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National Service

  • Thread starter Thread starter RayD
  • Start date Start date
I don't know Baz , I heard it happened around "72" to the "Angle irons" in west Belfast, around Andersons town
way, I think someone ended up in the Royal victoria.
paul
 
paul stacey said:
I have seen this before, both mentioned and written, usually by people who had never seen any type of service.
Click to expand...

If you're referring to my 'swinging lamp' picture,I've found it used mostly amongst Service personal, along with 'pull up a sand bag'
as for you're "never seen any type of service" see post #63

Nick
 
brummie nick said:
If you're referring to my 'swinging lamp' picture,I've found it used mostly amongst Service personal, along with 'pull up a sand bag'
as for you're "never seen any type of service" see post #63

Nick
Click to expand...

You might like to google BAOR Locations Nick. It's heavily populated with "Scaleys", as they call themselves but I'm sure there's room for one more !
 
paul stacey said:
I don't know Baz , I heard it happened around "72" to the "Angle irons" in west Belfast, around Andersons town
way, I think someone ended up in the Royal victoria.
paul
Click to expand...

I can't say I've heard of that incident Paul. We left Andytown in June '72 but for the life of me I can't remember who took over from us.
 
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 recock the breach,this was also used to eject the spent cartridges which could be adjusted via a valve to shorten or increase the distance thrown. I had 10 delivered to the Depot at Devises but one had to submitted to the Wilts battalion because they were going to Suez and there was a shortage. The first time it was used on the falling plates on the firing range Roger and I could not understand why the plates were not falling until we went up to the Butts and found the bullets had passed right through them
Dave
 
The 7.62 SLR, was in my opinion the finest infantry weapon ever issued to H M Armed forces, still prefered by to-days special forces and a certain man stopper, it was a great rifle for drill too, it's still used by the Indian/Pakistani army's and some African country's, my son who is in the Airborne says the modern SA80/85A2
5.56 is too light a fire power at distance. It's true what you say Dave that on introduction there was a great deal of discussion on it's accuracy, and field maintenance. I still have my issue cleaning kit in it's original box.
paul
 
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 Blancoed with no brasses. The same with all my other brasses on the pouches. When I handed my kit to the T.A sgt Major at Goldenhillock rd Smallheath he was desperate for an Armourer to look after the small qty of arms they had. he pleaded with me, "The money is good you will not have to do much when away at week ends" "No thanks Sir" and that is how I left it.​
​
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I still have a gallon of gun oil, and my old issue pen knife, ans a huge roll of 4x2. I sold my best drill boots for £25, I kept my stable belt, I remember the pattern 52 webbing, with all the brass work, but we got new issue webbing all green no brass in 1963 I think, of course we had an awful lot of clay piping as is the want of the Foot Guards. I must say I don't blame you for not staying with the TA after your time was over, did you go to 'Z' reserve from national Service?.
paul
 
The webbing with all the brasses was (I think) '37 pattern, Paul. The green kit was '58 pattern, and a vast improvement it was too.

I had a full set of '58 webbing right up to a couple of months ago when I gave it to a collector. Amazing, the things you hang on to !

Hanging in my hall is a (deactivated) .303 No 4 rifle. On my first Ireland tour I had an SLR and a No 4 (T). on my flick. The No 4 (T) is a thing of beauty.
 
You are quite correct Baz, the old mind is't as quick as it once was, I remember, an Enfield No4T, Mk11, .308 Target rifle I believe, but not a common issue though quite rare if I remember. The original SLR was a little unwieldy with the wooden stock and butt, the reissue in plastic was a lot lighter.
paul
 
The No4 (T) was the .303 sniping rifle Paul.

I trained on the L42, only to have it taken away because the bolts were cracking.

When I got to Belfast I took over this beautiful .303. It was twenty odd years old but still immaculate.

The plastic furniture on the SLR improved it a lot, I agree.
 
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 the piston by lying on the floor. You had to put both feet behind the platform either side of the cylinder then pull back like hell until you heard the trigger engage the it was ready to fire. You lay on the ground and put the bomb in the tray, whe you pulled the trigger the piston shot forward and hit the bomb which propelled it to the target and you hoped it went 80 yds. Some of the lads at Gosport were small and it was impossible for them to load it. One was only 5ft and the tube was almost as long as him.
Dave
 
I actually saw a "Piat" spring loaded sort of rocket launcher at the Museum at Arnhem in the Netherlands Dave, it was a bit beat up and I wondered then about the ginormus spring and plate, must have been a nightmare to load with German tank bearing down on you. I did fire the No9 .22 at targets whilst in the ACF in Brum.
regards all
paul
 
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 test if it leaks. I will tell you about firing the flame thrower one day and the 3.5 mortar and the Bat, all good stuff.
Dave
 
Good god mate we served in the 60's & 70's, I think we had a 3" mortar in training, the only time I saw those other type of weapons were in a museum. they had a couple of the water cooled Vickers 303 heavy machine guns on display one of the Sgt's mess's, I have used the 303 Bren, and could still strip it down and name all the assembly groups, but that would be the oldest.
paul
 
The Vickers was a most efficient weapon because it did not have to have a spare barrel like the Bren. The bren had two barrels for action the reason was over heating, they were never used to this extent when the lads were in training. The water cooled Vickers could fire many rounds and so long as water was poured over it to keep the water jacket cool it would carry on. It had what we called a crank handle on the right hand side which flew back and forth with every round fired and you had to make sure you kept your hands firmly gripped to the two vertical hand grips otherwise you had bashed knuckles. My time was 1954
Dave
 
I was on orders one night to report to the Guard room at 09-00 hrs the next morning , for what reason I did not know. I am sitting in there talking when a Police car pulls up outside the Guard room and a plain clothed Super introduced himself to me, "you have done nothing wrong and we have cleared it with your C.O, if you get in the car I will tell you what we want on the way". I won't tell you where we went for obvious reasons, but we ended up in a remote station out in the country where surrendered arms were kept, what a shock I had, how on earth had so many ex-army people got away with getting these weapons out into civvy st. The variety was like aladins cave, but the first thing that caught my eye was the lack of bars on the windows, I said to the Super about this and he remarked "If you put bars on the windows people know you have something to hide" I said "Better safe than sorry". I saw weapons I had only ever heard about Single shot Beretta,Smith & wesson 9mm Luger, Blunderbus, 5ft long Moose Rifle with a "Y" fork support, no 8 service pistols, Colt .45 303 Rifles by the score,Brens, stens, 2" mortar and many more.
I had to select as many no 8 take them away and make up 10 good ones so the Police could start a shooting team?????????????????????.
Dave
 
Eddie 14 said:
The Vickers was a most efficient weapon because it did not have to have a spare barrel like the Bren. The bren had two barrels for action the reason was over heating, they were never used to this extent when the lads were in training. The water cooled Vickers could fire many rounds and so long as water was poured over it to keep the water jacket cool it would carry on. It had what we called a crank handle on the right hand side which flew back and forth with every round fired and you had to make sure you kept your hands firmly gripped to the two vertical hand grips otherwise you had bashed knuckles. My time was 1954
Dave
Click to expand...

A bloke I worked with was part of a Vickers team when in 2 Para. The muzzle blast had permanently deafened him in one ear.
No ear defenders in those days !
 
I and every one I know who served in the sixty's has "Tinnitus", I don't think I ever wore any form of ear protection except when training on the "Wombat" we were given cotton wool.
paul
 
Paul & Baz,
You are dead right about protection,I am partly deaf from firing weapons and industrial noises. With single shot your ears had a time to recover between rounds but the Vickers could have 500 rounds continuous also in some cases the firing point was in a tin shed or brick hut with up and over doors to fire from. I never put that many rounds through, I would say about 50 when trying out the seal of the barrel to the water jacket.
Dave
A question for both of you,"what part on a rifle has the longest name, can you remember, no cheating by going on the net? I will give a clue, it the smallest part!
 
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paul stacey said:
I and every one I know who served in the sixty's has "Tinnitus", I don't think I ever wore any form of ear protection except when training on the "Wombat" we were given cotton wool.
paul
Click to expand...

I'have tinnitus too Paul, shooting or not I'm told it's age related.

After some years firing (.303) SLR somebody decided to give us little Ear Defenders. Rubber things that you pushed into you ear'ole.
Later, when I found myself spending more time on the Firing Point, I started wearing the Amplivox model, they were like an AFV headset
Much better.
 
Paul, I missed #371 first time round.

That must've looked like the reverse of everybody wanting to be first in the NAAFI queue !

(Funny how scary events end up being humourous later).
 
I have something here which might remind contributors to this thread of exactly how some of these weapons worked and how they should be used - Enfield P14, Bren, Lewis, Browning etc. - and also grenades etc., etc.

These are WW2 manuals but I suspect some of the weaponry will be familiar to post-war National Servicemen. They are here: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/J16Manuals.htm

Chris
 
Hi baz, ref #407 I have a letter dated the 20th April 2011, from the "Veteran's Agency" about the application for extra pension for my Tinnitus, I quote, " we accept that nerve damage to the RH audio canal is due to military service,but the %age of hearing loss is not enough for consideration when applying for enhanced pension" I have since found out from the British Legion that all claims for tinnitus were stopped in 2005 by MOD.
paul
 
paul stacey said:
Hi baz, ref #407 I have a letter dated the 20th April 2011, from the "Veteran's Agency" about the application for extra pension for my Tinnitus, I quote, " we accept that nerve damage to the RH audio canal is due to military service,but the %age of hearing loss is not enough for consideration when applying for enhanced pension" I have since found out from the British Legion that all claims for tinnitus were stopped in 2005 by MOD.
paul
Click to expand...

In the early 80s, not long after my demob, we got a call from an Irish Rangers friend of ours saying that anyone who had fired SLR before the issue of ear defenders should get a hearing test and apply for compensation.

Any Old Soldier can guess what happened next and I duly received £1000 !

Needless to say, word about this soon got around. Not long after the MOD slammed the door shut on the whole thing.

A year or two ago I tried my luck with a claim for Tinnitus. The reply I got was a polite instruction to "go forth and multiply" !
 
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