Archive: “National Service”
At intervals of about four weeks, there took place an event known as an Adjutants Drill Parade. This involved the whole battalion, drawn up on the square in its six constituent companies in the order, from the front, “A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, “Support” and “H.Q.”. The Regimental Band was also on parade, which added considerably […]
Read more »It is July 17th 2003 and I am very frustrated! I have just had a report from the site search engine to the effect that someone visited my site and used the search term “smokey funnel”. “Smokey” Funnel was a corporal in Support Company, Mortar Platoon if my memory serves me well. I certainly know […]
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This story is not funny, but simply serves to illustrate the diversity of human nature with which we all come into contact in our daily lives. It was September 1954 and I had been in Germany only three weeks when I was told that I was to be attached to the Medium Machine-Gun Platoon. This […]
Read more »Further to the R.E.M.E Sergeant story, I left the workshops area and set off in what I believed to be the direction in which I would find my unit. Before I had covered many miles, the daylight began to fade and the fuel gauge with it! After travelling for some distance along a tree-lined road […]
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The Support Company vehicles were housed in garages close to, but not part of the M.T. Section. This was a long building, with sets of double doors along its length. From memory, I would say it provided shelter for the following vehicles: four Oxford Carriers and four T16 Carriers; six Humber 1-tonners and eight Austin […]
Read more »This incident occured at the live firing ranges at Putlos, on the Baltic coast, where Support Company were spending a rather exciting few weeks. The barracks in which we were housed served as the temporary home for any unit using the ranges. The Champs of M.M.G. platoon and the Humbers of the Mortar Platoon had […]
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From time to time we would go to the live firing ranges, for training purposes with the mortars. This was sometimes carried out in conjunction with the Royal Artillery, who operated a mortar location system, which I believe to have been the forerunner of Green Archer. This device was radar-based and enabled the gunners to […]
Read more »This incident also took place at Putlos and has given me a chuckle each time I recall it! The garages for our trucks were near one of the camp gates. Beside this gate was a house, the back garden of which was accessible from the camp. I was with my truck one morning when I […]
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It was a Sunday morning on the training area, and we were having a well-earned break from rushing around, practising our role of providing mortar cover to the footsloggers. Suddenly we were called upon to drive up to the heath and help in extinguishing a fire which had broken out in the gorse and scrubby […]
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I cannot remember the exact location of this next tale, save to say that it was in one of the training areas to the north of our base at Minden. It was probably on Luneburg Heath, or somewhere in that area. We were camped in woodland and from our position we took part in what […]
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