大象传媒

During the war we had one of the most easy going sergeant majors we used to call him 'Titch' Burbridge. He was about five feet tall. When I first joined the First Fife and Forfar Yeomanry just outside Newcastle upon Tyne, I stood to attention when I met him and he said "is the colonel about?" I answered "no" and he said "well stop frightening people by standing to attention, you only do that when officers are about".

We had to be clean and smart but not to the extent of unecessary spit and polish.

When we were in Germany, Titch Burbridge often used put to us on guard duty, which entailed patroling around the tanks and the area where we were, in case the enemy came. If any one came we would challenge them by saying "halt who goes there", they would then reply with a password and we would give a follow up password to confirm.

One night he got practically the whole squadron on guard duty (about 100 men). They had checked on the map and the enemy paratroopers had been spotted landing on the edge of the map. He came up to us in one of the guard room houses and had to shout and tell us to shut up as the room was full of about 40 men and they were all talking at the same time, he said "if the enemy come anywhere nearer they will be frightened off by the noise you are making"
And it was not until the next morning they found out that they had got the wrong map.

The guard room was one of a series of semi-detached houses that had been vacated by the German civillians. We men lodged in the other ones, one tank crew to each house. Between each house there were cesspits, an American crew in the next street reversed in between two of these houses and the tank fell straight into the cesspit. They decided to leave it there as no crew members wanted to go with the tank after that. The poor driver who had fallen in with it was wet through and smelled terribly. After the war finished we were in Rheine in Germany and I was asked if I would put on my best uniform and be on duty at the squadron office. I would go there at about 8am until about 6pm and go for my meals as and when I wanted. It was all very casual. The sergeant Major came to the office in his Scout Car (an armour plated four wheel drive reconaissance vehicle) and laughed at me because I was on guard duty yet again. He went in the office and came out, shook hands with me and said "is there anything you want to say to me before I go because I have been demobbed", so I stuck two fingers up to him, (all in good fun of course) and said a few things that all soldiers wished to say to their sergeant major. He just laughed stuck two fingers up to me and left.

In the office there was a young lance corporal who had just been made up and he said "I heard that and I am going to report you" - and he did....

I could hear him getting a telling off from the office for telling tales and he came out with his tale between his legs.

The regiment split up shortly afterwards.

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