Big ray

[Big ray]

I know that apology does only have one "P" , but when you get to my age you do tend to "P" more than usual.

[tonyturf]

It`s that short term memory playing up again I suppose. Anyway, Dad, Don`t forget that £50 I lent to you YESTERDAY!!!!

[Big ray]

It`s that short term memory playing up again I suppose. Anyway, Dad, Don`t forget that £50 I lent to you YESTERDAY!!!!

 

You must think that I am daft............. it was the day before yesterday.... was`nt it ?????..... or was that your mother ???

[Tony B]

Hey Ray, just remind him how many times you HAVEN'T asked for mooney back you lent him! :-D

[Degsy]

Hey Ray, just remind him how many times you HAVEN'T asked for mooney back you lent him! :-D

 

He would..........but if he's anything like me he can't remember:D

[Big ray]

He would..........but if he's anything like me he can't remember:D

 

Remember what ?????............... dont know what you are all talking about.

[Big ray]

I was enjoying my time at 5 Armoured Workshops REME West Germany when on the 26th July 1956 Gamel Abdel Nasser decided to nationalize the Suez Canal, all the result of the fact that Britain and the U.S. had withdrawn funding for the Aswan Dam...... All I believe because of Nasser`s involvement with the Soviet Union. There was a noticeable stepping up of work both in the workshops and on location with the armoured units in our division (6th Armoured) we began to work around the clock. The next major change was the calling-up of recently discharged reservists, they did not take at all kindly to being recalled to the colours, large numbers of them were sent to Germany, presumably to prevent them from absconding en-mass and just simply returning to their homes, something that they could have easily done if kept in the UK.

These reservists proved in many cases to be very troublesome to the military authorities, simply refusing to take orders.

We were kept well away from them and told to ignore them. I think that the army were very relieved when they turned out to be surplus to requirements on cessation of hostilities........ all at the insistence of the U.S. President (Ike)

[Big ray]

 

This is a photograph of our German friend "Bob" Hubbert Frolich. Sent to us at the time of our re-union in 1962 held in Sheffield South Yorkshire............. not long after this both he and his wife (Maria) joined us in the UK for several of our re-unions. He ultimately organized things on the German side when we made our visit back there in 1990...... sadly "Bob" has since died, he was a wonderful humanitarian.

[Big ray]

The year on the previous photograph is wrong..... it should read 1958, thats when it closed and became a school, we moved out in the autumn of 1958....... the tennis courts did not exist when we were in residence, and the building on the left was our cookhouse / dining hall..... it only seems like yesterday that we were walking in and out of the place, wonderful memories.

[Big ray]

There are not really a lot of advantages in getting older, in fact the only one that springs to mind is the lack of peer pressure. I seem to be losing my friends at an alarming rate. You do spend a lot of time reflecting on past happenings. I am thinking about some of the people who have played a pivotal role in my lifetime, one such person was my brother-in-law, he has now departed this life, I was convinced that he would survive myself, but it was not to be. He and I were very good buddies in our early days, he was a very funny guy, he saw humour in every day living and it was always a pleasure to be ion his company. Like all people he had to have a flaw in his armour, he had deep pockets and short arms. In the 1960s and 70s we male members of the family kept in touch by meeting occasionally on a Sunday lunchtime and go for a drive into the country visiting country pubs. Because at that time I did not partake of alcohol I was always the nominated driver. On one of these Sunday meetings my older" brother " Jack asked me if our brother-in-law had ever bought me a drink, I thought for a moment and then said, no, I dont believe that he has. Jack said that he had not had the pleasure either, so he suggested that at the next pub we would let our brother-in-law go into the pub first, that way he would have to buy the round of drinks. We hung back at the next pub and allowed him to go into the pub first.............. when he reached the door he held it open for the rest of us to walk through, Jack just looked at me and said, shall we give up now......... However I do still miss his smiling face and great sense of humour.

[ashley]

The year on the previous photograph is wrong..... it should read 1958, thats when it closed and became a school, we moved out in the autumn of 1958....... the tennis courts did not exist when we were in residence, and the building on the left was our cookhouse / dining hall..... it only seems like yesterday that we were walking in and out of the place, wonderful memories.

 

 

It was still the cookhouse /dining block when i was there 1969-1973....

 

Ashley

[Big ray]

It was still the cookhouse /dining block when i was there 1969-1973....

 

Ashley

 

The picture that I posted of "Bob" shows this man who if you walked out of the main gate and turned right he lived only a short distance down the road, he must have past the main gate many times when you were in residence. I can imagine him walking past full of nostalgia for the old workshops, pity that you never got to know him, he really was a lovely man.

[Giles]

Welcome Big Ray

 

Among all your impressive collection, I see you have the old Royal Enfield 350. I was so impressed to take my test on a 350 when civvies could only ride 250's. Did mine in Recklinhausen circa '76/77. The WO2 followed me in his Escort and laughed himself silly when I got the knobbles stuck in the tramlines going under a bridge but did not put my foot down or get squashed by the tram so passed. He was still laughing when we got back to the depot:mad:

 

Do you know anyone who is still knowledgeable on Eager Beaver hydraulics by any chance?

[Giles]

Err sorry to have just welcomed you as you seem to have been around for longer than me. I thought the post was welcoming you:nut:

[Big ray]

Welcome Big Ray

 

Among all your impressive collection, I see you have the old Royal Enfield 350. I was so impressed to take my test on a 350 when civvies could only ride 250's. Did mine in Recklinhausen circa '76/77. The WO2 followed me in his Escort and laughed himself silly when I got the knobbles stuck in the tramlines going under a bridge but did not put my foot down or get squashed by the tram so passed. He was still laughing when we got back to the depot:mad:

 

Do you know anyone who is still knowledgeable on Eager Beaver hydraulics by any chance?

 

I took my army bike test in 1956, Hamm, Germany. Bit of a joke really, whilst on our after dinner parade prior to go back to workshops the Sergeant taking the parade asked if anyone could ride a motorcycle. I stepped forward and said that I could, I had motorcycles before call-up, he pointed to an old BSA parked a short distance away and said, take that machine down to the workshops. The workshops were really only a very short distance, so I proceded to push the bike, he shouted, I wanted someone to ride the thing, I can get any fool to push it. So I turned on the fuel, primed the carb and kicked the bike into life, I rode it down to the workshops, only to be followed by the MT Sergeant, he said go and get two helmets from the MT office. He climbed onto the pillion and instructed me to ride around the workshops ( I got the helmets in the wrong order, he instructed me to get the helmets after our little ride around the workshops.) He then instructed me to ride down into town and back......... that was my test. It transpired that we did not have a D.R. in the workshops and they needed one, it all worked out very well in the end, I have made several referencies in my previous posts............. my favourite bike was the Matchless G3L. I always said that I would buy one, maybe one day, the right bike at the right time and I will be tempted.

[Big ray]

As a schoolboy during world war 2 the only things that brought home to you that we were at war was the regular siren call outs and the mustering into the air raid shelters, add to that the visits out to the local farms for potatoe picking when we would very often see bombers, singular or in formation flying overhead. Occasionally you would see a fighter plane or a trainer from one of the local airfields, we all, without exception, wanted to be fighter pilots. I dont ever remember getting any kind of remuneration for our efforts working on the farms, I suppose that it was just expected as part of the overall war effort. Oh how I remember the long sunny summer days when my grandfather, who was not retired at that time, so it must have been on a Sunday, would take me out in a pony and trap to a local village, like most places in those days it had its own railway station. The railway line was sunken at this point and we would walk along the embankment looking down on the passing trains, some with passenger cars and others with frieght waggons, usually war related materials, tanks, trucks etc. The trains would rattle along this particular section of line, we would eventually come to a field the the farmer and his labourers would be harvesting. If the field happened to be corn, then the machinery, usually horse drawn would be working from the outside into the centre. The farm workers would be stationed with their dogs at the corners of the field waiting for the rabbits to bolt from the ever decreasing corn for the safety of the adjacent fields and their warrens. Very few ever made it past the dogs. They were lovely days, long gone and never to be repeated, very sad really, but at least I do have my memories.

[Big ray]

To celebrate the ending of WW2 (can`t remember if it was for VE day or VJ day) we all congregated in the centre of town with burning candles in old jam jars. The jam jars were held with a looped piece of string tied around the neck of the jar and forming a carrying loop high enough to keep your fingers away from the burning candle. The town was absolutely jam packed with people singing in celebration (no pun intended) .............. yet when I have mentioned this event to many of my friends of my age, they have no reccolection of this event, very strange, its all still quite vivid in my mind.

[Big ray]

Did you hear about the guy that was being conscripted into the services and his girlfriend was very upset at the prospect of him being gone for two years, she promised to wait for him if he would write to her every day. He agreed that he would and indeed he did write every day. When he was finally discharged and returned home he discovered that she had married the postman................ I hope that you are all having a good day.

[Tony B]

Did you hear about the guy that was being conscripted into the services and his girlfriend was very upset at the prospect of him being gone for two years, she promised to wait for him if he would write to her every day. He agreed that he would and indeed he did write every day. When he was finally discharged and returned home he discovered that she had married the postman................ I hope that you are all having a good day.

 

That has to be an old one! Nowadays it would have been the next door neighbour he have married.

[Big ray]

A group of us spent the first seven days of June in Normandy (St-Mere-Eglise) Whilst out on one of our daily forays we came upon a French convoy, the lead vehicle was a Stuart tank. The police were in attendance and it seemed that the Stuart may have suffered a serious engine failiure, quite a lot of oil on the road...... we hope that it was not anything too serious......... anyone know the outcome??

[Big ray]

I wonder if anyone noticed the registration No. on the workshop Jimmy????

[Degsy]

I wonder if anyone noticed the registration No. on the workshop Jimmy????

 

You could hardly miss it:D

[Big ray]

We must be a pretty hardy breed, one of my army buddies of the 1950s (73 years old) has just cycled 2,800 miles across the USA, from the eastern seaboard to the Pacific, if the military find out I suspect that they will recall him to the colours.

I think that he may be bionic............. Well done George.

[Big ray]

To think that in the 1950s we felt indistructable, but I am afraid that the passage of time is beginning to take its toll. A few years ago one of my army buddies of the 1950s underwent major heart surgery. He made a good recovery and all has been well for the last few years. However he went shopping with his wife a week ago, she is confined to a wheelchair and he was doing the pushing. After a short while he told his wife that he felt extremely tired, and they should return home. They made their way to the bus station and met a female friend, they were making conversation when Jack just collapsed to the ground. A member of the public called for an ambulance and Jack was conveyed to the local hospital. All of this information was supplied to me by another one of our army buddies, he was in regular contact with Jacks wife ( Jack really) I have since rang Jacks wife and made arrangements to go over to pick her up and visit Jack in hospital, geographically I am the nearest to his home town. I will inform the rest of the gang how he is doing, and if the hospital will allow the use of mobile phones he can talk with some of them.

Our reunion will be held in October, my wife and myself have just made the hotel reservations, I know that Jack will be very dissapointed if he cannot make it............... so perhaps we will have to go to him, such is the friendship that we cemented in the 1950s.

[Degsy]

I'm sorry to hear that Ray, I hope he makes a full and timely recovery. When you were all together in the Army no doubt you all felt invincible but age creeps up on all of us and although in some ways you still feel young (I'm still about 20) until I try to do something and it just doesn't happen. To the great credit of you all your loyalty to each other shines through in all your posts, with the exception of the forces this seems to be a quality sadly lacking in today's society. I hope you ALL make it to your reunion.