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National Service

  • Thread starter Thread starter RayD
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I did spot the rear rank drip, but as stated originally they were "Grenadiers", !!!!!!!, nice to see some of the lads back on this thread. Paul
 
I spotted the 'wally' but I think we can all probably own up to a few 'wally' occasions when we were drilling.

I can remember one at RAF Padgate when I was among the last five ranks in a flight which didn't hear the 'about-turn' command so we carried on as the rest of the flight went in the opposite direction. The drill instructor did not shout for us to re-join the rest of the flight so we carried on because it could be worse if we about-turned ourselves. We were eventually blocked by a wall and decided to mark time as we discussed our next course of action while being watched by amused airmen working in the offices. After 20 minutes of marking time the DI came, bawled and shouted all manner of insults before about-turning us so we could get back to where we should have been.

It seems funny now but it was serious on a basic training camp.
 
When talking of British Army Drill, there tends to be, (from my time at least), a great difference in basic drill, and the Foot Guards drill for Public Duties, in my time I remember a man being hauled before the CO, on a 252, "for failing continually, to swing his arm to the regulation height", despite being warned, whilst on Public Duties. Given the proverbial "Do you wish to be given a court marshal, or accept my decision", was given 14 days loss of pay, 14 days restricted duties, and 14 days RP's. they took it pretty seriously in my time. Paul
 
paul stacey said:
When talking of British Army Drill, there tends to be, (from my time at least), a great difference in basic drill, and the Foot Guards drill for Public Duties, in my time I remember a man being hauled before the CO, on a 252, "for failing continually, to swing his arm to the regulation height", despite being warned, whilst on Public Duties. Given the proverbial "Do you wish to be given a court marshal, or accept my decision", was given 14 days loss of pay, 14 days restricted duties, and 14 days RP's. they took it pretty seriously in my time. Paul
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I was once put on a charge for scraping my initials on my steel locker, only it wasn`t me that did the evil deed, nevertheless, despite my protestations of innocence i was to be punished & i had a choice, accept the co`s punishment or go for a court martial. Naturally i chose the co`s punishment which was 7 days rp`s. (strangely no loss of pay) I often wonder what would have happened if i`d chosen court martial? I knew who the culprit was, & i got my revenge by tipping his steel locker over, which i realised had made a mess on the highly polished wooden floor & i scarpered pretty quick. Revenge is a dish best served cold. I`d been punished for something i had not done, so this evened things up .The whole billet was confined to barracks for a week, which did sour the revenge (just a little bit).
 
paul stacey said:
Sounds though you were fairly "Popular"!!!, during your service Smudge.Paul
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The guy who carved my initials on my locker was n/s & he disliked regulars. We`d nearly come to blows some time before, when he taunted me about being skinny (he called me a long streak of p..s ) & luckily a lance jack stopped us coming to blows otherwise i reckon i`d have got a good hiding. He was not liked, & when our billet was confined to barracks everyone knew why & understood why i did what i did. Thankfully no one held a grudge against me.
 
Oldmohawk, your last post reminded me of an incident during Basic training.
As a squad we were marching along a concrete roadway which had a slight dip in it. As it had been raining there must have been about two inches of water in the dip.
As we approached this pool of water, at least half of the squad broke ranks to avoid the water without being ordered.. The other half, me included just carried on and marched through the water.
The DI brought us to a halt, and told the group I was in to get back to our billet and dry off.
As we marched away we could hear him giving the others a right bollocking, and marching them back and forth through the water, getting back to the billet soaking wet and not happy.
Lesson learnt, just obey orders.
 
paul stacey said:
When talking of British Army Drill, there tends to be, (from my time at least), a great difference in basic drill, and the Foot Guards drill for Public Duties, in my time I remember a man being hauled before the CO, on a 252, "for failing continually, to swing his arm to the regulation height", despite being warned, whilst on Public Duties. Given the proverbial "Do you wish to be given a court marshal, or accept my decision", was given 14 days loss of pay, 14 days restricted duties, and 14 days RP's. they took it pretty seriously in my time. Paul
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The subject of arm swinging was constantly being shouted about all through my 23 years service.
If I remember rightly the Drill Book states that the arms were to be swung "waistbelt high", not shoulder high which all Drill Pigs insisted upon.
I've seen a number of newsreel clips, of various state occasions, between the wars and the Brigade of Guards can plainly be seen, swinging their arms waistbelt high.
I can't imagine how the "shoulder high" habit crept in but I was interested to see that the Norwegian armed forces swing their arms the same way.
 
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I can only comment from 1964 onwards, "The Drill manual", at the AADC, in Pirpright, for the Cadre Class's of the Brigade of Guards, Regiments of Foot, states that the arms of marching soldiers will be swung from the sides to immediate shoulder height, keeping the arm full extended and locked at the elbow, the hand perpendicular and thumb tightly pointing forward. Paul
 
paul stacey said:
I can only comment from 1964 onwards, "The Drill manual", at the AADC, in Pirpright, for the Cadre Class's of the Brigade of Guards, Regiments of Foot, states that the arms of marching soldiers will be swung from the sides to immediate shoulder height, keeping the arm full extended and locked at the elbow, the hand perpendicular and thumb tightly pointing forward. Paul
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I know this is un-patriotic, but i do like the way the Yanks march. Looks so casual & smart at the same time. And of course the n/s guy trying to work his ticket by marching swinging the same arm as the leading leg.
 
Smudger said:
I know this is un-patriotic, but i do like the way the Yanks march. Looks so casual & smart at the same time. And of course the n/s guy trying to work his ticket by marching swinging the same arm as the leading leg.
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That was tick-tocking when I was in.
 
Smudger said:
And of course the n/s guy trying to work his ticket by marching swinging the same arm as the leading leg.
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We had a 'tick-tock' man in our flight and he wasn't working his ticket, in fact he was almost suicidal as the DI's shouted threats about keeping him in basic training forever. The DI's could not 'cure' him and it was starting to drag the whole flight down. One evening we took him round the back of the billets and marched him up and down with one of us each side of him swinging his arms correctly until after about an hour he suddenly 'got it'. Next morning on parade he marched correctly much to the surprise of the DI's.
We won a shield for best flight at drill and in the pic below none of us looked unhappy, including the 'tick-tock man, because we had got through basic training as a team and most of us went on to learn how to service aircraft. I've got this pic on in an earlier post but thought I would look at it again for 'old times sake', I only knew the men in the pic for just 8 weeks so long ago .....
normal_Flight_Smart_RAF_Padgate.jpg
 
A finer body of men never seen, though some of those "Berets", look a little worrying. We also had a man in my initial intake, so bad at drill they painted his left boot yellow, nice chap, quite a bright lad, but could not get his head around marching, last heard of, was transferred from the Guards, to the Pioneer Corps, I believe. Paul
 
Great picture Mo, why not try tracking some of your old mates down.
I did that after being out for 50 years, finally found the two mates who I went through the whole of my N/S.
Been in touch, and have met them both, since then.
 
I've just looked at the photo and everyone in the photo wrote their names on the back. The 'tick-tock' man is centre of the back row and he's just about smiling - we had all looked out for each other and got through to our next stage of training.

Most of us had 11 months of training before we were allow to work on aircraft. Looking at the photo I think that was probably the last time I ever wore gaiters. Later on big parades I can't remember wearing them, and when working on aircraft we wore denim overalls most of the day.

With regard to Berets, they could be difficult to get the right shape, but we only wore them on camp, if we wanted to go out in uniform we had to wear our 'best blue' uniforms.

I suppose at the time I was a reluctant national serviceman but remember feeling quite proud walking through Brum in uniform, and hitch-hiking was easier in uniform because you did not have to wait long before someone stopped to offer a lift. Later we learnt that uniforms attracted unwelcome interference from 'red-caps' particularly around railway stations, so we wore 'civvies'.
 
Looks a dead ringer for "Mathew the vicars son", in "Get some in", 1970's sit com about RAF, N/S men. really quite a funny show, and I also remember the Military Police around the main London railway stations, especially Paddington, and Kings Cross, absolute bloody nuisance. Paul.
 
Smudger said:
I know this is un-patriotic, but i do like the way the Yanks march. Looks so casual & smart at the same time. .
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As a Legion standard bearer, I was once in a group that had to march behind a band that marched in the American style. The Yanks take a pace that is about half the length that we take and it's horrible, we were suffering from aching legs after a few yards.
I read a war book written by a German recently, in which the Yanks are dismissed as being "half steppers".
 
maypolebaz said:
As a Legion standard bearer, I was once in a group that had to march behind a band that marched in the American style. The Yanks take a pace that is about half the length that we take and it's horrible, we were suffering from aching legs after a few yards.
I read a war book written by a German recently, in which the Yanks are dismissed as being "half steppers".
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The DLI could be called half steppers. They take half the usual step but in double quick time & bloody smart they look too! How would you fancy keeping up with them. I get out of breath just watching them!
 
What about the times, staggering back after a night out, to find some comedian had "remade" your bed, in the French style?

I was lucky, I only got caught once. After that, I always checked before climbing in. Eddie
 
Smudger said:
The DLI could be called half steppers. They take half the usual step but in double quick time & bloody smart they look too! How would you fancy keeping up with them. I get out of breath just watching them!
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Going WAAAAY back, to 1959, I was part of our Regt's team for the Nijmegen Marches in Holland.
Everything kicked off with a ceremony in the sports stadium, with each country contributing to a march-past.
The band of the DLI marched around at their rapid pace and in their black uniform, looked a little comical at first sight but after a few giggles the crowd took to them and a roar of applause went up.
 
I did the same march, probably 1964. We all received a medal, which my son sold at a car booty along with my jungle hat, stable belt & other bits & pieces i`d saved. I was not very pleased with him!! I also got engaged there & we`re still together after 49 years & 4 months.:-}
 
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norfolk brummie said:
What about the times, staggering back after a night out, to find some comedian had "remade" your bed, in the French style?

I was lucky, I only got caught once. After that, I always checked before climbing in. Eddie
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Wasn`t there another trick (childish but hilarious after a few bevvies) with the old metal beds? Pull the base out of its socket & balance it on the edge so that when someone sat on it, he & the bed would end up on the floor. What a bunch of silly billies we squaddies were :-}
 
Not me Paul. Something like that is for proper squaddies. Playing footie or cricket was the hardest excercise i indulged in. Although my right arm got quite a bit of action drinking that lovely German beer, & a half chicken roasted on a spit & smothered in paprika.
 
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Smudger said:
Wasn`t there another trick (childish but hilarious after a few bevvies) with the old metal beds? Pull the base out of its socket & balance it on the edge so that when someone sat on it, he & the bed would end up on the floor. What a bunch of silly billies we squaddies were :-}
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"Silly Billies" indeed ! Bored squaddies did the daftest things.
For a while, when our Regt was in Nienburg there was a time when people would wait for someone to get in the bath, then half a dozen fire buckets would be emptied over the top of the cubicle.
This would result in reprisal water fights with water being thrown into the barrack rooms.
It got so bad some blokes didn't dare go for a bath.
 
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