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CONSCRIPT
My army career began in June 1943 at Fulford Barracks,York. .The train I had to get departed from London's Euston Station. It was packed with army and air force personnel plus us conscripts. There was standing room only and it was a hot summers day and it was stiffling on board, and the train took it's time getting to York. However, on arriving at York we piled off the train and a voice from the loudspeaker told us to make our way to .the street and we were formed into three ranks and marched off to the barracks, and as we marched through the barrack we passed the cookhouse and the smell of fish told me what my first meal in HMF was going to be.
We were divided into groups and put into dormitories, which were quite big, and were lined with rows of two tier bunks. But, housing eighty men, they were overcrowded and the sanitary and toilet facilities were far from adequate too. Can you imagine what it was like in mornings when eighty 18 year olds wanting to use 10 sinks and toilets? Sinks were shared and you learned to shave from memory.

I chose a top bunk. And having done that we were told to leave our gear which we had brought with us on the bunks and to fall in outside. Having fell in, we marched to a store where we were issued with a paliasse and pillow case and three blankets and then marched to another store where we filled the paliasse and pillow with straw. After depositing our bedding on our bunks we fell in again outside and marched to the OM store and was issued a kit bag and all our gear and equipment including a tin hat. Arriving back at the dormitory we were shown how the blankets had to be folded and how the bed had to be laid out before parading every day.

We were then told that one pair of boots had
to have toecaps and heels had to polished so that you see you face in them and the other pair had to be dubbined to keep them waterproof, all your equipment had to be blancoed. All the brass had to be polished and shoulder flashes had to be sewn on. We were given a paybook in which was our name rank and number. You were now known as a number, a number you memorised and have never forgotten, even to this day.
The next place we visited was the Medical Officer. It was his orderlies we saw on this day. We were told to strip off and then filed into another adjacent room with hands on hips and an orderly one side vaccinated you and another orderly the other side inoculated you then onto another orderly and had another injection. I
n those days, you did not dispose of the syringe after each person, not like today. The syringe was used again and again and the more blunt the needle got the harder it was banged into your arm or buttock. And the big tough looking types you wouldn’t think would pass out did so, they were moved to one side until they came round. The next orderly inspected our nether regions, All the injections and vaccinations were entered into your paybook.
The following day the only time we paraded was at meal times, the reason being almost everyone had stiff arms caused by the injections. This gave us time to sew on flashes, blanco, polish brasses and spit and polish boots. You had to buy your own blanco brasso and boot polish.

In those days people very rarely left their homes especially during the war. Some never did anything for themselves. Mum done the cooking, washing and sewing and some had never visited the country or seen a cow or the sea. And I was surprised at the number who couldn't read or write. I was asked to read the letters they received from home and to write the replies for them. It became quite embarrassing sometimes reading letters from girl friends.
The days and weeks passed as we square bashed, rifle drilled , done PT marching round the countryside, went on rifle range firing the rifle and Bren Gun and took the guns apart and put them back together blindfolded.. We queued up for pay every Friday. We went on church parade on Sunday.. Visited the NAAFI. We were not allowed out. Providing you didn'tlet the bullying and being shouted at get to you everything went reasonably well.

I had never fired a gun. at all and I had made up my mind that I would shoot straight as one day, you never know it .might save your life. We used the 30 yard range for getting the rifle accurate. An armourer was present to adjust the foresight to the left or right, whichever was needed. At the end of the six weeks spent at Fulford we were all alot fitter than when we arrived and could march and keep a straight line and all turn the, same way. Our Sergeant wasn't a bad bloke really and beleive it or not we clubbed together and bought him a present.

I had leave when .I left York and what a job lugging your kitbag and all your
equipment, gas mask, rifle and tin hat.. When leave was finished I had to report to Colchester. There I joined the DCLI, Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry.

At Colchester the training increased, assault courses became more difficult, the route marches became longer (up to 25miles) and more rifle range visits. Once we went
to a range at night and in the distance were electric bulbs, switched on of course, and the object of the exercise was to shoot out the bulbs. I never saw any bulbs broken after hundreds of rounds had been fired. You were not told how far the distance the bulbs were and it is difficult to aim at night. . .
Another weapon we practiced with was the Piat Anti Tank Gun.. This gun fired a bomb. The bomb had a long nose and a bulbous body a long tail with a fin., and the firing pin when fired went into the tail and hit the cap of a ballastite cartridge. When the bomb hit the target, the cartridge cap came back the same direction as it went and if you were inyhe way it hit you. I saw one guy spit out a cap after it went through his cheek and another had a gashed arm. It took all your strength to cock it and you fired it from the shoulder and you had to have your pack up against something solid otherwise it would knock you over.

There were_ exercises you went on and sometimes live rounds were fired over
Your head and thunder flashes were thrown about aimlessly to get you used to' battle conditions. Thunder flashes are similar to large firework bangers. I remember one guy getting hit on the back of the neck with one and it knocked him out and he had a nasty burn on his neck too. On the assault course there 10 foot high walls to negotiate, you had battle gear on when doing this course and if you were the last one to get over you had run and jump up the wall someone was hanging over the wall and being held by others and as 'you jumped you you had grab his hand and you were pulled up and dragged over

That used to drag the skin off your chest. Trenches were dug, not' very deep! And then covered were then covered and they were not very wide and not very deep. You had to crawl along the trench and while doing this trying to keep riffle barrel free from mud as you had to fire five rounds when you reached the other end.. Another object that had to be negotiated was a hole about five feet deep filled with barbed wire and had tree trunks to run across hoping you didn't fall off and if it was wet the tree trunks were very slippery.

'When I left Colechester I was transferred to the Devonshire Regiment, known as the. Swede Bashers. We were moved about the southern counties and eventually finished up in the New Forest near Beaulieu. ,Accomodation there was bell tents and' seven of us shared a tent.. Had the weather.been good it would have been fine but the weather was wet. Everywhere was muddy..When you laid down your groundsheet to make your bed the mud lapped over the sides. This wasn't very pleasant. So we had a little powwow and we decided to see what could be done to improve matters and I was nominated to do the seeing. I met our CO and gave him a smart salute and asked if I could have a word and to my surprise he said ‘yes come to my tent’. I followed him to his tent and he asked what the problem was. I told him about he conditions and that soon a lot of us could be dead and that it would be nice if we could have some decent tents and duckboards. He said he would see what he could do but couldn't promise anything. Much to our surprise within the week a truck loaded with big tents that accommodated eight arrived. Then beds and duck boards arrived. This made life a bit easier and happier too.
We were taken to the docks where we boarded a ship and sailed down and anchored off the Isle Of Wight. When on board we slept in hammocks and the food was good on board. We had a rum ration and if you were a smoker there was cigarette issue too and the bread was cooked on board and it was white.

We boarded Landing Craft Assault which is a flat bottom craft and it is these that will take us to the beaches on the day. Being flat bottomed the waves picked up the boat then d ropped into the well made by the wave and if the sea was rough the deeper the well and it wasn't long before the crew and a lot of the troops were being seasick. I used to stand up on the LCA and I threw the sickbags over the side. When we practised the landing I was never sure but I thought it was Hayling Island. Then we were taken back to the boat by amphibians..

We would stay on the boat perhaps for a week then 'go back to our tents in the forest. We used to run sixteen miles in full battle gear and to make sure you didn't cheat there was an inspection to make sure you had everything which consisted of two twenty-four hour ration packs, mess tins, knife, fork and spoon, change of underwear and the cooking stove. I think it was methane, stove to do your cooking, that was in the small pack, 2 36 grenade a 63 and 75 grenade plus three Bren gun magazines loaded in a small pack you wore from you belt, six loaded magazines in the pouches. 100 rounds of ammo, filled water bottle and your gun or other weapon you had. This is how we spent our time while waiting for the day.

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