During his time in a Field Regiment Lt Beadle voiced his opinion regarding a range of ranks and duties. Often being prodded by his mother as to when he would get his next "pip". His younger brother was Commissioned upon entry into the RA but Bill went through the Ranks.His brother was more academic moving from RA HAA to being an interpreter, as he spoke fluent German. CPO Training Bou Ficha Artillery Range Tunisia I am now training to be a C.P.O. commander of HQ Tp. And responsible for co-ordination of the gun troop’s. barrages, concentrations etc. This position I shall only fill when and if the present C.P.O. is promoted to Gen tp. Commander. It would not mean a third pip for as you know the subaltern in Field has more responsibility than many a captain in other arms. And while dead men’s shoes are as scarce as they are at the moment, I shall finish my war as a senior subaltern- a prospect which causes me no misgivings or heartburning whatever! I’d rather be a G.P.O. than any other rank in the artillery. Now my G.P.O. days are over I’m surer than ever. As C.P.O. I have a motley gang of “specialists” “employed men” clerks and assorted riff-raff to administer, cajole and pacify. No guns, very little esprit de corps and thousands of fiddling details. In action one gets a certain satisfaction in running the Battery (the B.C. being most of the time with our infantry). But out of action it is a dog’s game. I have equally good reasons for not wanting to be a Captain or Major. Colonel of course is a very pleasant and easy job indeed but the Captain and Major rungs on the ladder make the game not worth the candle! I’m still CPO, a job which entails far more responsibility than a subaltern should be asked to take on and not enjoying it nearly as much as my old job of GPO. It’s nothing but telephones, target records and bumph nowadays with a thousand and one jobs that the B.C. hasn’t time or the inclination to deal with. Not to mention recce and survey and march tables and route finding every time we move, which is often. So I’m a rather harassed and weary man these days, though not really as browned off as I might be if the war weren’t going so well.
Whilst the CPO was sited in his Command Post his other duties took him out with the Regiments Recce Party in a second vehicle carrying Survey Equipment, a second CPO, Survey Officer, the vehicle being driven by a Bombardier/Surveyor. The Recce Vehicle carried the i/c Recce( Major), Driver/ signaller, signaller and the third CPO. It was their job to locate new positions for the guns and commence laying the gun positions out while the Regiment was catching up. The CPO had an assistant, a junior Subaltern to shadow his duties and carry them out whilst he was away. In this case the Recce Jeep carried 2 i/c Regt (i/c Recce) His driver/Signaller, Signaller Wireless Operator) and CPO 446 Bty. The Survey Jeep carried CPO 266 Bty Driver/ Surveyor 266 Bty, CPO 265 Bty and Regimental Survey Officer. Each battery having Officers qualified to check the route, Find a location. Survey and mark out with survey poles and instruct the Regimental Survey Team when thy arrived. All Guns would be aligned to the prospective target area and set up for firing. This changed somewhat after the death of the Survey Jeep Crew when the Jeep struck a landmine in the entrance to a site, North of Florence Sept 1944 killing three Officers and a Bombardier. It was decided that each location should be swept for mines beforehand.by men from the Regt. Senior NCO's were rapidly trained in mine clearance during the few days after mine incident. On the first site to be surveyed afterwards, 25 mines were detected on the location designated for the guns. The incident was never repeated.
Course Shoots & P Shoots Today we have had a bout of “course shooting” on a mountain firing range nearby which was quite good fun. My Tp. Commander was doing GPO for me and I was up at the OP along with the other subalterns. The OP was on top of a very stony mountain and the “enemy” were 2000 yards away along the slopes and wadis of a barren range of hill-country, many times more difficult than anything in England–though not as perhaps more difficult than the real thing which we shot over in the battle. The procedure on such “course shoots” is for the Major to describe imaginary situations and point out targets, whereupon the observing officer of the moment takes over and decides on what type of shoot he is going to use to deal with the situation. How many guns; what degree of accuracy; and what type of fire, when the target has been bracketed. Then follows the worst moment-hurried and hopeful map reading and the initial ranging order to the guns. On this first round the quality of the shoot depends and it is a grand sight to see a good solid burst within easy connecting distance of the target. My target today was an imaginary Machine Gun nest on a rock at the top of a mountain: a difficult shoot because the “plus” rounds are OU (Overs Unobserved) and go off with a big bang somewhere out of sight over the top of the hill. However I had a good first round and several target rounds later on, which always helps though very seldom occurs, on “pinpoint” shoots. (P Shoots)
