大象传媒

Life in the army began for me on the morning of the Eighteenth of February 1943, when I reported to Britannia Barracks in Norwich, already in Khaki, as a member of the Home Guard one was expected to turn up in uniform. Later that day a bunch of us were taken down the road to Nelson Barracks and issued with the rest of our kit, along with about a score others I was placed in a hut under the command of a Sgt Cracknell, a friendly man who advised us all to write a letter home, this hut was to be our home for the next six weeks, during which time we were expected to be turned into soldiers, it was surprising to see how many of my companions had two left feet, or that whilst marching would have left arm moving forward together with left leg, right side like-wise, looking most ungainly. Sgt Cracknell and his assistant Cpl Peasnall somehow managed the impossible and transformed us into a presentable squad, able to march and do arms drill in unison .We were also taught to fire a rifle, which came easy to me, having been taught in the Home Guard, Bren gun, also a type of anti-tank weapon (the name I can鈥檛 remember ). I think it was the B.A.R., During one such instruction period one of our number took umbrage at being told to do something, and started swearing at Cpl Peasnall, casting aspersions over his parenthood, the Cpl told him that he had two options, 1, to be placed on a charge and appear before the C.O., or, 2, to meet him in the gym in the evening with the gloves on, the offender, fancying his chances choose the latter, I think he afterwards wished that he had opted for the former, the Cpl had by all accounts handed out a very good demonstration of the noble art and had no more trouble from that quarter.
Bayonet practice, Grenade throwing (Mills 36) were other elements of warfare we were taught, after one such practice on the grenade range at the rear of a caf茅 on Mousehold heath, we entered the caf茅 for our morning break, to be told that we should be careful what we were doing, as a base plug from a grenade had caused havoc in the kitchen. I don鈥檛 know what happened as a result of this, I guess the aspect of safety had to be reviewed, to improve our general standard of fitness we were taken on numerous excursions up and down the hills of the heath, a practice later carried out by a certain Ron Saunders, Manager of Norwich City football club in the process of toughening up the team. Also at this stage we received various inoculations and vaccinations, standing in line with shirt-sleeves rolled up, it was not unusual to see one or two bods drop to the floor at the sight of a needle. During dental treatment I was having a tooth drilled prior to a filling, a nerve was frequently touched and I reacted accordingly, being told 鈥淜eep still man鈥�,(that Dental officer never knew how close he was to going backwards through a plate-glass window). During this period of life at Nelson barracks, a recruiting demonstration team arrived to give us a picture of life in the Parachute Regiment in the hope of picking up some volunteers, (all parachutists are volunteers) disregarding the army adage of not volunteering for anything, I, and I guess some others did, and later had to complete some aptitude tests, in my own case because I only had a few weeks training under my belt could not be taken for para training, recruits needing at least twelve weeks, or in other words a fully trained soldier, on completing my six weeks basic training I was not posted to an operational unit, but was moved into Bottom barracks as it was known, it was in fact the stable block of the old horse barracks, having been transformed by the introduction of some two tier bunk beds, a couple of tables and some metal cupboards, one per person, there to be instructed in the intricacies of the 3inch Mortar. I don鈥檛 remember my Sergeant Instructors name but his assistant was a L/Cpl Warren, usually referred to as 鈥淏unny鈥�, just for the uninitiated the Mortar consists of three main component parts, Barrel, Bipod, and Base-Plate, each weighing somewhere in the region of 40lbs, the bombs weighed 10lbs each and were carried in what is best described as 3 heavy-duty cardboard tubes strapped together, one lying above the other complete with carrying handle, all this usually being carried on a tracked vehicle but in the case of unavailability, or the site being inaccessible would have to be manhandled, for which event we had to be prepared for by participating in what was known in training parlance as a long carry, usually on Thetford Heath in competition with another squad, on one occasion we came home second best, our Cpl walked over to speak with the other N.C.O. kicked into one of their bomb cases to find that it was empty, it was worth being second best to see the other squad being made to do the exercise again as a punishment for cheating. After being instructed in all aspects of mortar operation, I was sent on a 4 week driving course being taught to drive both wheeled and tracked vehicles, starting in a 15cwt truck with a gate change gearbox, 4 or 5 squaddies to one instructor, the truck was fitted with a starter, and after initial instruction we were only permitted use of the starter when first getting behind the wheel, if we stalled the engine we had to get out and re-start using the starting handle, this was supposed to make one more control conscious, our senior N.C.O. was a Sgt Cracknell a brother of the Sgt of my first training period, his home was on City road, which meant that on some training runs we would drive that way out of the city so that he could call on his wife, whilst on driving instruction because of being out of barracks and unable to go to the NAAFI, the routes had been so planned so as to be somewhere near a caf茅 at break-time, usually driving towards Acle or Loddon, the caf茅 at Acle being a converted railway carriage which stood there for many years after the war had ended, I well remember on one occasion being at the wheel of a Mortar carrier, which steered by means of acting on braking on one or other of the tracks, returning to Norwich from Loddon coming round a slightly banked right-hand curve in the road applying left-hand steering to prevent the carrier drifting, when a Bus was seen approaching, the instructor grabbed the wheel. Slacked off my left-hand pressure, to immediately slam it on full left lock, causing the vehicle to shoot towards the left bank, then a quick flick to the right straightened us up and we missed the Bus literally by a whisker, during this manoeuvre three of the boys in the back of the carrier had decided to abandon ship resulting in a few bruises and abrasions, otherwise no harm being done, but a lesson in quick thinking being demonstrated.

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