CCF STORIES/INSPECTIONS/CAMPS

[huntertitus]

Anyone out there remember Blewitt, a bespectacled adolescent who actually enjoyed polishing his boots for hours and hours. Must have been a bit of a masochist. I would wager that he joined the army or more likely the Police when he left.

[J.R.]

You are right. Rocker was RAF and it was Dave Clements for navy and Gunning for the Army...must have had a short lapsus there! Age? Rocker was perhaps the most Senior Officer in CCF as he was involved a lot with the inspections.

Rocker is still alive and well. I was chatting to him at CH a couple of years ago.

Still as acidic as ever !

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

Re RSM "SQUEAKY" Cooke, I remember him telling us, in the 1940s that he had received a bullet through the mouth, in the first World War, hence the voice. I also remember him saying "I Zigged--- when I should have Zagged !"
Did you also know that, in 1940 we wore WW1 uniforms, with puttees and broad webbing belts, only later did we get Battledress. The rifles were SMLE 303, from the first War.
By the way, puttees were still worn (Short ones) with Khaki Drill, in the Sudan in 1950, I found the experience of the CCF useful in getting the "Intervals" right !

[J.R.]

Lee Enfield 303's, several sten guns and two bren guns in my day.

I was fortunate enough to be in one of the two bren squads. We always seemed to get things a bit easier on night exercises !

[Sean]

When I was in the army section, we had football rattles instead of bren guns. We were told that someone had been sot with one and that the army had taken them off us. I could never do section attack because I would always get a fit of the giggles everytime I heard that football rattle start up.
I clearly remember those damn hobnail boots I had. Trying to parade outside the hall was nearly impossible. Every time the order to halt came, I would obediently go "halt, check one two" and stamp my foot down on "two", the trouble is that on the cobble stones, my boots didn't stop and I would simply slide forward for a few feet. I once sent Lt Atkinson flying doing that much to everyone else's amusement.
Another memory I have is wondering though a field as part of a section, all armed with smle 303's when we got chased out of the field by an extremely annoyed group of cows. Picture the scene, 5 burly lads with rifles running full speed, screaming like girls and vaulting the nearest fence to escape. Two of us landed in cow pats..............charming!
Finally there was the end of year army camp up near Newcastle in 1976. We went to a firing range to have a go on 7.62 SLR's and to watch a firepower demonstration by the army air corps. we had had our go on the SLR and it was time for the demo. In flew a pair of Gazelles aiming for two tank hulks. They fired their rockets and we were all watching expectantly. They totally missed the tanks and utterly destroyed a flock of sheep grazing about half a mile from the target. Did we laugh at that one or what! I also remember being totally drunk by the time the return train arrived in London.

[sejintenej]

Must have been about 1959, Annual CCF camp at Aldershot where there were contingents from all over. Food was down to CH standards so no great complaints there but the stench from the plate washing tanks was the same as from the mugs of tea; yeuch! Enough to put anyone off the Army for many lives.

The army, rather stupidly, had left a fully operational tank close to our tents so some bright sparks decided that they would have a look inside one night - against specific orders. The Army (not CH) commandant was not amused that they let off a fire extinguisher inside the tank. Apparently they had to stay and clear up the mess after we went home!


A few years before that we had orders from the CO (Peto AFAIR) to deliberately disobey the General Inspection Officer (who was Montgomery of el Alamein). Apparently he would start any speech with the order "Gather round, chaps" which was considered a "not good" idea.

[AndrewH]

Picture of Chief Bradley taken at Bisley this July.


(Thanks to Guy Milner Smith)

[sejintenej]

Lee Enfield 303's, several sten guns and two bren guns in my day.

I was fortunate enough to be in one of the two bren squads. We always seemed to get things a bit easier on night exercises !

Stens guns? - I thought they were Stirlings
plus the MOBAT (mobile Anti TAnk rocket, sighted in with a bren!!!!! nice bit of kit

[Requested Removal 18]

Field Day Inspection Summer 1990 (I think...) L-R: Dr Robin Mundill, David O'Meara, Andrew Gunning, unknown, Paula Haywood, not sure (possibly John Whitehouse?), & Ken Grimshaw.

[J.R.]

Lee Enfield 303's, several sten guns and two bren guns in my day.

I was fortunate enough to be in one of the two bren squads. We always seemed to get things a bit easier on night exercises !

Stens guns? - I thought they were Stirlings
plus the MOBAT (mobile Anti TAnk rocket, sighted in with a bren!!!!! nice bit of kit

Definitely stens.

I vividly remember R.S.M. (Squeaky) Cooke telling us, (the bren-gun platoons), how dangerous the original stens were before they were modified to allow the bolts to be locked after cocking. Prior to this, many people were injured or killed when a soldier would jump out the back of a 10-tonner with the sten cocked, hit the deck and spray a whole magazine back into the lorry !

Actually, the sten was a lovely weapon for 'room clearance'. Highly inaccurate but lethal in an enclosed space.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

Sten Guns, I know about ---
The Sten didn't need to be cocked to initiate the accident -- the mere landing of the chap from the back tailgate was sufficient to cause the bolt to recede sufficiently to send a round into the breech -- and fire it !
Another problem was that the original model chopped off the end of your little finger, if it strayed in front of the bolt --- later, a little protective lug was put in place---- it still happened !

Later models had wooden butts -- rather than the T section and sometimes even a Foresight -- I managed to get my claws on one of these to win the !st Inf Div. Sten Competition, in 1949.

The "Proper" weapon for an Officer was a .38 Revolver Pistol, either Webley or Lee Enfield, I also managed, (Being in a position to do so !) to get a Short Barrelled L.E. .38 -- which was much lighter to lug around.

Generally speaking -- Pistols are useless, in serious situations. If Semi- automatic -- they can jam --- always at the most embarrassing moment and if either, have an effective range of some 50 yards !

After one "Embarrassing Moment" in Ismalia, I drew a Sten Gun, and managed to wheedle two Lanchester (?) magazines from the Naval Frigate moored in the Great Bitter Lake, in exchange for taking bored Naval Personnel, on night anti-terrorist "Hunt and Destroy" fun. These magazines had a 50 round capacity, as opposed to the Sten 25, and were much more comforting !! -- I threw my .38 in the bootm of a Trunk !

Now gather round Children -- and I'll tell you another Bedtime Story !!

[loringa]

Picture of Chief Bradley taken at Bisley this July.
(Thanks to Guy Milner Smith)

I received a Christmas Card from Chief Bradley yesterday and I'm delighted to say that at over 90 now he is still going strong and still working looking after the grounds on five industrial estates around Horsham. Although he lost his wife five years ago (after 64 years of marriage) he seems in good spirits. For me he was the absolute epitome of what I would want to see in a Royal Naval Warrant Officer: a very kind man and extremely interesting if you could ever get him to tell you his sea stories.

[postwarblue]

One curiosity of the CCF I remember was that one leading Corps-gripe - A chap in Col A who was the most immaculately turned out individual you could imagine - was turned down for National Service (medical grounds I should think) whereas another chap who was the most un-military slob you ever saw was commissioned and ran a tank transporter outfit in Germany.

Re the Bren guns, my experience was fleeting as early in its introduction to me (and of course others), which was held in the gym, there was a PING! from the one I was fiddling with and some little spring, which I gather was in some way inmportant, disappeared to seek a new life elsewhere and the Bren didn't work after that.

Mercifully after a year of practising the Lying Load among the Big Side worm casts I escaped to Jemmy Massen & Pongo Littlefield's RAF section which offered more in the way of intellectual stimulation. CH didn't have a navy so I had to wait for that.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

The "Little spring" as I remember, was situated behind the Firing Pin ------- hence no bang !!
The Firing Pin, as such, was slotted into the Breech Block, vertically, which was very difficult in the dark, or blindfolded, when some joker would remove it from where one had left it !!!!

[J.R.]

The "Little spring" as I remember, was situated behind the Firing Pin ------- hence no bang !!
The Firing Pin, as such, was slotted into the Breech Block, vertically, which was very difficult in the dark, or blindfolded, when some joker would remove it from where one had left it !!!!

Sounds about right, Neill.

Of all the weapons I have fired, (most when I joined 'Plod'). the bren to this day was probably the best and easiset. Reasonably light, accurate with a forward recoil, rather than a shoulder cruncher, as the next round was rammed into the breech.

Probably it's only fault was having to adjust the gas-pressure so often.

Probably the most 'scary' gun I ever fired was at Stoughton Barracks, Guildford when we were allowed to discover the lethal stopping power of a Magnum revolver. I think it was the .32 version.