Chapter 7a - A 2/Lieut is Born

CHAPTER V11 - A 2/LIEUT IS BORN - PART ONE

On returning from leave, I was able to take stock of my new surroundings. Our billets were extremely crowded. The food was poor and the NAAFI canteen inadequate for the size of the camp. Up to a 2hour Queue at night and then little left.

The new C.O. was fond of spit and polish and liked a good flock of 'Orders' making him unpopular with cadets and officers alike. A battle camp in Wales was also impending. Would this be better or worse than the old one?

At 0700 hours one Sunday morning, I reported to help load personal kit in preparation for our 120 mile ride to Rayahader (apologies to the Welsh if I've got the spelling wrong). We were presented with a TCV, a Troop Carrying Vehicle, a lorry with canvass sides and bench seats running lengthwise. It was not a suitable load carrying truck. At the time I forecast that someone would travel in a load carrying vehicle. Sure enough, at 0800 we boarded a normal load carrying three tonner.

We had to stand and hang onto the tubular steel frame that supported the canvass cover. On the bends we fell towards the outside of the bend, so did the lorry, making it difficult all round.

It was November. Draughts blew in between the canvass cover and the lorry body. We all found it difficult to keep warm. Fumes from the exhaust permeated the vehicle.
Imagine our joy when we arrived at Rayahadar (near Llandridnod Wells), and found our quarters to be in an old hotel.

Four slept in a room, which in many cases had running¥ water. There was also a fire grate in some rooms. 'Initiative' soon provided fuel. Electric light bulbs were in short supply. Everyone soon learnt that the only way to insure against thefts was to remove and hide them every time we left our room.

Although the food was worse than at camp, we soon found an excellent little canteen where we could get almost anything, including some of the best tarts I have ever tasted.

We were not universally welcome. When we went into the pub, English would be the predominant language. The minute they saw us, they would abruptly change to Welsh. They wanted to keep the beer for themselves. Then beer, like everything else, was rationed.

The majority of the time was spent doing normal field-firing platoon attacks. We found it very difficult to keep warm when not actually doubling as winter came on us. Our feet and legs were constantly wet walking over hills and bogs.

We did one night op worthy of mention. It was one of my nearer squeaks. The object of the scheme was the location and identification of weapons at night. We went through the course a section at a time. The rest waited in an old tumble down cottage which was, bit by bit, being consumed in a fire we kept going as our sole source of heat and light. But it also gave off vast amounts of choking smoke. We were the last section to do the scheme. As it was already 2 a.m. we were more concerned about getting back to the camp than anything else.

The first 200 yards was from the cottage to a stream where an officer met us and guided us up the stream bed. We failed to find the next officer and, rather than waste time, carried on without him. It was this officers responsibility to fire a verey light as we passed his checkpoint, indicating our correct arrival to the guns. But, as this was not done, only certain guns opened up.

We did the patrol perfectly, locating all the guns fired easily. It was rather a shock, when after discussing our route, we found we had actually walked across one of the stop butts targeted by one of the bren guns. Fortunately, this bren gun would only have been fired after seeing the verey pistol flare.

The last two days of the battle camp were spent in a 36 hour scheme. This was the rough outline.

A plane had crashed at Map Ref______ and a band of warlike tribesmen had captured the pilot and two officers carrying the atom bomb plans. A company of British troops had been sent to recapture the plans and the two officers, or at least of reaching the supposed area of the crash and getting any information they could.

Some twenty of us, including myself, had the good fortune to be selected as enemy, while the remainder acted as the company. The scheme covered some 15 to 20 miles as the crow flies and was operative throughout the whole 36 hours. All parties were equipped with 38 sets for wireless communication. The dress of the company was normal webbing, steel helmets also their full compliment of arms.

The enemy were allowed any dress they liked, but headgear must be of the turban type. Rifles only were to be carried. I quote my own dress as an example. Boots, battledress trousers, with sacking on my legs to keep them dry. Web belt and pouches contained my rations and blank ammunition, Finally, a denim battle dress blouse, and for final bravado, a scarf tied round my head hanging down to the small of my back.
`We were organised into three parties and a Head Quarters. Each party was to engage one of the three platoons. I will now attempt to recount the story as far as it concerned my own little party.

We left camp at 8 o'clock, and by 9, had a position prepared round a farm road along which the enemy was expected to pass. It must be remembered that although this was an ambush of kinds, our main purpose was first to contact the enemy.

We decided on the policy of sending our wireless back in the rear, all the time gaining and transmitting information as we retired. At about twelve, we sighted the enemy, or rather as a result of a careless scout, we saw each other at the same time. We gained the initiative by opening fire immediately, and then dashing back through a we1l prepared covered withdrawal.
We sat quite comfortably in another position some two miles back and awaited developments. After three quarters of an hour, we saw several enemy to our left flank, so decided to withdraw up a valley to our left rear. This party I later discovered was the Company Headquarters, not the platoon at all. At that time the platoon must have been very close to us.

I was appointed scout as we half ran half walked up a slightly inclined track with tall hedges on either side. Suddenly I froze and gasped. The enemy were going up parallel with the track on the far side of the hedge. They came into full view not twenty-five yards away where they were climbing over a fence. What should I do? Throw a thunderflash and run on the assumption that they were bound to spot us, or lie still in the ditch. I lay still, and watched about twenty five cross over the fence. In the meantime, the section, unaware of the danger, were becoming more and more restless.

After the immediate crisis was over, we decided we had to get in front of them somehow to protect our own H.Q. and save ourselves being cut off. The enemy were advancing along the side of a valley following this track. We must descend into this valley, pass them, climb up again, cross the road well ahead of them and lay another ambush. As we belted downhill, we came across our wireless operator whom we had previously given up as lost. Actually, he had a similar escape to ours.
While we were going along the bottom of the valley, we spied our enemy half, way up the hill. They were sitting in the corner of a field under a hedgerow, without rifles or equipment, eating their lunch. Further, to judge by the numbers, there were not more than two or three on guard, and they might be assumed to face forwards. The target was too tempting. Our section plodded on at a walk. Meanwhile I worked up to within 300 yards, fired ten shots and rejoined the section. We were soon completely out of site so missed seeing any of the fun.

The enemy actually descended and made a thorough search of the valley. This took them a long time, left the mystery unsolved, and their stomachs empty.

In the meantime, we doubled along the valley, and then climbed past the road up nearly to the summit of this 1,000 foot hill. Here we flopped down into a position covering the whole of the valley and track. We had an excellent line of withdrawal taking us back along a wooded track running down gently towards the valley.
It was not long before we spotted the enemy in the open part of the valley, 600 feet below us. When every man was in full view, we opened fire, and ran for all we were worth to the bottom, some 400 yards from the enemy, but still out of sight.

As they began to climb the hill, our section moved out to lay a further hornet's nest. I stayed where I was, waited, fired a few rounds and then rejoined the others, in time to see my target descending back into the valley. Here things became critical. We lost sight of the enemy. Two of our scouts were captured through their own carelessness, and very nearly caused the rest of
us to go with them.

We were not worried when we saw the platoon behind us. We had picked up a message on the wireless mentioning a truce and rendezvous, but were unable to call them up or get a repeat of any sort. We wandered on blindly for half an hour and chanced on our own H.Q.

We then found that the Staff Company Commander had found the scheme a little out of control, was calling a truce to find out where everyone was. So far, he had one platoon, our section, and H.Q.
All wirelesses were turned over to finding out people's positions, whether friend or foe. Eventually we found out where all the units of the company were, but the whereabouts of our other two sections remained a mystery.

We found a barn, ate a welcome meal and went to sleep, posting lookouts in case they saw either of the two other lost sections. The lookouts saw signs of distant activity and found first one, and then the other section.

A lot of news was exchanged between the two parties. Both had had similar experiences to ours. But, if I may say so, ours appeared to have been the most profitable. But I would say that wouldn't I.

In the morning the scheme started again, but this time the enemy slipped past undetected, and we were a long time chasing about before we found them. When we did, they were at the bottom of a 100 foot escarpment. We were at the top. What might be described as a tactical advantage.

As we fired on them, we heard remarks about fighting in the open, but with various expletives added. This indicated our opponents were somewhat weary. So were we, but this was a great stimulous.

When we retired from the escarpment, we met our H.Q. The commander decided we should move back with him to the scene of the crash and defend the wreck. We were gradually climbing all the time and getting into that open moorland country that was to spell our downfall.

I was scout again and went on ahead. Nothing happened for five miles, then we had a halt. Brain telepathy is a strange phenomenon, but I remember clearly, halting a hundred yards from a gully, and also thinking how easily the enemy could be walking down it.

When signalled to move on, I had not gone ten yards when I spotted steel helmets steathily advancing down the gulley. We lay in our gulley and watched the wireless ariels of two enemy platoons and comapany headquarters go past. Also a platoon came over a crest some six hundred yards to our left bearing straight down on us. By the time they were four hundred yards away, the ground was clear to our front, so we made a dash for it. The enemy spotted us and beat us by shear weight of numbers. By virtue of being a scout, I was seperated from the main mele and managed to escape, getting, in some useful sniping before the end of the scheme.

Now, for some of the other events of the stunt. The first is a short but very amusing and tells how we helped the enemy to organise his attack on the final objective. (one of our sections did succeed in reaching it).

In the morning he netted in his wireless. His H.Q. could hear one station only, our operator could hear the other two. He decided to answer for one and say he could hear the other. His answer was accepted. There is little need to mention the fun. Positions of both his and our movements were wrongly given and even false instruction issued.

The experiences of our other section which was not found on the previous night is also an interesting They harrassed the enemy all day as we had done and then intentionally lost wireless communication. At dusk they tried a farmhouse for accomodation but without luck.

The next house obviously belonged to a middle-class gentleman and was thoought to offer little chance, but it was here where they were welcomed. The master of the house owned the local store and gave them a wonderful feed. He asked them details of the scheme. The local Home Guard Company Commander, he was able to listen with an experienced ear.

He went into the village with his car and found the platoon in the local school buildings. He came and gave our section full information and a good route to the school. In due course a raiding party left. They arrived at the school, threw some thunderflashes, and then back to the house. Again, they were generously plied with coffee, eating apples and listening to the sounds of chaos in the village. These were what our scouts had spotted.

We returned to OCTU a happy crowd who had enjoyed battle camp more than normal life at Alton Towers. In particular, the last scheme had been good fun. I have never enjoyed a 36 hour scheme so much or run so far in 36 hours.

Matters at Alton were not improved by our to move to other accomodationt,a regular occurence there. This time a lot of us were shifted into a very large hut. It was still very crowded. Six of us found a room at the end of the hut. It was unlocked, so we just moved in.

Nobody knew about it. It was just our den. We used to slip out at the last minute to go on parade. There was no point in laying out the beds for inspection if nobody knew about them.

Another good thing was Alton wasn't too far from home so I managed to get the odd week end away.

Training became somewhat dull as most of our time was occupied with Military Law and general administration. Further, I had a sceptic toe which rendered me temperorily unfit to do schemes.

I was soon sufficiently fit to do a night river crossing scheme. We forded a river in boats, went across a field, waded through a second river, and began the attack. Things were a little disorganised after the boat crossing, but after the second river was crossed (or not crossed),chaos reigned supreme.

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