Eh?
I thought the lowest was private & the first promotion was to corporal?
Edit...
Lower as in not as good as Sarg or as good as no stripe at all?
Last edited:
What's Boiling Your Pi$$ Today?
- Thread starter DD67
- Start date
I thought the lowest was private & the first promotion was to corporal?
Edit...
Lower as in not as good as Sarg or as good as no stripe at all?
MartytheMartian
Legendary Knight
My grandad on my fathers side was 'Agile and Suffering Highlanders', typical wee Glasgow hardman (He was actually my adopted Grandad) and my real dad on that side was a Scots emigrant Flight Lieutenant in the RCAF (flying Hurricanes) who had messed around with my gran while her man wasn't looking. On my mothers side my Grandad was a career soldier who had joined around '37, went over with the BEF as a WO1 and was selected for officer training and sent home just before the push back to Dunkirk (Guess the brass knew what was really coming and selected men to lead the fight back). He then went to North Africa, Italy, France and finally Germany. He had a ton of medals which I haven't seen in many years as my Aunt skedaddled with them all and we don't talk to her now. He would never talk about the war and shrugged off his medals as 'free with so many cigarette coupons'. What little I know about his service came from my Gran when he wasn't around.
Sarky B’stard
Legendary Knight
Er, no, civvy!
Sarky B’stard
Legendary Knight
And the only thing further removed from a soldier than a civvy is a medic….allegedly. They can be a bit ‘haphazard’.
I'll hold your coat @Judd Dredd.
Sarky B’stard
Legendary Knight
Hitting officers is only terminal if they didn’t deserve it. The ‘system’ is more sophisticated than the average Tom realises. My wife’s uncle decked his platoon commander for pulling a dangerous stunt on ops. He was bust from Cpl, did a short stint at Colchester to show appropriate outrage at his grievous offence and quickly re-promoted before making RSM. That was 3 Para. The officer? Sacked and quietly binned.
Sarky B’stard
Legendary Knight
And, Marty, my mate from Blairmore was an Argyll Warrant Office, commissioned into the medics to tidy them up! My own uncle was a wartime Argyll WO2 who spent 2/3rds of his life with one lung after being casevaced from Burma.
That ‘take’ on medics came from a particularly hard Ulsterman also commissioned from the ranks. He had his reasons!
MartytheMartian
Legendary Knight
Hitting an NCO is rather more dangerous I think. I knew a lad some years ago who was being hounded by his sergeant during basic training so he tells anyway. His tale was that the sergeant was hounding him and he lashed out with his rifle. Late that night he says he was snatched from his bunk by the sergeant and two other NCO's and, while the two others held him the sergeant jumped on and badly broke his leg. He was invalided out and tried to sue but got nowhere due to lack of witnesses.
Apparently my Grandad witnessed an officer beating a solider with his stick.
He asked him to stop & reminded him the guy was on their side. That request was ignored so he stepped between them & demanded that the officer stop what he was doing.
The officer took a swing at my Grandad with the stick.
Shortly after that he was awoken by a nurse with smelling salts
He was only hit once, not beaten up as such. My Grandad claimed it was self defence, the officer was asked to explain the reasons behind the original beating & he was informed my Grandad was a keen amateur boxer. I think that helped with his dented pride after being put on his arse with one punch
Sarky B’stard
Legendary Knight
That sounds mildly improbable, not impossible. People who fail basic training through chronic injury or whatever can invent wild stories. My daughter has a long scar on her arm and persuaded loads of people it was a shark attack on gap year. When one sap told his parents she had to admit she fell out of a tree.
MartytheMartian
Legendary Knight
I must admit @Sarky B’stard that I wouldn't have claimed his account as true without proof. I know it does happen and I have known a few lads who were NCO's and were not one's you wanted to get on the wrong side of if you wanted to sleep safely at night but, as you say, there are plenty of people who will invent exciting stories for injuries sustained or to make an inglorious departure sound less like weakness.
BAD LUCK DUCK
Forum Duck
I got my mates dads trenching spade from world war two..I think he fought the japs and twatted a few with it..I just found it out as I was clearing stuff out the other day..The Military Cross doesn’t comeup with the rations. Do you have the citation? The ribbon has yellowed but can be replaced for display while keeping the original for sentimental purposes.
My grandfather was gassed too but survived albeit succumbing to throat cancer in his early 70s. Serving on the gun lines damaged his hearing irrevocably and ended his violin playing; his upper register was literally shot. More significantly, his nerves weren’t great. Anyone who knew him said he returned somehow not quite the man he’d been.
I remember as a kid being taught by him to sharpen things and him slightly distant telling how they sharpened entrenching shovels. I didn’t understand. He said quite matter of factly that bayonets got stuck and you could be momentarily defenceless whereas a battle axe could maim several attackers in the initial rush. Oh I thought you were behind with the guns? Sometimes but my Morse was too good so I was routinely spotting from the front trench. He said little else to anyone.
He had a productive leave though as otherwise my mother would never have been born….
I don't know if I should get the angle grinder on it and clean it up or just leave it how it is...
half ton
Legendary Knight
If it's polished and sharpened it will sever much better
chas
Legendary Knight
It is *very* sobering. My kids are 36, 31 and 25. I still see them (and their partners) as kids. All of them older than Guy Gisbon when he led the dambusters. And there's many, many other examples.
chas
Legendary Knight
Just incase I've missed the joke, and I'm quite happy to make myself look a prat in saying, but don't put a grinder anywhere near it. Clean it up by all means. But show respect.
Old Nick
Legendary Knight
Noooo leave it as is, it’s an historical artifact
Old Nick
Legendary Knight
Couldn’t agree more @chas however the conflicts of the 20th Century are becoming less relevant to the yoof of today
It’s very difficult linking those old black and white family photographs of Great Grandparents and Great Aunts and Uncles to kids of the Instragram / TikTok generation - But we have to keep trying
one day I’m sure they’ll get it…
BAD LUCK DUCK
Forum Duck
No joke implied...
Its really rusted up and I thought a light dab over with the angle grinder would clean it up...Any tips for getting it back to a respectful standard without using the angle grinder would be taken on board and if practical and possible used...
At the moment it just looks very tired and as if it's just been found in the jungle after 70 odd years...
It would now be landfill if it wasn't for the fact I did show great respect in saving it as too my mate it was unwanted scrap..Too me it tells a story...
Scrappy
Legendary Knight
Something like one of these, then you can play with your favorite tool...
Amazon.co.uk
www.amazon.co.uk
chas
Legendary Knight
Stick a pic up and we can throw some suggestions in.