40s and 50s Memories
to do well. Many years later I was working at
the Regimental Headquarters RA at Woolwich
and went into the RA Mess, Woolwich, for
lunch. The Hall Porter told me that the Judge
Advocate General wished to see me, which I
was surprised to hear. The District Court Martial
Centre was in the barracks and officers taking
part in legal proceedings often came in for
lunch. The judge, without his wig, came forward
and said "You won't remember me, my name
is John xxxx, I was in PO squad x and you
took us camping and trekking up Snowdon". I
did remember him. I felt very flattered when he
said "Sergeant S. was very good but you were
always in command".
At Park Hall Camp, Oswestry, there was a
stable with horses, owned by the army and
a kennel of fox hounds, owned by the Royal
Artillery as private property. We had a drag hunt
and we were invited by the Wynstay Hunt to
be their guests when they hunted. So plenty of
thrills and spills were had. Our Brigadier took
some of us on early morning riding instruction.
I shall never forget one 7am ride, after a rather
good mess party. As we entered the ménage
the Brigadier gave the order 'quit and cross
stirrups'. The pain in the back of my eyeballs,
as each hoof of the horse hit the ground, was
unforgettable!
I returned to Germany in 1957. Germany was
now an efficient democracy and had a new army.
In fact the German Army was soon the biggest
army of the NATO national armies, facing the
Warsaw Pact Forces behind the Iron Curtain.
By the mid 1970s Britain was contributing one
army corps of four armoured divisions. The
Germans contributed three army corps, the
Americans two and the Belgians and Dutch
one each. I went to 24th Medium Regiment RA,
which was equipped with 5.5" Guns, with 80lb
HE shells. The latter required two men with a
lifting tray to load the gun. This was indeed a
very accurate artillery piece.
Training in BAOR (British Army of the Rhine)
was carried out on an annual sequence but
staggered by divisions. First came individual
soldier training, then battery and regimental
training and finally large formation training, over
German territory.
I visited Berlin twice during my time with 24th
Regiment, once by rail and once by road. This
was before the wall was built. One had to wear
uniform when visiting the eastern sector of
Berlin. I had the odd East German speak to me
in English once or twice but nothing untoward
happened to me there.
On my return to the UK I went to the Army
Apprentices School at Chepstow, on the Welsh
border. My appointment was as a Wing Officer
and for a time, acting Company Commander,
and it was similar to that of a school master or
house master at a state boarding school. I took
the apprentices on camps twice a year, mostly
on the Brecon Beacons. One of the exercises
on which I took the apprentices was potholing,
or strictly speaking, caving, as we didn't use
any ropes or rope ladders. I had chosen some
caves where the entrance was through a very
low, twisting tunnel, through rock. The crawl
ended in a great high cavern. There I would
sort out the lads, sending those back, through a
walkout passage, who did not care for the crawl
experience. I took the remainder on as far as
a large and loose boulder choke. Of course,
some wanted to climb on but I said 'no' to that.
In those days there were no official rules on
'health and safety'.
I served another tour of duty in Germany in
1962-64, that time with 25th Medium Regiment
RA where I met many old friends and colleagues
in new military roles. The armament was a
155mm Howitzer on an armoured and tracked
chassis. My battery, 54 (Maharajpore) Battery,
was in support of 5th Royal Tank Regiment. On
formation exercises we covered vast areas of
the countryside and German farmers were paid
for any damage to their land. I recall a dawn
attack by the whole of 7th Armoured Brigade
on the 'enemy'. In fact the latter was the new
German Army. My excellent tank driver, a rough,
tough Geordie, claimed a German soldier shot
him with a Verey light which bounced off his
head!
In 1964 I was promoted Major and that summer
I went to Cyprus on an emergency tour of duty.
Fighting had broken out in the new republic
between the Greek and Turkish communities.
British forces, from the British sovereign bases,
had been put under United Nations command
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