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Post by Ken on Apr 24, 2021 13:36:12 GMT
 Royal Berkshire 1949 An old friend related the tale of even as a young soldier he was found guilty of some small misdemeanor and sentenced to 10 days jankers. His Regimental Serjeant Major was a typical stickler for discipline and as part of the the punishment told the miscreant to plant several hundred young cabbage plants. With typical squaddie humour the young soldier duly planted them in a strict geometric pattern, but upside down. Feel free to use this image in any book that you may be writing.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Apr 24, 2021 15:32:35 GMT
Hee hee!  That's a good Tommy response. A US Army grunt would simply plant them all in the same hole, then stomp it flat. A US Marine would first dig a 6 foot X 6 foot X 6 foot deep hole to dump them in, then re-fill the hole. |
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Post by Ken on Apr 25, 2021 9:05:50 GMT
There’s an even better story with this one. Salisbury Plain 1965.  |
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Post by Ken on Apr 25, 2021 10:15:58 GMT
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Post by BlueAndGold on Apr 25, 2021 12:31:01 GMT
Since Lulu's Preview function is as yet still defunct I found the preview on Amazon. A fascinating book! There are only two of his poems represented there but it is very refreshing to see that they rhyme. So much poetry today does not.  The Arborfield barracks did have a certain character, didn't they? The first barracks I was quartered in as a young US Army recruit were built by German POW's in Missouri. Truthfully, those were my favorite. I can understand the nostalgia that inspired TeeCee's poems. |
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Post by Ken on Apr 25, 2021 13:01:23 GMT
Arborfield was originally a Remount Depot in WW1 where horses and men were trained together. At the start of WW2 new barracks were constructed for use as an Army Technical School. From 1939 to 2004 thousands of young men, some as early as fifteen and a half but more normally sixteen years of age, would begin three year apprenticeships as soldier tradesmen, The emphasis has always been on soldier but at the end of their apprenticeship they would join the British Army’s technical Corps as tradesmen and technicians with most serving long careers as professional engineers and then taking their well honed skills into Civvy street and industry. Quite a few also found their places as senior military officers with more than a smattering of Brigadiers and Generals. But they never forgot their roots as young Army Apprentice Tradesmen.
I have published many books on the subject with several selling thousands of copies.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Apr 25, 2021 13:09:19 GMT
That, Sir, is some grand tradition.
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