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National Service

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oldMohawk said:
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'.
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An ex-Guardsman I used to work with did a Russian language course while he was in Berlin.
 
Hi Paul - My main contact with Army during NS was on the train going back up north on Sunday nights. We got off at Thirsk the squaddies were going on to Catterick. At New St station there was a tussle to 'baggs' a compartment on the corridor train, lock the doors, pull down the blinds, take out the light bulbs before the army 'baggsied' it. We used to win some and lose some !
 
Oldmohawk, I remember it well on trains, I used to get my kit and spread it along the seats, with "my mates gone to the toilet", etc, when underway would as you say, pull the blinds and lock the door. The thing that is striking to my generation when the odd time I catch a train, is the lack of uniformed personnel either around the station or on a train. When young the places were full of them, including the town, buses and bus station. I believe there was a military language school at RAF Gatau, Berlin, and I was aware of a greater number than normal of "Royal Signals " men, for the various eves-dropping posts around Berlin, from Spandau to Charlottenburg.
 
Oldmohawk, I used to do the same thing on trains , I would spread my kit along the seats , with "my mates in the toilet", then as you say when underway would pull the blinds and lock the door, One thing that strikes my generation on the odd times I catch a train is the lack of uniformed personnel in the stations and on the train, they were all over the town too, and on bus's and bus station when I was young. I believe there was a military language school at RAF Gatau, Berlin. You were always aware that there seemed to be rather more Royal Signals men around, mainly I suppose because of the large number of eves-dropping posts spread around Berlin from Spandau through to Chalottenburg.
 
In the 40's and 50's a lot of servicemen did not bother or could not afford rail fare for the odd 48 or 72 hour pass so would 'hitch hike' home in uniform, I did many a time with no problems, the war had only been over a few years and the military were still well thought of, this practise seemed to fade out in later years
 
cookie273uk said:
In the 40's and 50's a lot of servicemen did not bother or could not afford rail fare for the odd 48 or 72 hour pass so would 'hitch hike' home in uniform, I did many a time with no problems, the war had only been over a few years and the military were still well thought of, this practise seemed to fade out in later years
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I remember as a raw recruit hitch hiking to Brum from Yeovil. I got a lift & after a while the driver asked me what i thought about "queers". I`d heard the word queer before but didn`t really know what it meant except it wasn`t very nice, so i said to this guy that they should be locked up. He stopped the car & told me to get out. I was 18 years old & didn`t know what a "queer" was. How naive. It`s a word you don`t hear any more to describe a gay person.
 
Eddie 14 said:
Thanks ,Phil, how did you find it? I thought we could go back into our post history, but maybe I am missing something.

Dave
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Hi Dave - I clicked on the words 'Search Thread' just above the list of posts and entered the word 'ticket' in the white box which appears and clicked search. A list of the posts in this thread containing the word 'ticket appeared. I could see two from you, the latest one you had posted with your question and the earlier one which I then clicked on and your earlier post appeared. Give it a try !
Actually the 'Search' function on the BHF works very well particularly the search for 'Thread Titles' only.
Phil
 
During the 60's me and a mate used to hitch hike all over the country, we used to run into squaddies all over the place in uniform doing the same thing. The only problem was whenever we saw a squaddie we would have to backtrack a couple of miles down the road because they always got first offer of a lift and we long haired louts always got left standing there no matter who was in line for the first lift.
 
I have seen squaddies asleep in the luggage rack too, Smudger ,#950, very un PC today mate, #949, yes I remember the general order of 1972, I believe this was resinded 2010, my lad is a serving soldier and he never, never, wears his uniform only civvy's, and so do all his mates.
 
Giving the hitch hikers a lift after I started back on the old job reminds me of one such Navy lad. I was coming up from Plymouth and this lad wanted a lift so I stopped, he wanted to get to Coventry, this was when there were no motorways to the South-West, so he was on to a good start until I stopped and asked him to get out. The reason was he put his foot onto the painted parcel shelf at the front, I said "Would you please take your foot off there please". He did but a few minutes later he did it again so I dumped him. he was not very happy as it was not a very busy road I was on.

Dave
 
A little story about the blinking Rooks that used to nest in the trees alongside the square, right opposite my armoury, about 60ft away. The noise was continuous and the orders the Cpls were giving out on the square were drownded out, there were about 20-25 nests. Unbeknown to me the Ajt Captain Welsh had been talking to Cpl Bill Rivers of the R.Ps and they came up with the idea of blasting them out of the trees by using a 12 bore from the top of the keep which I kept the keys to. One Monday morning Bill brought me his 12 bore to lock up for safe keeping, later on the two of them, Captain welsh and bill came for the weapon and the keys to carry out their idea.I went up with them to see the results of the nest blasting, bill said I have a special cartridge, it has ball bearings instead of lead shot,"That will shift them". We were high enough to be almost right opposite the nest so Bill let one barrel go, birds feathers twiggs and rubish out of the nests went everywhere. He said I would not of been able to have done that with lead shot, lets look at your barrel bill, I broke it and looked up the spout, the barrel was wrecked. The whole length had been splined with about 15 perfectly smooth grooves from breach to muzzle, he never really did get rid of all of the Rooks.

Dave
 
paul stacey said:
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.
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What was the reply by the German, " anything fur yow cupcake " Long live the Brummy twang, it`s so melodic & friendly, not threatening like the scouse twang.
 
Survival Training RAF NS style...
Five weeks after leaving civvy street and now on basic training we were taken in trucks from Warrington and dropped off in rough country near Formby for a one night stay in the open and next day to find a place they had marked on a map from which they would pick us up. After being dropped off it was very foggy and unable to see anything we found a hollow, lit a fire and and made a luke warm drink. After a cold sleepless night we set off in thick fog towards where we thought the pick up point was and approached a small cottage but a bloke there told us to 'b****r off which we did. We then saw an old truck appear out of the fog driven by a rough looking man. He offered us a lift and said he knew where our pick up place was, and would drop us off a short distance away to avoid the DI's seeing us arrive in a truck. We were early and no RAF trucks awaited us, but the other group were sitting there looking rather pleased with themselves. They had found a small holding and the owner had let them sleep in a shed, and next morning his wife gave them two kettles of hot water also letting them use the outside lav before giving them precise instructions to get to the pick up place. Eventually the trucks arrived with DI's looking annoyed because we had got there before them. We were not bothered, all we wanted was to get back to camp for a wash and shave and be just in time for tea.
We had survived !
 
Do any of you RAF Types remember "RAF TOPCLIFF", not far from Catterick, and you could see it from the A1, in the seventy's it changed to a Royal Artillery camp, I remember it had two "Blood hound Missiles" out side the gates, and an old "Bofor Gun". about 1975/6.
 
Early in my training we went to Weymouth, & had to build a rafts with oil drums & rope & then paddle across this inlet, about 20 yards & 5ft deep. I was terrified of water & when the raft began to break up the other three guys swam to the other side, leaving me floundering in the water flaping my arms like Norman Wisdom on speed. When one of the DI`s realised i was in trouble he ordered one of the other lads to pull me out. I`ve never been so scared or humiliated in my life. I nearly drowned in Brookvale park as a nipper which is why i was so scared of water. ( Thanks to Bernard Green for saving me)
 
paul stacey said:
Do any of you RAF Types remember "RAF TOPCLIFF", not far from Catterick, and you could see it from the A1, in the seventy's it changed to a Royal Artillery camp, I remember it had two "Blood hound Missiles" out side the gates, and an old "Bofor Gun". about 1975/6.
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Hi Paul - I spent much of my National Service at RAF Topcliffe near Thirsk in Yorkshire. It has since been taken over by the Army and is now known as Alanbrooke Barracks with runways retained for some army flights and as a RAF diversion field. I visited it recently and looked at the front gate holding my camera and some squaddie on guard pointed a gun in my direction and rudely told me to go ! I first mentioned it click/here
They 'nicked' a nameplate from a tower block on Castle Vale and put it in front of the control tower see photo below....
RAF Topcliffe.jpg
 
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Hi Oldmohawk, sorry but I just came on the thread and saw this, (for some reason it wasn't passed on to the people concerned?), yes I first went there like Cardington as tax free salesman, I remember spotting it stuck right on the top of the hill as I travelled down the A1, like you I went back to the Old Guards Depot at Pirbright where I had spent a good deal of my young life, and some young Ouk with a gun, told me to P---O--, when I told him of my connection he just turned his back on me.
 
We were talking about the amount of BULL which we were subjected to in many ways. Paul's studs, and the bottoms had to be like the tops. The R.E.M.E. training surprizingly had a lot of time spent on getting your kit up to scratch, we seemed to spend all the week ends just just on that. Mess tins polished, spare laces in pig tails and a piece of cotton to keep them wound flat, kit bag where your name was stencilled on had to be horizontal and creased all yor kit square. Housewife flat but no lumps it it when on a bed layout but still have the bits inside. I don't for the life of me think all this was laid down in any instructions. some Sgt just dreamt them up because camps varied.
What I am coming to is the R.E.M.E. bed layout was different to Wilts. What should I do because we were having a W.O.I in about months time so we were having test run so the C.O could see the standard the the permanent staff were capable of, not having done this since early training.I did the layout that I knew and to be honest, not blowing my own trumpet I thought it was good, so did the C.O, he had it photographed and a photo put up in all the training billets, this is what he wanted. A BIG CLANG he had not noticed that the kit bag said Cfn on it and the badge in the beret was not a Wilts one, the R.E.M.E. telling the wilts how to do a bed layout. He had the the photo doctored with the correct badge and the Cfn air brushed out but left my name. I wonder wher that photo is today?.

Dave
 
Well done Dave , I can honestly say I never had a photo of my kit displayed, I had it bundled up and slung out of a window a few times in basic, together with dire threats of retribution exacted by size 12 Ammo boots upon my person.
 
Gosh Paul, you had a big area of boot to polish on a size 12. Little Billy Gooch only had size 4 and to be honest the toe cap was so small you could hardly see it.

Dave
 
paul stacey said:
Well done Dave , I can honestly say I never had a photo of my kit displayed, I had it bundled up and slung out of a window a few times in basic, together with dire threats of retribution exacted by size 12 Ammo boots upon my person.
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Back in the 60`s, everyones kit is laid out neatly on their bed. All the beds are lined up using a length of string. In strides the inspecting nco. "What a bloody shambles" he roars, he starts flinging your lovely laid out kit here there & everywhere, mattress gets tipped off the bed. "Another inspection in one hour" he roars again, so you start tidying your kit (9"x9" if i remember) lining the beds up again. He returns in an hour, inspects the kit & says " That`s much better" even tho it`s no different to the first time. Oh happy days.
 
Smudge. one of the problems I had was the N.C.O was only small and I felt he had got to take it out of the taller ones. He could not reach my face when giving a bo-------g so all his spittle went down my B.D and I suppose he felt inferior.
Dave
 
I've only recently joined this forum, and this thread and this may have been mentioned, but with the mix of lads that were put together from all over the UK, wasn't it amazing how we all understood each other after the first week or so, yet when we were first put together you couldn't understand most blokes in your biilet.
 
Eddie 14 said:
Smudge. one of the problems I had was the N.C.O was only small and I felt he had got to take it out of the taller ones. He could not reach my face when giving a bo-------g so all his spittle went down my B.D and I suppose he felt inferior.
Dave
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Spittle is disgusting, even if it is just down your tunic. I remember getting a rollocking from a csm whose face was about 2 inches from mine & the spittle was splattering my face, & when i tried to step back out of range he got even more mental. You could tell with some senior nco`s that they were being "nasty" in a humorous way, but the odd few really were nasty. I bumped into one csm in Northern Ireland, & he said " Smith, i thought you`d be dead by now" I don`t think he was joking. Being small in the army was preferable to being tall i reckon. The tall one was always right marker & was easily spotted when a `volunteer` was requested.
 
Thinking back Smudg, they were happy days really amazing what you could put up with, and cope, when young, The thing that the British Army was brilliant at, Austin, was team building and motivation 400 years of square bashing, and hard training, made you want your particular, detail, squad, company, squadron, be the best. This was whatever your regiment, and what your inclination on joining the military was, ie: Forced service or volunteer service.
 
Smudger said:
Back in the 60`s, everyones kit is laid out neatly on their bed. All the beds are lined up using a length of string.
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All this talk about billet inspections tempted me to drag a pic I put on long ago down to here. Our billet at Padgate looked so good someone took a pic. Just look at the reflection in that coke bin, and the stove flue shines. Not a cobweb or spec of dust anywhere.
normal_Smart_Billet_RAF_Padgate.jpg
 
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