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This story was submitted by Pauline Day on behalf of her father and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I spent the idyllic Spring and Summer of 1942 as a Cadet at the Royal Artillery Officer Training Unit at Shrivenham. It was beautiful peaceful countryside. Night guard duty was alleviated by the song of nightingales.

When I was off duty on Sundays, my wife visited. She travelled from Paddington to Swindon for ten shillings return and the trains were always on time. We spent many happy hours in the White Horse Vale and the Upper Reaches of the Thames. It was marred only once, by an "invasion training exercise", which required me to help defend Radcot Bridge against the Cirencester Home Guard.

With Hitler rampant in Europe, Officer Training spent an incommensurate amount of time learning to salute and in drilling and exercising much the same way as we did in the school OTC ten years or more earlier. It was possible for a non-Royal Artillery man, like me,to be commissioned without having seen a gun fire!

Shrivenham turned out around 50 Officers per month. There were 20 or more tailors in and around the village eager to service us.

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