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National Service

  • Thread starter Thread starter RayD
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Just been perusing this thread, seems to be mostly ex Army bods who are posting, very few posts from ex RAF or Navy, I was in the RAF from 1948 to 1956 mostly on aircrew duties as a wireless op, flew on Lancasters, Sunderlands Dakotas and similar aircraft, I wondered if there was anybody out there, ex RAF, who was also on aircrew duties. The Lancaster Sqdn was 82(PR) on survey duties in Africa, the last Lancaster Sqdn in the RAF. It was in Africa from 1946 to 1953, I was with them from '49 to '51, it would be great to contact some one who shared similar experiences. I am in my '80s, so they would be 'getting on' a bit but there is always hope. Eric
 
I will tell you a funny story about the ACC, "a much maligned group of men in my mind", (though very thin skinned) I can't remember the barracks now but I think it was "Arbourmal" or something similar, anyway when I came out of the forces I sold tax free cars to servicemen and women going to NATO mainly. I was down one day at the ACC Bks in Aldershot, chatting to my old mate Sgt Bee, we were commenting on the "Bikini Amber" alert status due to the IRA mainland bombings, and I just happened to say "just in passing" that it was more dangerous being around his ACC blokes with full magazines on their SLR's, than anything the IRA could do, and his was overheard by the passing RSM who promptly banned me from the camp for life. Rather unjustly in my opinion.
 
We all have our opinions Paul, sometimes they get us into trouble. Having spent two weeks at Blandford some of us were being shipped out to different camps, We were all lined up on the square and our names were called out for us to board certain lorries that were waiting to move us out. Those who were called went off to the billets to pack and then came out and got on the wagons, some of us were still there, and at the last minute my name and another lads were called and we were given two minutes to pack all our kit. Impossible as I have said before I had a Canadian Greatcoat which was like a tent, it wanted a kit bag all of it's own just to put it in. The Cpl came looking for us in the billet and could see I had a problem but started shouting at us anyway, so i said "You did not give us much time corporal" You are on a charge at your next camp. He did not even know my name. nothing happened.
Dave
 
Was there a national service for the Navy?, dos any body know?, I don't know if a lot of Brummies would have gone in the Navy?, I did remember hearing somewhere,? that for every 20 NSm, there would be 1 sailor.?
 
Paul, one of our mates went in from our firm, he joined the merchant navy and I think you had to do three years if you joined the merchant. There were a few on the coach from Bingley hall in those days because they would cross the ferry over to Pompy having been dropped off in Gosport.
dave
 
l know in 1950 when it came time for my brother to do his n/s he wanted to go into the navy and soon found out the only way he could do that was to volunteer for 12 years .....after the 12years finding he could'nt get a job with a livable wage in civvy street he signed on for another 10years and ended up with a good pension.....Brenda
 
All that chat last night lads, where is Baz?

(I hope I'm the Baz you mean Eddie).
No offence but as the thread is about NS I, being an ex-regular, didn't think I should get involved.
During my early years we were outnumbered by the National Service blokes. The earliest one I remember was in the Dental Centre, Hereford.
We were all sitting waiting, clutching our Small Kit, when in shuffled this character in BD. His jacket was unbuttoned, his hands were in his pockets, his tie was undone and he was a full lieutenant.
Until then I hadn't realised that there were NS officers, this one was the Dental Officer and he didn't want to be in the army either !
 
Any of you ex squaddies remember some of the antics some n/s got up to trying to "work their ticket" I remember one guy who used to march `same arm same leg` Quite funny the first time i saw him. I also heard about a bloke (not sure if this is true or not) who used to come on parade wearing nothing but his boots, his excuse was, allergic to khaki. I wonder if any of those guys ever managed to get out? I know a regular soldier could buy himself out for about £200, but i don`t think that rule applied to n/s.
 
I remember an army barber working the system the other way.
My Brother in Law who went through the war, was a barber in civvy street.
I had seven brothers go through the army before me. Two during the war and five N/S so we knew something about haircuts.
My brother in law gave me a very short haircut the day before I joined up.
First thing they did at Aldershot was to give all recruits a hair cut, I didn't really need one, but the barber wasn't going to let a tanner get away was he,?
 
Smudger,

I don't know if it was a way of getting out if you were already in but I remember being told that a good way of not getting accepted in the first place was to claim incontinence.

Was too proud to try it myself but I have often wondered whether it was a valid cop-out and if it was, how the authorities would have gone about putting the claim to the test!

Chris
 
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Any of you ex squaddies remember some of the antics some n/s got up to trying to "work their ticket" I remember one guy who used to march `same arm same leg` Quite funny the first time i saw him. I also heard about a bloke (not sure if this is true or not) who used to come on parade wearing nothing but his boots, his excuse was, allergic to khaki. I wonder if any of those guys ever managed to get out? I know a regular soldier could buy himself out for about £200, but i don`t think that rule applied to n/s.
I notice I've made 73 posts in this thread - not bad since I was only in for two years NS.
I try not to repeat myself so going back I mentioned 'ticket working' click/here, and 'tick-tock' men click/here
3150438
oldmohawk
 
My Dad carried a letter around in his wallet till the day he died, some 43years , in it I had written, please send £20 they are all mad here, they make you go to bed at 10 O clock when you are not tired and wake you up at 5 O clock when your tired out, and the foods awful. Needless to say, he did't, could not have afforded it anyway, by the time the letter had arrived I had started to love it anyway. Paul
 
Was there a national service for the Navy?, dos any body know?, I don't know if a lot of Brummies would have gone in the Navy?, I did remember hearing somewhere,? that for every 20 NSm, there would be 1 sailor.?
My brother-in law did his National Service in the Navy .....
My brother in law did National Service in the Navy at the same time that I was in the RAF. He served on the aircraft carrier HMS Bulwark and was in the Suez invasion. He saw aircraft going over the side of the carrier - there was some chat about it around Here on the forum.
Dave - have you got any photos to add to the thread ?
oldmohawk
Phil
 
Don't think it has been mentioned before and something perhaps not widely known, but....

Lads who had shown an aptitude for Modern Languages at school and were perhaps going on to university after National Service were given the opportunity of volunteering to learn Russian by opting for the 18 month "Russian Course". The upside of the latter was to spend the best part of one's two years with brain engaged, learning something useful and avoiding all the normal nonsense of bull, parades and military discipline. The downside was that it was very intensive, extremely hard work and spent (for my generation) in the middle of Bodmin Moor.

I later met several of these blokes. One had spent the last 6 months of his service sitting in a hut in Kiel with earphones clamped to his head monitoring Soviet naval broadcasts in the Baltic. (Another R.N. National Serviceman). Some went on to study the language at degree level after demob and later taught it in secondary schools where Russian became increasingly offered as a subject.

(In those days an optimist was defined as someone who learned Russian. Pessimists learned Chinese).

Chris
 
Don't think it has been mentioned before and something perhaps not widely known, but....

Lads who had shown an aptitude for Modern Languages at school and were perhaps going on to university after National Service were given the opportunity of volunteering to learn Russian by opting for the 18 month "Russian Course"..

Chris
We had a guy in our billet, studious type totally unsuited to military life, the DI's picked on him, we had to help him many times to survive basic training. On the day we were all told what we would be doing for the next 22 months, he heard he had been selected to go on a Russian language course and it was the first time he looked happy.
We also had two guys in the flight who put themselves down as POM's - 'potential officer material'.
 
I hadn't heard of the Russian course before, though anyone with a degree, or who chose to put off university until he had finished his National Service, was pressurised to apply for officer training. Most ended up as officers in the Education Section, but one guy called Harry Marshall (who reminded me of the actor with the same name) did apply and successfully completed officer training.

Maurice
 
During my service in the RAF from 1948 to '56 I do not think you had the option of 'buying' your self out of the service, may be it was an option that come along later ? Eric
 
On a cold winters night in 1957 we huddled round the stove in our freezing hut discussing life in general and wondered what would happen if one of us won first prize on the football pools because national service men could not buy themselves out. A 'regular' with us said that the RAF would promote you to a low acting-officer rank and post you somewhere else. I could believe the posting bit because if you parked your newly acquired Jaguar next to the Station Officer's Morris Minor and took the lads out for decent nosh every other night, it could disturb the smooth running of the camp.

The strange thing is, later at RAF Topcliffe in Yorkshire we had a Pilot Officer (lowest rank not aircrew) who appeared to be in his late forties and did nothing other than being awkward and nasty to airmen to such an extent that we went out of our way to avoid him. Being new on the camp, we asked why he was such a nightmare and why none of the other officers appeared to like him, and were told that he had won the pools and been promoted from the ranks - probably a 'service myth' but you never know !
 
Having been in the RAF from choice, not National Service, I don't usually post in this thread. There were many ways of avoiding military service. At the time I fisrt joined at RAF Cardington there was someone there who was well known as a cricketer. He was unfit for service I believe. However , fit or otherwise, he went on to have a good cricketing career.
Obviously he was of more use the the country as a cricketer than an erk, or whatever, in the RAF.

Pilot Officers were often those straight from Uni aand serving on Short Service Commissions. They often had work which might be classed as 'being a spare aunt at a christening'. :biggrin:

There were methods of purchase out, usually only certain ranks but, as with all things in life, it is not always what you know, but who you know. :friendly_wink:

Language courses were regarded as important: especially during the 'cold war' era.
 
Hi Nick, #931, no at one time I could, Lesen und Schrift, read and write, we had a bloke with us, (no name, no pack drill), he came from the black country and he spoke barrack room German quite well actually, but with a massive black country accent, he used to have me in stitches, { garben sie meer, ein bier, bitter}, it was hilarious, {give me a beer please}, a difficult to portray in writing though.
 
Radiorails, in the 70's, I used to sell tax free cars to the military, and Cardington was still a RAF, operational camp, around 1975, the SWO was a chap called Bill Tedman, and he gave me a tour of the R100 hanger, never seen anything so big in my life.
 
Yes Paul, I completed my 3 months 'square bashing' at Cardington in Summer of '48 and during PT sessions we ran 4 times round the R101 hanger and were told that was 1 mile. I also remember there were inflated Barrage balloons inside the hanger, believe they were used for parachute training, it was over 65 years ago but these things stick in the mind, I also spent my 18th Birthday there Eric
 
Help me lads I did a story about a guy working his ticket and they were waiting for him after pay parade at the guardroom gate, for the life of me I cannot find it to relate it to Smudger. Is it possible to look back at your posts history as I have put about 60+ on the site and it will take all night to look for it.
Meanwhile, the last guard I did the lance jack was newly promoted, I went round to his room to see if he knew what to do on the square and he was scared stiff and he had the runs and wanted to go and see the M.O to get off guard. I had only done one before and it was not too bad, if you made a mistake the officer did'nt give anyone a B*********g or shout your head off. He went on and did O.K. That was the beauty of the depot, it was such a homly place everyone got on with their jobs, thinking back with only about 40-50 Staff there we all had to work together to train 120 odd lads every 2 months.
Dave
 
We were talking earllier about bulling our kit, also packing your pouches out with cardboard,WELL!! I was lucky because mine wer ammunition boxes which were made of plywood and never returned to the suppliers because all the spent round were put into sacks, with the odd live round and collected and taken. It did happen that the odd live round was missed because the quantity used was high being a infantry depot, sometimes it would go on orders that this had happened and the training Sgt must check the rounds when on the range.
Dave
 
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