- Contributed by听
- audlemhistory
- People in story:听
- John Marsden
- Location of story:听
- Formark Hall and East Coast and Blyth and India and Greece
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A5977858
- Contributed on:听
- 01 October 2005
I finished at Bromsgrove School at the age of 17 in June 1939 and planned to start a 4-year degree in Mechanical Engineering at Birmingham University in September of the same year. In 1942,with the war not going well, I enlisted in the REME leaving my final year in abeyance, like many fellow students.
I was posted to the Officers鈥 Training Unit at Nottingham, but because I had been in the Officer Cadets both at school and University for a total of some 6 years I was quickly onto the advanced training courses based in Kent and then Formark Hall near Repton. Everything was 鈥渓ive ammunition鈥 鈥 rifles, brenguns, grenades etc 鈥 and I remember one incident when on a lake, crossing in collapsible canvas boats, 4 Cadets were killed by gelignite charges that were thrown by instructors into the water to simulate shell fire. Unfortunately one hit a boat, but nothing was ever reported in the press. We were also put in dark gas chambers to experience tear gas, and learnt to minimise its effect by keeping absolutely still and taking regular shallow breaths.
I was commissioned in 1943 and attended the Military College of Science for 6 months, relieved to be back engineering after months of Infantry training. I specialized in pieces of ordnance 鈥 guns and heavy anti aircraft (AA) guns and was introduced to the R37, a radar controlled remote firing system. It was TOP SECRET and very effective against flying bombs, delivering 30 rounds a minute with great accuracy. There were only 20 of us qualified to install and maintain the R37 equipment being installed on the East Coast which was under enemy attack so I was not allowed to leave the UK until after VE day, despite being drafted to go on 3 separate occasions.
On VE Day I was at the Royal Navy Submarine base at Blyth, Northumberland and the staff sergeant and myself joined the officers in the Ward Room where the whisky flowed in large measures. I vaguely remember being taken for a trip round the bay in a U-class submarine crewed by merry officers!
As a Captain in 1945 I sailed to Bombay and then to Avadi, Madras where I witnessed a brief but unrecorded Mutiny, which was due to the incompetence of those in charge. I then moved on to Cairo and later Athens before being appointed a Brigade E.M.E at Veroria, Northern Greece. Finally in the summer of 1947 I was on my way home via Piraeus and troopship to Marseilles. Together with a fellow officer we decided to 鈥榤iss鈥 the train to Calais and have a weeks 鈥楩rench Leave鈥 on the French Riviera! I was demobbed in the late summer of 1947 and returned to Birmingham University to complete the final year of my degree.
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