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My Four Years in the Army

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My Four Years in the Army My Four Years in the Army F. H. Lawrence 1983 2 3 4 Foreward From the bits and pieces I remember of those four years I have tried to compile a story. Most of the men’s names mentioned are real but, for the story, I have used a few fictitious names. If you are prepared for spelling mistakes, poor composition, bad grammar and lack of punctuation then read on — that is, if you can decipher my scrawl. 5 6 Chapter 1 Preamble to Call Up At the beginning of the war I was working for a Coventry builder erecting houses on the Styvechal Estate. Materials for this speculative house building had become harder to get during the 1938 European political crisis and when war was declared in 1939 this trickle almost dried up so I began to look for other work. Carpenters were in great demand by factories which now had to black-out all windows and roof lights and take other air raid precautions and I obtained a job with Alvis Limited in Holyhead Road. With the introduction of conscription for men between the ages of eighteen and forty-one years, I had my medical and due to varicose veins in both legs was classified B.II. Although working in a mu- nitions factory I was not engaged in a reserved occupation and was liable for call-up at any time or could have been directed to work on Military Camps being built all over the country. 7 8 CHAPTER 1. CALL UP In February, 1941, I caught pneumonia, was very ill and away from work for almost four months. Early in 1942 I had pneumonia again but less severely this time. Some weeks after this illness I re- ceived a directive ordering me to report for camp construction. With the thought of approaching winter and working in all weathers on a muddy campsite, I asked my doctor if he considered me fit for this work. He told me to appeal against the move on medical grounds and gave me a note to enclose with my appeal. I had to appear be- fore a Ministry medical adjudicator who upheld my doctor’s view and recommended that I continue in my present employment. Nothing more was heard about working on campsites, but to our surprise my calling-up papers arrived in November ordering me to re- port to Maryhill Barracks in Glasgow for six weeks ‘initial training’. Nona, my wife, was now expecting our second child and was hav- ing a difficult pregnancy, needing constant attention from our doctor to prevent a miscarriage. Because of Nona’s condition I applied for a compassionate deferment of call-up until after our baby was born; this was refused. Our doctor, in an attempt to cheer us up, said he thought I would be discharged as medically unfit in less than six months. How wrong he proved to be. The telegram informing me that my application for deferment had been turned down arrived on the day I should have reported to Mary- hill Barracks. Having said our goodbyes I cycled down to my parents’ house, left my cycle with them and caught an early train for Birming- ham where I changed to one for Glasgow. Ordinary service trains suffered long delays, priority being given to trains carrying essen- tial supplies or troops. There were no buffet coaches so I had come prepared with sandwiches. Wearing my Home Guard uniform, now stripped of flashes, I was able to queue with service personnel at the 9 W.V.S. trolleys for cups of tea whenever the train stopped at a station. Some of the stops were long and the journey to Glasgow seemed end- less. It was after lights-out when I reported to the barracks’ guard room and was taken to a nearby hut to spend the night. There were no beds in the hut and no black-out shutters at the windows so I was unable to switch on a light. The hut was obviously a bedding store for there were heaps of straw and palliasse covers on the floor. With the aid of my torch I prepared a make-shift bed and tried to sleep. I was tired after the long, boring train journey but sleep wouldn’t come. My brain was too active worrying about Nona and wondering if I would be punished for reporting late. The hours passed slowly away until about 05.00 hours when one of the guards came for me. At the guard room I had a mug full of tea, washed, shaved and made myself presentable to be taken to the orderly officer who then detailed an orderly to show me to my hut. 10 CHAPTER 1. CALL UP Chapter 2 Six Weeks Initial Training I was taken to a hut, one of several built on the side of a huge parade ground, which became my home for the next six weeks. The hut was full of men in various stages of dress, tidying up their beds and blan- kets. Seeing an empty bunk obviously waiting for me I dumped my greatcoat, gas-mask and helmet onto it. The bunks were two-tiered and I had a top one. There was hardly time to say hello and introduce myself to those nearest to me before an N.C.O. assembled us outside and marched us away for breakfast. Army breakfasts I found began with porridge, which I’m very fond of, except when it has a burnt flavour; and the rest of the meal varied from day to day. Scrambled egg made with dried egg powder and looking like a piece of chamois 11 12 CHAPTER 2. INITIAL TRAINING leather served on a piece of fried bread or bacon and tinned toma- toes or sausage and beans were some of the other dishes we had for breakfast. The tea was generally good. It was hot, strong and sweet but was sometimes spoiled by over-chlorinated water. I have a fairly good appetite and am able to eat most things and this morning I was so hungry I could have eaten the table. Some of the more finicky eaters refused their rations and I was only too pleased to have extras. When breakfast was eaten I returned to the hut and began to get better acquainted with the men around me and asked them what had hap- pened the day before. At 08.00 hours with other sections of the new intake we mustered on a small parade ground for roll call and after the parade a lance corporal was detailed to rush me round the barracks, drawing kit, having inoculations and injections. By tea-time my lost day was made up and I was on schedule with the rest of the section. From now on I was a surname with the number 14340452 behind it, a long number which I thought I would never remember. It was to be- come so much a part of my life and repeated so often that it is for ever fixed in my mind. I now had an awful amount of gear and wondered where to store it. At the moment it was just making its way from bunk to floor or vice versa; we had no lockers in the hut. A row of double bunks were set along each wall of the hut with a space about six feet wide between bunks and in the centre of the hut there was a slow combustion stove which proved to be more of an ornament than a means of getting warmth. Fires were not allowed before tea-time and our fuel ration of one large bucket of coke per day was hardly enough to warm the stove let alone warm the hut. An annex off one end of the hut contained the ablutions and toilets and the hot water taps in there should have been marked ‘T’ for tepid since the water from them just had the chill off; showers were a very hurried affair. 13 Our section N.C.O., a corporal of the Glasgow Highland Light Infantry, was a married man who had permission to sleep out of bar- racks when his duties permitted. He was a decent N.C.O., known to the section as ‘Corp’ or ‘Jock’ and we rarely saw him after training sessions. The fellow on the bunk below me became known as Pinkie because he had a very fresh complexion and also blushed quite read- ily when spoken to. He was several years younger than me, quite a likeable lad and we often chummed up to go out of the barracks in our free time for a change of atmosphere. The only other member of the section that I can recall was one we named ‘The Camel’. He was an awkward recruit, tall and gangly and was the cause of the section having many extra drills. He could not keep time when marching or drilling with a rifle. He was never sure which was his right side or which was his left. He loped along with a camel-like gait, usually out of step, sending the section around him into disarray. After those first two days of kit drawing and having inoculations we were instructed by Cpl Jock on how to assemble our packs and webbing into marching order and battle order and told what each pack of that order should contain. We were shown how to fold our blan- kets and overcoats correctly and how these and our kit should be laid out on our bunks for morning inspection.
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