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This story was submitted to the People's War site by CSV/´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Nottingham on behalf of Gordon Darwood with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was 16 and I went to the Army Recruitment Centre opposite the Midland Station, They said I was too young and I should go home and come back when I was old enough to join up. They suggested I go and join the Home guard. So I went to Basford and joined up with them. They would give us bits of training. Then one weekend the Army came to Bestwood Lodge and took over for a weekend to give us some more Army training. We learned on a ‘Louis Gun’ machine gun, how to throw a hand grenade, in trenches and other things. We were learning with real ammunition. At the end of the weekend on the Sunday we had a competition, shooting mark man ship. I won the competition. Everybody had put some money into a kitty people put sixpence, shilling etc whatever they could afford. I won it all — all in all it came to 2 pound 56 pence which was a lot of money then and when I went home my Mother was over the moon — we lived well that week. I think that the Army fellers were a bit annoyed, that a young kid came along and beat them all — they were supposed to be the experts.

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