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Ray Hulleys memories from 1959 to 1961 continued.....
Another one which made us all laugh but we weren't allowed to show it was when the new recruit who couldn't synchronise his legs and arms whilst marching was approached by Corporal Bryant, who said "What were you in Civvy Street airman - a bleedin' cripple?" A third and final one was when a recruit was reluctant to swing his arms correctly when marching. The DI would come up to him and bawl in his ear, "If you don't swing those arms airman, I'll rip them off and beat you with the soggy ends".
During the second week we had to have our jabs to keep the dreaded lurgies away. (My Scottish pal called them 'jags' to the amusement of all the Sassenachs!). We were marched down to the Hospital and were given 2 jabs in each arm. On the way back to the billets the DIs persuaded us to "swing those arms real high" allegedly to alleviate the adverse effects of the injections. We all must have looked quite a sight with arms flailing all over the place.
One event that everyone will remember was the Gas Hut caper. This resembled an old chicken shed was situated near the football pitch and is building No. 51 square G8 on the camp plan. We had to enter the hut wearing our BA kit and then after walking around in a circle for a couple of laps, take off the kit, dash out of the hut and run around the field like maniacs.
The third week was spent in the Squadron Kitchen and Mess hall where most of the Flight had to do Station fatigues. The Hut Senior man (Alan Ardley from Chippenham who had served in the army) was excused these tasks and I, as his Deputy, jumped on the same bandwagon until it was realised that I wasn't exempt after all. I paid the penalty by having to work on the Pan-wash - the dirtiest job in the Kitchen - for 2 days. After being up to my elbows in grease I then had to work the Toaster conveyor for the rest of the week and finished up looking like a cooked lobster!
Everyone in the hut was looking forward to getting a day pass on the 4th Saturday to explore the joys of Bridgnorth and we spent hours and hours bulling up our kit and cleaning the billet on the Friday evening. All our bed frames were probably ex-hospital stock because they were painted with white legs. I volunteered to repaint them to ensure that all of us were given a day pass. The barrack room looked spotless afterwards but the smell .....! On the Saturday morning Sgt. Palace came round to inspect everything and only a few lads were lucky. My canvas bag was thrown into the coal box with the words "its manky, airman!" A careful inspection showed that there was a miniscule spot of Brasso on the back of the smallest buckle. Eventually we all got out for the weekend prior to the 5th week camp.
I can remember being taken there in the buses but I not sure where it was, probably at Brown Clee Hill, the same place as Dave Lascelles. This was a different world to being cooped up at Bridgnorth and luckily the weather held out. We thought that the stern discipline would be eased off by the DIs but no, when someone had the gall to say "Excuse me Corp," he was quickly stepped on "It's Corporal to you at Bridgnorth and it's Corporal to you here, you little worm!"
Eventually we reached the last week of training and the battle to get the Best Flight on the Pass-out Parade. We were the best in the provisional test but failed miserably in the real thing.
All in all I enjoyed my time at Bridgnorth in spite of all the harassment from the staff. After all, they were only doing their jobs! Little did I realise when I was leaving the camp for the last time that I would be back there within 5 weeks but this time as a member of the Permanent Staff!!
I have some names who were on my trade training course at Hornchurch. They were in the same intake from Cardington and were at Bridgnorth the same time as me. I hold a group photo of us at Hornchurch; if anyone would like a copy please contact me:
Alan Clark; K. Davey; Paul Field; Bill Gardner; I.R. Goddard; T.S. Harvey; R. Honeyball; John E. Leonard; G.A. Mc Cloud; D. Moore; M.L. Pitcher; Ian S........?; Mike Vincent; Brian Yeates.
B. Permanent Staff.
I left Bridgnorth and went to RAF Hornchurch for a 4 week trade training course as a Personnel Selection Assessor (PSA). Rather a grand-sounding title but basically a pen-pushing, telephone-answering Clerk! At the end of the course the Flight Lieutenant i/c said "We have all your postings here - 4 of you have to stay here, the remaining 12 sort yourselves out and each pick a posting" He retained 4 of those who were good at any kind of sport - rugby, football, tennis etc. The only exception to this rule was Jock Burns. John Rowan Burns from Glasgow had joined up with me at Cardington, had been billeted in the same hut, given the same trade, served at Bridgnorth with me and had been demobbed on the same day as me. In other words he was the eternal rash! Seriously he was a good mate and I enjoyed his company. He was an excellent sportsman; in fact he was a professional golfer who played off scratch. It was therefore surprising that Hornchurch hadn't grabbed him until I found out that the CO of Bridgnorth had already done so and had earmarked him to return to Bridgnorth where he continued with individual golf tuition courtesy of LAC Burns!
Why did I choose Bridgnorth when I lived in Lancashire? Although I had the choice of being posted to Wilmslow, Cheshire about 20 miles from Radcliffe, my fiancée Joan (later wife) had just moved with her family to Wolverhampton, so I opted for Bridgnorth in spite of being the hell-hole for recruits.
John Burns and I returned to Bridgnorth on 24 September 1959 and were assigned to live in the Clerk Accounts billet (Hut 114 square D7 on the map) and we were initially greeted with less than enthusiasm when our accounts colleagues learnt that we would not be on the Duty Clerks roster at HQ building. This was because we worked in the Trades Selection Section (TSS) in Huts 353, 354 and part of 355 (Square D9). Nevertheless we quickly made friends with them and were eventually accepted as two of them.
The work at TSS was an absolute doddle and I defy anyone to have had a cushier life as a NS man. Well, perhaps there were a few thousand who were as lucky! The section was mainly concerned with the allocation of trades to NS men - Regular recruits had already been given theirs at the Recruiting Centre where they first joined. NS men had taken certain aptitude tests at the recruiting centre and more at Cardington. The results of these determined which type of work they were most suited for. RAF NS jobs were divided into 2 groups i.e. Engineering and Non-Engineering and each group was then sub-divided into four more categories E1, E2, E3 and E4 and N1, N2, N3 and N4. The best jobs were those in E1 and N1 e.g. the Fitter trades, Interpreter and Clerk Accounts, the worst were in N4 e.g. Steward, RAF Regiment. Each recruit was given a category from the 8 above and he was allowed to select 3 jobs from that category or any below it. Those with N categories were not allowed to select E cat. jobs. The section received from the Air Ministry a weekly requirement of NS jobs that matched the number of recruits in each weekly intake. There would be for example 10 Air Wireless, 14 Air Radar and 6 Air Frame Fitters, 27 Nursing Attendants, 25 RAF Policemen, 28 RAF Regiment men etc., required in that particular week. The job of the interviewing staff was to fit the men as far as possible to the jobs that they had applied for, ensuring where possible that they had their first choice trade. The system was very fair in that generally square pegs were allocated to square holes but there where at times serious cock-ups. When there were only a limited number of top jobs available e.g. in Clerk Accounts, then there had to be a screening process with the vacancies going to the best qualified airmen. Many who had applied for this work had to be allocated their second choice and it sometimes finished up with fully qualified Accountants being given a Nursing Attendant job, their second choice. This led to all kinds of protests from MPs who wrote to the Air Minister to complain.
The TSS staff consisted of Flt. Lt. Spencer, Head of Section, his deputy Flt. Lt. MacDonald, Chief Technician Durtnall, Warrant Officer (Archie) Hamilton, Flt. Sgt. James (I think that was his name), LAC Bruce McCreadie a regular from Kidderminster, another regular LAC who was from Wrexham but I can't remember his name, John Burns and myself. We were a happy bunch and generally got on well together. The officers and NCOs did the interviewing work and the rest of us did other office-type tasks including typing by Bruce and skiving by the lad from Wrexham. Flt. Sgt. James (?) used to brag about his refereeing prowess so much that eventually we got him to admit that he had refereed at Wembley in 1945!!
John and I had to carry out the Morse aptitude tests for those NS recruits who had applied for the Wireless Operator trade. We carried out this work in Hut 355 where a tape recorder was set up at the front of 20 desks, each with a set of headphones. The recruits were told to report to Hut 355 where either John or I gave a short spiel on the procedures and then switched on the tape. This consisted of 32 pairs of Morse sounds, some the same as, some different to, each other. The recruits had to identify whether the pairs of sounds were the same or different and tick the appropriate box on a pro-forma. They then filed out of the room and we had to mark the sheets to obtain their scores. If they had reached the pass mark, they were deemed suitable for Wireless Operator training. We also had to re-collate all the trade selection documents for each intake on their arrival from Cardington. These came stapled together for each recruit and the interviewing staff at Bridgnorth wanted them in a different order. God knows why!! This took the best part of each Monday and was mind-boring work.
The airmen in TSS used the Synagogue's table tennis table at lunchtimes. This was Hut 228 just across the road from Hut 353 at the time of my service.
We had every Wednesday afternoon off for Sports Afternoon - didn't everybody - and worked 1 in 4 Saturday mornings on a rota between the 4 airmen. In summertime John Burns was always missing, either teaching the CO to improve his handicap or away at a golf tournament, sometimes with the RAF team sometimes on leave at a professional event. Once I had got into the routine of TSS I had a daily procedure whereby I finished work at TSS at 5 o'clock, dashed up to the Mess for some tea and then at ¼ past 5 met Corporal Jones (?) from the Accounts section who went by car to Wolverhampton each evening to pick up his wife en route to their quarters at Cosford. She worked half a mile from Joan's house where I used to go and stay overnight camped on the living room floor. In the mornings I caught a Bridgnorth bound bus from Wolverhampton and met Corporal Jones halfway along the Bridgnorth road where he joined it from Cosford. It was better than a normal 9 to 5 job, except for the pay!
The only time when I had to stay on camp was when I was on Fire Picket. This was for 1 week and those on this duty worked normally during the day but had to sleep in the Fire Picket billet in the main Guardroom complex at the camp entrance. In my 17 months at Bridgnorth I only did one week's Fire Picket duty; the other one that I was due to attend just happened to be in the week that I had planned several job interviews up North. Wasn't that a co-incidence!
I had been a deferred printing Apprentice and this had been noted on my record. One day I was asked by WO Hamilton whether I would be willing to print some invitations on the camp's printing machine. He showed me the Print Shop which was a small room at the rear of the C. of E church (building 242 E10). It was very untidy and the 'machine' consisted of a hand-operated Adana platen press just big enough to print a letterhead or business card. Type lay strewn around the floor and it took me 2 or 3 days to get it into shape but eventually I printed the invitations OK. They were for a dance at the Sergeants' Mess and as a result of my printing skills I received an invitation - not to the dance, but to work in the cloakroom! I got an invite for Jock Burns as well so we both turned up on the night buttons polished, trousers pressed and shoes shone. We had a liberal supply of free booze and plenty to eat, and everything was going A1 until at the end of the evening's proceedings the guests came to us for their coats which had been deposited into our safe and secure keeping earlier in the evening (when we were sober). How we were to know that 2 lady guests came with identical fur coats one worth £2000 the other worth less than £200? Yes, Lady Luck was definitely not smiling on us that evening when we gave the wrong coat to each person. Fortunately the error was sorted out the next morning by Archie Hamilton but we were never asked to man the cloakroom again.
The biggest surprise of my time in Bridgnorth came to me in early 1961. One of the lads (Roger) in Accounts lived in Wolverhampton and occasionally used to get a lift off Corporal Jones. One day he came up to me and said "Keep it under your hat Ray, but you and Jock Burns are getting demobbed 3 months early!" I was gob-smacked and told Joan the good news that evening. Evidently because NS was coming to an end - the last intake through Bridgnorth was in early January 1961 - and some NS trades including PSA were being amalgamated with their Regular equivalents, the men in Whitehall kindly early-released some NS men. In John's and my case it was Clerk Personnel taking over PSA duties but we also learned that 2 NS Stewards working in the Officers' Mess were also due for early release. This meant that I was released on 21 February 1961 instead of on 3 June, a saving of 3 months 10 days.
I look back on my time at Bridgnorth with affection and satisfaction. The company and camaraderie were second to none and I enjoyed the time spent there, even the square-bashing. National Service never did me any harm - quite the opposite!"
Copyright © 2006 by Ray Hulley.
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