Found this a while back, but forgot to post it. Hope it's in the correct place. An account of service with Home Guard, RAC - Royal Scots Greys. D My Story
dbf - an astonishing tale of a case of an old head on very young shoulders and a typical view of life in the army although he appeared to miss owing to age of the real hard times - as he was in RHQ most of the active times and thus spared the trauma of actually fighting. Owing to this of course he had time to note the time when a village , town etc was captured - I never did apart from not having a watch was only concerened that we usually fought in daylight and slept ( sic) mainly at night but not always ! A point I find strange is that he was passed out as a Driver / Operator without classification and also on wheeled vehicles only - also not having any lesson or exercises in fault finding on the 19 set - in the midst of battle strange things would happen to wireless sets which demanded fixing - right now - and not wait until back in Laager when the Royal Signalman would take care of faults or fit a new antennae most operators had to do that by getting out and fixing it - no matter who was shooting at him ! After three months of Wireles/ morse training - we HAD to pass at least as Class 111 operators - when settled down in a regiment we had to pass as Class 11's - or else your pay never moved ! Then we did two months of driving All vehicles - 10 hp morris - 15cwt - three tonners - Valentine - Covenanters - Crusaders - then of course i joined a regiment with Churchills ! All to be classed as Driver/ Operators - then came two months of Gunnery ! Three weeks commanding - then we got a weeks leave ! On other point which is so true - he left Bovington - travelled all the way some 250 miles to Barnard Castle - dumped his excess kit - slept there overnight - then tarvelled all the way back to Eastleigh - 15 miles north of Southampton and 30 miles East of Bovington. I know just how far that is as I did my Tank training at Barnard Castle ! meticulous tale though well written Cheers
Dbf Many thanks for giving us sight of a very well written piece of what, for me anyway, was sheer nostalgia. I've skimmed through most it but will return when I have more time. I particularly like his words on the 19 set, which was the wireless that I was to use in action for most of my Army life. Top marks for this posting ! Ron
Chaps, Your comments as ever greatly appreciated. This find was purely one of those fortunate happenstances; stumbled upon whilst googling Dutch placenames! Regards to you both, D This man's homepage can be found here: index I have written the story of my early life, Army service and the start of the firm of Norvett Electronics. The book, with pictures, is available at Much Ado Bookshop in the High street, Alfriston. Priced £12.99.
