大象传媒

How many remember Pennypot lane camp. After the fall of Dunkirk the powers to be decided that the British Army were just civillians in uniform and all men employed on desk jobs should be given some heavy exercise daily and all junior ncos should be assest to see what they were made of. So I for one foynd myself sent to Pennypot all movements were at the double from sunrise to sunset .Parade was at the double with full pack and steel helmet .then it was port arms and then gas mask on Doubling like this was against Kings Regs at that time .It was a hot summer and one had to blow the sweat out off the gas mask we went on to see who could take it without falling out. we fid other training for arms fire duty and drill instruction.
On the last day of this treatment one had to stand at the slope in a field and it was claimed that a special officer looked at you through a hidden telescope and he said what sort of soldier you were .how you would act in face of the enemy. THe next step to all this was crawling under fixed machine gun lines but i did not get to this at that time. If a gun is firing at you the noise is different to one just firing It is valuable to recognise this.Yo learn when to keep your head down.I cant remember the food being bad so it must have been eatable.

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