Life in the Army - Chapter 5 - Peebles

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Refer to Chapter 1-- A4345544 -for links to other chapters.
LIFE IN THE ARMY

by
ARTHUR WARD

Chapter 5 - Peebles

September 20, 1940
Reveille was at 0400 hrs so we cleaned up the camp and left in quads with the guns.

At 0630 hrs travelling via Bupad, Guchtermuchty, Kinross, Rumbling Bridge, Kincardine, Linlithgow, Edinburgh, Haddington and returned to Beil house.

At the time we did not know that whilst near St Andrews we had been on standby to sail to Norway.

Some of the Regimental HQ advance party had gone across the North Sea, but we heard (though it was never confirmed) that the Germans had captured them, so our invasion to help Norway had been cancelled.

Also, we heard later that we had nearly been called out one night when it was thought there was to be a landing by the Germans on the Firth of Forth, but this information was kept very secret.

September 23, 1940
We were now settled in at Beil House again.

We went to the picture house in Dunbar and saw Bonrad Veidt in 'Contraband'. I went with Cliff Teal and Bill Turner.

September 27, 1940
Went to dance at East Linton, which ended at 1 am.

September 28, 1940
I played in goal for FREDDIE troop and we won 3-2.

Later I went to Dunbar with Bill Turner and saw Tommy Trinder in "She couldn't say no".

September 29, 1940
Sunday. Had a walk round the estate with Cliff Teale. We heard bombs being dropped in the Edinburgh area and saw a German plane flying overhead.

October 01, 1940
We fired live ammo with 25 pounders at Haddington.

October 03, 1940
Had a walk around the estate with Cliff Teale and he was promoted to Lance Bdr.

October 04, 1940
Pay day. I received 10 shillings and 6 pence (52½p)(for war service), which I put in a savings bank.

There was a dance at the Drill Hall, East Linton from 2000 hrs to 0100 hrs.

October 05, 1940
I played for FREDDIE troop and we beat Don troop 3-0.

October 06, 1940
Raining. Went to Dunbar with Cliff Teale.

We had a pint of beer in the Castle Inn, Had a walk around then caught a bus back to Beil at 2040 hrs.

October 07, 1940
Lt. Green was married in Edinburgh. 10 men from the troop went to the wedding. (I did not go). He bought the entire troop a pint of beer each and we bought him an oak and chrome tea tray.

I had a letter from my cousin Doug Allen.

October 11, 1940
Dance at East Linton. The truck came back at 01.15 hrs. I think we enjoyed these dances mostly; we visited the local pubs first as there were a lot more soldiers than there were ladies at the dances.

October 12, 1940
Went to the Playhouse Cinema at Dunbar and saw Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz".

Earlier we played a Medium Regt. of RA and drew 1-1. The Medium Regt. scored 2 minutes from the end of the game.

At this time we had quite a few football matches and I played in goal for the troop, battery and regiment.

October 13, 1940
Went for super with Cliff Teale to the house of Archie Sanderson. He was a Scotsman who we had made a friend of, and his job was as a porter; he looked after Beil House. We ate and enjoyed Honey Buns etc. and stayed until 22:10 hrs.

We were now equipped with very old French 75 mm guns which had very large cart horse wheels. They could only be drawn by horses, which we did not have, so when used on manoeuvres they had to be carried in the back of a lorry.

October 14, 1940
PEEBLES
Reveille was at 05:15 hrs and we moved at 09:00 hrs via East Linton, Haddington where we waited until 12:15 hrs when all the Division moved by Tranent, Dalkeith to Peebles.

Went to the pictures at night and saw "Geronimo" all about cowboys and Indians.

At this time we left the 49th West Riding Division and joined The 46th North Midlands Division which the regiment would be a member of until the end of the war. Our new emblem was an OAK tree which had to be sewn on our battledress tunics.

Our billets were in an old priory right on the main street of the town. When we arrived, we had to give the billets a good cleaning out. They had previously been occupied by Polish troops, and they had left everything in a filthy mess. It looks as though they had not even been swept out for weeks.

British troops had always been trained to keep billets spotlessly clean and when moving, the last thing we did was to clean and scrub everything ready for the next occupants but it was obvious that the Polish army had different ideas and they just lived in dirt and filth.

Peebles has 2 picture houses, 2 NAAFI canteens and at the town hall was a dance floor and a billiard room.

During our stay there we visited the cinemas many times and I played billiards only once with AI White, as I was hopeless. There was also a dance floor in a disused factory.

We also had church parade on Sundays to the main church in the town.

The people were very friendly and we had several houses where we could visit for a cup of tea and a chat.

October 20, 1940
We had an intake of new recruits, many from the Glasgow area. Some were a bit rough, as they came from the Gorbals district (which was noted as being a very rough area), but we soon became big mates and we all got on very well together.

We realised at a later date that Peebles was about the best place where we had been stationed.

November 13, 1940
We had a farewell dance and said cheerio to a lot of friends whom we had made.

Pr-BR

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