THE COVENANTER
Having said that I must admit that there round to a pub for our lunch.
were guys there from some of the Corps
like RASC, REME, R.SIGS etc who definitely My next and last course was at the Small
needed such training. Arms School in Hythe, another overlong
The only memorable characters I remember course with the first half spent treating us as
from this course were three Africans from though we were raw recruits who had ever
the Nigerian Army who were on my squad. laid eyes on a weapon before. This after
They were from different tribes and could having to demonstrate a good standard
only speak to each other in English, I of weapon handling, safety IA’;s etc on the
remember one was Hutu and another course induction.. Strangely enough some
Tutsi but I don’t recall the other ones tribe. people even from Infantry regiments failed
Although all three were sergeants as was this and were RTU.
required to be on the course the Hutu guy I dont recall anybody from the various
wasted no time in letting us know that the Corps on the course but there may have been
others were only corporals who had been some who needed that kind of training.
jumped up to do the course and would be The only new thing I learned after three
back down as soon as they returned home. months on that course was how to strip and
clean a Browning 9 mm pistol, a weapon I’d
He was a truly nasty ,arrogant piece of work never handled in the army before that and
and treated the other two like servants probably never would again.
ordering them to bull his boots, press his I even got to fire six rounds from it (every
uniforms and generally attend to all his shot completely over the top of the target at
wants and needs. Myself and others in a mere thirty yards).
the squad tried to encourage them to stand
up to him but they were clearly terrified of There were six including myself in the squad
him. Towards the end of the course when under an instructor who looked hardly more
he had been chewed out by the instructor than nineteen years old. Turned out he had
for something or another he showed his been a star pupil at the Junior Leaders Regt,
colours when he told the instructor that started mans service at some regimental
he wouldn’t dare speak to him like him depot, done the course we were now on,
if they were in Nigeria. He was very well passed with A grade and was taken into the
connected and as soon as Nigeria gained SASC.
its independence(which was to be soon) he
would be promoted to Colonel. We were housed in those big wooden
After Nigeria became independent and then buildings known as spiders where the
the civil war started and the Tutsis were being accomodation blocks radiated off a central
slaughtered in their hundreds of thousands building where the dining hall etc was and
by the Hutus, I just knew who would have these rooms held about thirty bed spaces. It
been right there up front taking a leading was a big course with
part in the killing During the last week of the people from all over the Army and in my
course we were taken up to London to see room there were seven Welshmen of the
the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Welsh Guards and other regiments. In the
Palace. Not like tourists but actually from evening when we were preparing our kit for
the inside of the Guardroom within the the next day the big Guardsman in the bed
gates. After it was over our instructor was space across from me would start quietly
absolutely delighted to be able to tell us humming a tune and soon it would be
that the RSM of the resident Guards Bn had picked up from further down the room and
graciously allowed us permission to enter the before long they would all be harmonising
hallowed halls of the Sgts Mess at Chelsea and singing away in good style.
Bks, not for lunch or anything, just between
one o’clock and two when he would be in The Guardsmen knew each other but the
the place He then started laying down all others were strangers to them and yet it
the do’s and dont’s to be observed during took no more than a week for them to form
this highly privileged visit. I got the feeling a good little choir. In my squad there was a
this was like being invited to kiss the hem Cpl Silver of the Rifle Brigade, a genuine
of the Popes garment or something. Our East End cockney boy who could talk the
instructor was disappointed when myself hind leg off a donkey. From the moment
and two Sergeants’ from the Rifle Brigade he opened his eyes in the morning until he
told him we’d pass on the big deal and go fell asleep he rabbited on non stop, it was
51
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