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The story of the 21st May 1966 Who remembers this weekend twelve cadets and Sgt R. Merrifield (I think) and Lieut M Brierley as O.I.C. were to spend the weekend training, the training was on Western Hills Baldock, and great fun was had by all. We were billeted at the Letchworth A.C.F Training Centre in Icknield way Letchworth. The huts still stand today, but with a few changes. We arrived late Friday 20th June, time for a quick nosh then lights out. Saturday morning we were given a grand breakfast in the Marmet Pram factory's canteen next door, then we were all shown the grounds for the exercise in which we were the attacking force, with the local cadets in defence, they all seemed so young and did not have a clue what we were like. This was the first time I met a local lad called Gary B, well the truth is he met my rifle butt right in the face damaging his teeth . My version of the story is I slipped and he was hiding in a bush looking at me running up the hill and whack........... don't worry he got his own back by introducing me to my wife of which we have just celebrated our silver wedding anniversary and counting ........... Now out of the two matters I think he got off lightly. The exercise went off ok with loads of thunder-flashes and mounds of .303 blank ammo we all had four clips which we had to load with ten rounds each, plus a good handful, the most I had ever received was 20 rounds. Saturday night will be a day that most of you will remember as this was the night Henry Cooper fought Muhammad Ali and if you remember Henry was the first man to knock Ali off his feet, but the fight was stopped due to Henry's cut eye. We had all piled into the end billet to listen to the fight on my Murphy Richards transistor radio, which as you know did not last very long. that night after lights out some of us had a look round Letchworth which was not worth the bother as it was a dead town with not a lot going on, no pubs or clubs, so we returned to the HQ and spent most of the night talking, of which most was about Letchworth town centre which was completely dead until we livened the place up with a couple of the thunder flashes placed under a up-turned dustbin which shot into the air and was like a bomb going off, this was a little trick we had been taught on army camp some where in Kent. The.22 rifle range did not go to plan with the house opposite the HQ being hit by an ND (Negligent 'accidental' discharge) or as it was told to the police it was a stray round. Poor Malcolm Brierley he had only been the officer in charge for a short time ....
Do you remember this weekend. Some have claimed to have been there, only problem they were not recorded as being at Goldings at this time. One thing I can't remember who did I walk down Bedford Road with on Sunday, to get some cigarettes, from a shop which we never found open, which was no surprise to the others lads who felt there was more life in the 'dead centre' of Hertford. But as we walked down the road looking at the houses .........more photos if you want..........or can you add to this story or do you have a story of your own to add. I met with a man today sitting outside the Letchworth HQ in an A.C.F van, his name, Dave Engleford, who was a wealth of information, and remembers Skipp Culver, the bald headed Sgt. Nobby Clark and even Sgt. Lee. In Dave's own words we were not as bad as we thought. Also from information received Dave lives a few doors down / up from Roger Copping an old Goldings boy who left Goldings as a printer, who was also in the A.C.F band. One thing I have wrong with the above story is the hut’s, they have all been replaced and rebuilt in a different direction. So much for my memory, but if this part of my memory serves me right, the C. S. M .of the day was C.S.M. Hutchings, it was said he had been born in that uniform, this was explained to me in the tale of the joke re the officer, Rupert in charge had some very sad news to tell Cdt Smothers, that his dear, dear mother had died she had fallen in front of a trolley bus and had been squashed to death. This soldier lived for his mother and loved her so much, so much, the Soldiers nick name was ‘mums boy’ The Rupert asked the C. S. M. to pass this sad news on and told him to do it gently. C.S.M Hutchings called S squad to parade. The squad stood to attention, The C.S.M. shouted out in his roughest loudest voice All those with mothers take one pace forward, within the same bark, “Cdt Smothers where are you going, get back in line”. So from that date forth all soldiers hated him. And he asked me? Who do you think we have as our C.S.M? The bloody same, he is our C.S.M . When I first met C.S.M Hutchings he was still going on about mothers, which made me respect him more than others. He was treating us like all the rest, like normal kids, that most treated like orphans. C.S.M Hutchings was at that moment giving us such a rollicking for dropping a Lee Enfield .303 rifle out of the back of the 5 ton lorry that was being used to take us all to Letchworth. We had stopped off to pickup the large quantity of ammunition blanks for the exercise ie: .303 blanks and six boxes of thunder flashes of which I refer in the above story from the quartermasters stores at Ware in Hertfordshire. HQ. I don’t think Dave Engleford had the pleasure of meeting me as I think he got his warrant as I was leaving. Lucky Man.
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