the M.T and up the corner under a camouflage net was the rocket firing B.A.T absolutely covered in mud and grass, it had turned over on its back in the night when being pulled by the tank and nobody realized. This is muzzle towed and on the barrel are two pins which are supposed to restrict the angle that the carriage can rotate, one had broken and allowed the unit to turn Turtle. A good hose down and sent off to workshops at Warminster, three days later back to camp all repaired. Major Olds was a very worried man thinking the whole unit was scrap and was pleased when I happened to mention that this was a fault with this unit as many others had happened to have turned over as well. We used to have EMERS posted to the camp which contained all the info, it was like a magazine issued by the R.E.M.E which showed all the mods which had to be done to weapons.
Any body else had similar happenings?
Dave
 
Hi Dave. Did you ever come across a "Wombat" antitank in your time or was it after, I could tell you some hilarious stories, about this particular weapon.
Hope your keeping well .
Paul
 
I'm all ears Paul, that weapon was after I did my stint I think, I was from 54-56. I never told you about the Ack-Pac flame thrower, that was a fiasco. We were on the ranges on the Beach on the Solent in the depth of a freezing day of 54, we all had a go at firing this lethal human Barbecue. Basically you have a aluminium container on your back in the shape of a inner tube about 2ft diam full of petroleum jelly at 2000lbs/sq in, from that comes a tube to a pistol which fires a cartridge ever time you pull the trigger which ignites the petrol jelly and a short burst travels to the target. The target were some old oil barrels on the Beach, it was that bloody cold the jelly would not ignite so the Officer lit the target which was about 20 odd yards away, you can see what is coming now, the flame travelled back towards the pistol from the target, that was frightening to see this mass of flame coming back at you, at that point you had to remember to only do short bursts so the flame did not reach you. I tell you one thing it warmed us up on a cold winters day.

Dave
 
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