大象传媒

It was during our sojourn in Strassburg, Carinthia, Austria, in 1946 that "B" Squadron, of the 16/5th Lancers had a new Squadron Commander, a Major X. Again, he was straight out of England, with no battle experience, and he was determined to instil some order into the Squadron, as the discipline shown by all ranks was appalling.

To be fair to him, it was. Most of the Officers, Senior NCOs and long-time served soldiers were back in England, and so since no one was shooting at us - and we were not shooting anyone - we were perfectly happy to take things as they came, and not worry too much about parades, cleaning and polishing the tanks, or anything else. Most of the rest of us were just waiting for our numbers to come up, and we would be on our way home, the job having been done! The Battles of Africa and Italy were receding into our memory banks.

Getting organised

The new Commander decreed that as the Lancers were originally a Cavalry regiment, horses would be acquired, riding would be taught and refreshed, and the horses would be exercised daily and would be led by himself. So early each morning - while most of us were still in bed - the designated horsemen were led through the village, over the river, all around the village and returned to the village - where cleaning of stables and mounts, and feeding, was undertaken - all before breakfast.

This performance lasted about two weeks, until the Commander was persuaded to try out a new mount, from another squadron, by a sergeant who shall remain anonymous. The march out the next morning was - strangely - witnessed by the whole squadron, who appeared very interested in the column marching by.

The new Major led his troops down through the village in good order, turned to cross the river - at which point the new horse he was riding decided that it was bath time, and lay down in the middle of the river - depositing the Major into the icy stream! Major X was transferred somewhere else very shortly afterwards, and we saw no more of him - or anyone else for sometime! Once again surreptitious smiles and giggles broke out all over the squadron!

The NAAFI

Shortly after this event we were under orders to move down to barracks at Villach, on Lake Worthersee - a large town which boasted a NAAFI club with the inevitible 'char and wads' - tea and buns for the uninitiated! One of our lads, Danny O'Neill, gave us his impersonation of Joseph Locke singing Violetta and Retorno di Sorrento in exchange for a couple of beers.

This went on every night for weeks, until some tone deaf members of the Divisional Artillery started to throw things at him, which put paid to his efforts and silence once more reigned in the club!

New look

Meanwhile reinforcements were gradually filling the ranks once more. Major Johnson took command, SSM Bert Andrews returned from the UK, a new SQMS and more sergeants appeared. Many of the lads signed up for three and more years, and the whole Regiment took on a peace time look - with parades, quarter guards, spit and polish all over the place. The tanks had been replaced by armoured cars, and rumour had it that we were gearing up for a stint back in Libya, which turned out to be true.

Thankfully, my number came up and so began the long journey home via Udine - Padua - Milan - Geneva - Dijon - Paris - Boulogne and Dover. It was at Dover that the full impact of the war hit us between the eyes, as we then recognised just how many men had been killed as we were now being ordered around by an RSM who could not have been any older than 18 years of age!

Out of the army

So it was back to Barnard Castle for a few weeks in the coldest winter in years, and finally York, where I was handed the great sum of 22 pounds, 15 shillings and no pence, for five years service. A new suit - which was tailor made - cost me 25 guineas!

I have only been back to that area once, although I have been in Vienna three times. We got to France, drove across northern Italy - and on up to Austria. On entering Strasburg, I parked in what had been the tank park, and looked across at the hotel, which had been our mess. I found that the outside had not changed one bit, and on entering, found it to be completely renovated and modernised. It was now a most comfortable hotel, although the village had not changed too much in all that time.

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