大象传媒

Let me give you an idea of what a normal day's training was like for an 18 year old soldier based in the Royal West Kent Regiment at Old Park Barracks in Dover in 1942.

We'd be woken at 0630, in our dormitory. A sergeant major would inspect our bed (three wooden planks on a tressle, with a straw mattress and two blankets.) We'd have breakfast parade, saluting left and right --then squarebashing drill for one hour -- all the while, the sergeant major yelling and shouting at us.

Then it was lunch parade.

In the afternoon, we'd go off to the rifle range for bayonet fighting -- route marching along the roads and the countryside -- it got longer and longer, until by the end of ten weeks, we could march forty miles, all day, carrying field service Marching Order (sixty lbs). This consisted of rifle, respirator and gas mask, ammunition pouches, bayonet and scabard.

Tea parade followed -- and tea: no alcohol! The food we ate was designed to keep you fit and well -- meat and two veg, that sort of thing.

Our evenings were free. We'd be allowed to have a drink at the NAAFI (Navy, Army, Air Force Institute.) We had to be back by 10pm -- that's if we had a pass and had been allowed out at all!

Life is so much easier now. Young people have so much going for them -- and yet there's so much hooliganism and anti social behaviour. Kids don't have the discipline that this training taught me.

THIS STORY WAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE PEOPLE'S WAR SITE BY JOHN YOUNG OF 大象传媒 SOUTH EAST TODAY, WITH THE AUTHOR'S PERMISSION. MR SKINGLE FULLY UNDERSTANDS THE SITE'S TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

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