mike65 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 When we were in the army the authorities in their wisdom decided to put bromide into our drinks, tea etc. I am now almost 74, and I am thinking of writing to inform them that its just started to work.:cool2: I would also ask for compensation as it was only supposed to work back then. Keep up the posts they are very enjoyable. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gritineye Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 When we were in the army the authorities in their wisdom decided to put bromide into our drinks, tea etc. I am now almost 74, and I am thinking of writing to inform them that its just started to work.:cool2: That made me laugh, you must have been given the delayed inaction version Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 My wife Margaret and myself attended the funeral of a friends mother today. After the funeral we returned to her mothers former home for refreshments, I got into conversation with a lady of similar age to myself. We, as indeed most of the mourners, were making reference to the general state of the country, and in particular the behaviour and apparent lack of respect amongst the younger generation. Apologies to you young and well behaved citizens out there, we know that the trouble makers are very much in the minority, but it just happens to be a favourite topic amongst us old foggies. We were either better behaved, or we have lousey memories. I digress, it was apparent at the outset that this lady was not british born, but I do have to say that her english bordered on perfection, with just the tiniest accent, which I suspected was german. My suspicions proved correct when she confirmed that she had been born in a small town near to Dusseldorf. We began to compare our childhoods in the 1940s of wartime England and Germany, we had both been born in the 1930s. This lady proved to be an extremely good conversationalist with absolutely no hang-ups about her countries actions during the war, she, has one might expect, expressed her revulsion at the actions of some of her countrymen at that time, I have always considered myself to be a reasonably good judge of character, and this lady appeared to be very genuine. If I am giving the impression that this lady should ever apologise for the actions of her countrymen, then I do not mean to, she like myself was a child at that time, and we are all victims of circumstance. We discussed many aspects of our respective childhoods, far to many things for me to relate in what is a relatively short post, I suspect that I will probably never meet with this lady again, and I would so like to have continued our exchanges. It is in the most unlikely places and times that we have these experiences. :kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 I remember whilst serving in Germany, we went out to our local watering hole down town (Larmers) anyone who served in Hamm will know it well, we had gone out on this very rare occasion at the behest of the senior N.C.O.s, including the Sergeant Major. The evening was going very well, and we were enjoying a very relaxed atmosphere in the company of this normally very strict man, the Sergeant Major. As the evening progressed and the beer flowed the rank and file became much more adventureous in their comments to the S/Major, infact, they began to take a few liberties with this new found dutch courage that they had acquired. I did not drink alcohol in those days (My wife says that I have been making up for it since) I noticed a stiffening of the jawline on the S/Major as the comments got closer to the knuckle. Finally he just raised his hand and said, continue in this manner, and I will see you all of parade in the morning, have I made myself clear, the change was dramatic to say the least. We returned to camp and went directly to the games room above the N.A.A.F.I. We were joined here by of all people, the C.O. We had a very pleasant, but guarded, time with the C.O. The atmosphere was so relaxed that some of the guys started to crack jokes. I have always remembered the one that the C.O. told to us. His joke was...... a guy was lost in the desert whilst riding his ass. He came accross a tower like structure with an internal wooden staircase. This structure had a hitching rail on one side and a well on the other. He tied his ass to the rail and climbed the wooden stairs to the top for a good view of his surroundings. He had lit a cigarette on his way up the stairs and discarded the lighted match. Whilst at the top of this round structure (Like a lighthouse) the discarded match set fire to the very dry stairs. As the flames crept ever closer to the top, he began to run frantically around and around this tower. In the end as the flames reached him, he decided to jump from one of the windows, and land on his ass to break the fall. In his panic he jumped from the wrong window, the side where the well was situated. He went straight down the well and was drowned. The C.O. then said, the moral of this story is...... if you dont know the difference between your own ass, and a hole in the ground..... then you deserve to drown........... :cool2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead: SORRY....... it was his joke, not mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 We had many silly accidents, particularly when out in the field on exercise. One such "accident" involved one of the tank fitters, he was layed accross the tank engine performing maintenance, when one of the tank crew jumped up onto the tank, did`nt see the fitter working in the engine bay and just kicked one of the engine cover/vents back down into the closed position, he then compounded the problem for the by now winded fitter by jumping on the cover because it had not gone down completely into the closed position. By the time that he realised what the problem was the fitter had found enough breath in his body to start screaming with pain. We extracated this poor guy from the engine bay, we moved him as carefully as was possible given the possible nature of his injuries, as one can imagine he did a considerable ammount of screaming. Keeping his body as straight as possible we lifted him from the engine bay onto a stretcher on the top of the tank. We then lifted him down and placed him accross the back of a Willy`s jeep and I was instructed to take him, accompanied by a junior officer to the field hospital. The journey to the f/hospital involved a considerable ammount of off roading, a Jeep is not the most comfortable of things to ride in, even on mettalic roads. I had the "patient" screaming his head off at every minute bounce and the officer constantly telling me to get a move on..... in the end I just looked this young officer in the eye and said, would you like to drive SIR, I am doing my best not to cripple this guy, he said very few words after that untill we reached the f/hospital. The fitter made a full recovery, it appears that he was extensively bruised, but of course we were not to know that at the time. There were many such silly "accidents" I have always believed that there is no such thing as an accident, that word is a euphamism for neglect.:kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 In the 1950s 6 Armoured Div (my div) had its headquarters in Bunde, a small town in Germany. The first time that I had occasion to go there involved accompaying one of our Staff Sergeants. The Adjutant, who I rode out with regularly, warned me to be on the lookout for the Regimental Sergeant Major when in H.Q. Bunde. The staff of any div H.Q. is made up of people from all the regiments and corps in that div. This S/Major was a member of the Inniskillins, and was easily identified by the chequered braiding around his peaked hat. This man had a reputation for being very keen in all aspects of military matters, and the proverbial hawks eye. When we arrived at Bunde, I remember that the entrance was up several semi-circular steps to the swinging entrance doors. We climbed the steps and entered the building, we had only taking about a dozen steps inside the building, when we saw this S/ Major walking towards us. I cannot speak for the sergeant with me, but my back suddenly straightened up, and my whole body took on a more military like posture. I tried not to make eye contact with that man as he approached us, but in your peripheral vision you know that this man is making a quick assesment of you. He walked on past, and we both felt a great measure of releif at having apparently "got away with it". We had only taken about half a dozen steps when this voice bellowed, Wait there, we stopped dead in our tracks and wondered about what sort of verbal bashing was going to be levelled at us. It transpired that because we were not known to him, he wanted to know what business we had in the building, he did of course give us a very good visual inspection at the same time. We both felt very relieved when our time there was over and we could leave. That man was without a doubt the most intimidating man that I ever met during my time in the military....... and that includes my former drill sergeant.:kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 It must have been during the summer of 1957, before my promotion, we went out on one of our many exercises. We stopped in a very picturesque village to overnight, the village like many was built around the village green, with cottages,farms and a pub. We did what we always did, simply took over the place and parked our stuff seemingly where ever we liked, I dont know if we could just do this, or if it was all pre-arranged. Our particular group took over a farm yard for the night. As the evening was drawing to a close we were allowed to go to the village pub for a drink (assuming that you were not on any duty) A pleasant and uneventful evening was spent in the pub, and then we returned to our sleeping area, I was amongst the first to leave the pub,it was by now quite dark. I remembered that one of the office trucks a(Q.L. Bedford) had backed inside one of the farm buildings. My pre-army days had been spent with horses, and I was well aware of the vermin, rats, mice etc that are nocturnal animals, so I decided that I would climb up onto the office truck and sleep there. At that particular young age in my life I could sleep on a clothes line, so I managed a reasonable nights sleep, I should perhaps point out that the top of the office truck had a steel rail, approximately 5 or 6 inches high all around. When I awoke next morning it was of course day light, I looked down over the side of the truck, and my blood ran cold. The truck had backed in between lots of the farm machinery, discs, rakes, ploughs and the like, one thing is for sure, had I have rolled off that truck, I most certainly would not have survived the fall..... it was the topic of my conversation over breakfast. Once that we had eaten, we formed up for roll call and make ready to move on. The sergeant taking the roll call said, someone amongst you has taken a rather valuable and ornate cigarette ash tray from the pub last night. I dont want to know who it was, but I am going to walk in the opposite direction from the pub, I will be back in 5 minutes, if the item is on the pub step I will say no more about the matter..... When he returned the ash tray was on the step, and we moved on. Now I have to say that during my time in the workshops, no one ever stole from anyone, this had obviously been a stupid act encouraged by the intake of booze, the tray would most certainly have been no good in the barrack room, and would have almost certainly been discarded at the earliest opportunity. I thought that the sergeant dealt with the matter very well. :kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 Myself and two telecommunication sergeants were seconded for a while over to the 17/21 Lancers, stationed in Brunswick on the eastern side of West Germany, in fact I believe that they were tasked with guarding the east / west border in there armoured scout cars. The thing that struck me in that camp was the lack of the finer things, table cloths etc. However when I went for my first meal they seemed to be pretty sloppy eaters, hence the bare wooden tables I suppose, or maybe that its just a fact that if you are denied the finer things, you tend to become a bit sloppy. I`m sure that they were a fine body of troops, and performed their duties well. One evening I went into the NAAFI for some refreshments, I was sitting drinking my coffee and listening to Elvis Presley on the Juke Box, a very popular song at that time was "Blue Suede Shoes", Elvis was quite new on the music scene at that time, and extremely popular. I remember that it cost one D-mark for 3 records. A guy of about 5ft 8inches went up to the Juke Box a couple of times and parted with his D-mark, then selected his 3 records. He had been selecting his particular records, none being by Elvis, when he again went up to the Juke Box and stood for a while pondering his next selection. Just then a rather larger guy stepped up behind him, he had blonde hair, and was wearing blue suede shoes (You could do that sort of thing in the evening) He waited for this guy to put his D-mark into the machine, then before he could make his selection, he just lifted this guy up, and moved him to one side and made the selections himself, all Elvis songs. The little guy just looked at him sideways, and never said a word. Observation can sometimes be quite amusing.:kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 When the "Sproggs" arrived some of the guys were only too keen to take them down to town for a night on the beer. They, like the rest had already done, thought that the beer was rather weak compared with our national brews. They would consume (at the insistance of their new found friends) copious ammounts of this supposedly weak beer. By the time that they had returned to camp, they would either be ill, drunk, or both. I remember one night whilst lying in my bed, in total darkness apart from the light in the hallway, one such intoxicated sprogg who had been abandoned by his drinking partners, was standing illuminated against the recessed rifle rack in the wall. He was obviously totally non-plussed, had no idea where he was, and no inclination to go any further, I had a grandstand view of this man and his antics. He tried for several minutes to ease his bum onto the ledge of the rifle rack, first he would lift one leg, and fail, then the other leg, only to fail just as miserably again, this alternating carried on for several minutes untill eventually he just slid down the wall and stayed there. Once that I had finnished having a little chuckle to myself, and it was obvious that the entertainment was over, I dragged myself from my bed, and put him into his. Another favourite trick played on these poor unsuspecting people, was to remove one of the bed sheets, and turn the one remaining sheet back up from halfway down the bed. When the intoxicated sprogg tried to slide down into his bed, he could only get halfway down, they would eventually go to sleep with their knees up under their chin. It all seemed quite funny at the time.:kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashley Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Another favourite trick played on these poor unsuspecting people, was to remove one of the bed sheets, and turn the one remaining sheet back up from halfway down the bed. When the intoxicated sprogg tried to slide down into his bed, he could only get halfway down, they would eventually go to sleep with their knees up under their chin.It all seemed quite funny at the time.:kissoncheek: In my day this was known as an apple pie`d bed, new comers were prone to this one also if you were mucking about out side the dorm after lights out two members would sneak back in to apple a bed, when the house master or prefect made an appearance you had to get back into bed a.s.a.p. and the silence was broken by a resounding ripping noise as some ones foot tore the sheet apart . Explanations to matron in the morning :embarrassed: ! buffing the floors after roll call:sweat: Ashley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 In my day this was known as an apple pie`d bed, new comers were prone to this one also if you were mucking about out side the dorm after lights out two members would sneak back in to apple a bed, when the house master or prefect made an appearance you had to get back into bed a.s.a.p. and the silence was broken by a resounding ripping noise as some ones foot tore the sheet apart . Explanations to matron in the morning :embarrassed: ! buffing the floors after roll call:sweat: Ashley I see that you are a Dorset man, boy did Dorset leave an impression on me, all of my senses were honed during my time in Dorset. I was never so alert as when I did my basic training down in your part of the world. They are now fond memories, and I wish that I was fit enough to do it all again. Thank you for bothering to read my ramblings, wonderful, wonderful memories. :kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 The trouble with getting to my age is, when you want a wee you dare`nt laugh. I do so like to laugh, its better than all of my other medication put together. I spoke with one of my friends the other day, he told me that he had been staining the floors at home all morning, his wife is insisting that he should invest in some incontenance pants. Such a lot to look back on, and so little to look forward to, Osca Wilde was correct when he said that Youth is waisted on the young. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 I am trying to upload a picture, if I succede, this is one of the trucks that I made reference to earlier in my posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 If I can remember what I just did, here is the K9 that was rolled with the bread in the back.............. fingers crossed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Ray, Just want to say that I must have spent countless hours over the last few weeks reading your posts, very informative, funny and at times moving. Thank you for sharing them, looking forward to your next update! Please keep them coming... James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 I will see if I can show you my first military vehicle, acquired in the 1980s, and I still have it, its my pride and joy. GMC 353 1944. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 Ray, Just want to say that I must have spent countless hours over the last few weeks reading your posts, very informative, funny and at times moving. Thank you for sharing them, looking forward to your next update! Please keep them coming... James Thank you James, I hope that you get as much fun from reading them, that I get from writing them (Re-living really) Regards. Ray.:kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 The photograph of the GMC, with our son driving accompanied by his two children, was taken only a few months ago........ but the area where it was photographed was where I worked in the 1950s cutting / dismantling military vehicles and equipment..... I could not have forseen in the 1950s that I would be driving a wartime truck on the same land in 2010. So many wonderful memories of my time there before my army service.:kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 I feel very proud of myself, managing to upload these photographs............ I think that I have just moved into the 21st century, its amazing how little it takes to excite an old guy.....:kissoncheek::kissoncheek::kissoncheek::kissoncheek::kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 Getting ready to go to Normandy, France. :kissoncheek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 Brake repairs on my Jeep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 One of the motorcycles, the BSA M20...... needs the clutch plates replacing now, still works O.K. but it will not last much longer, better get it done for the coming show season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gritineye Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Ray, Just want to say that I must have spent countless hours over the last few weeks reading your posts, very informative, funny and at times moving. Thank you for sharing them, looking forward to your next update! Please keep them coming... James I agree, nicely put..:thumbsup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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