THE COVENANTER
become more enlightened to the extent that, side of the parade was a line of Jocks all
for sheer practical reasons alone, Roman shouting imprecations and jeering. Clearly
Catholics had been admitted to its numbers. rouble was in store, and I moved forward to
Recruiting as it did from Glasgow and the break up the party, only to be taken aside by
Lanarkshire district, it was impossible from one of the senior Riflemen who quietly and
time to time to avoid an occasional flare up in no way disrespectfully said.. . . . . ‘If I was
of the animosity between the religions that you Sir, I’d get yoursel’ out of here, its got
has existed in that area for many years. One bugger all to do with you!”
such occurred a few days before the Rhine
crossing. At that moment the two lines of shouting
Jocks (who later I found to be the Roman
Due to the need to absorb reinforcements, Catholic element of the company) weighed
6th Battalion did not take part in the assault, into the parade, and a fracas ensued. It lasted
but was allocated to cover a section of the only a matter of a minute, and honour
Rhine bank opposite Wesel the main city to satisfied, peace and quiet reigned. It was
be targeted, no more than a mile upstream only later that both my Sergeant and myself
be targeted, no more than a mile upstream. were informed that it
. My Company occupied virtually the whole was nothing unusual to any Glaswegian
of a hamlet named Werrich that consisted - it appeared that we had witnessed the
of a farmhouse with cottages normally kind of sectarian brawling that occurred
occupied by farm workers. Company HQ regularly on Saturday nights in that city. I
was located in the farmhouse. never encountered any further sectarian
problems in what I found to be an efficient
The reinforcements posted to the Company and well-run Battalion, superior to other
comprised a mixed batch of religions, regiments with which I served both before
among them being a good number of Roman and afterwards - and in the following two
Catholics, who, when added to the few years I had occasion to observe and serve
already serving, totalled about thirty. They with several - both English and Scottish.
had been in the Company only a matter of
ten days, so that until the weekly church I recounted this incident in an interview
parade their numbers were unknown to the with Sir Max Hastings while he was
‘Prots’ researching material for his recent book
‘Armageddon- The Battle For Germany
As a nineteen-year-old English former 1944/45. I regret that Max Hastings used a
schoolboy, whose period of history had not little journalistic imagination when he
taken in the sectarian troubles of Western described it in his necessarily abbreviated
Scotland, I had been completely innocent version of the story. He took notes only at
of the religious divisions that existed there. the time, and with the wealth of detail he
One morning my Platoon Sergeant, likewise, was forced to amass in the preparation of his
English (part of batch of DL1 men posted book, it is understandable that the incident
earlier) equally ignorant of the situation, did not appear in print ‘wholly as I described
dashed into the Company Headquarters it to him - he had described it as if I had
exclaiming, “You’d better get yourself down been told to ‘Bugger off. Unfortunately, it
to the lines, Sir, I think there is going to appeared in a passage dealing with morale,
be some trouble!” I grabbed My belt and thus giving the impression that there was a
revolver and ran the roughly one hundred lack of discipline. This was incorrect - the
yards to the farm cottages. Senior Rifleman only meant to explain that
matters would calm down again shortly, and
There I was confronted with a sight that had best be left to take their course, as indeed
was totally foreign to me. An impromptu they did, having no effect whatsoever on
and entirely unofficial parade seemed to Regimental discipline. He had realised that
be taking place. Behind an orange petticoat the Sergeant and myself both Sassenachs,
that had been nailed to two broomsticks required a succinct explanation of what was
being carried by two of the Jocks, walked a transpiring. It was the only occasion that
crowd of Cameronians, the whole preceeded I ever encountered any demonstration of
by another Jock playing a tin whistle who religious differences.
was performing (as I later found out) the
Protestant anthem ‘It’s the sash my father It was while patrolling the Rhine banks prior
wore at the Battle of the Boyne’. On either to the crossing that I witnessed a
84
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