RAOC Gazette - page 129
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1977 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | No |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1977 |
| Late date | 1977 |
| Transcription |
lf1 die first night ' lf he night and lll " ! lome sleep. • * cc he cots?." of the exercise; we drove into harbour area prepared for night routine, then proceeded to Captain Harding's first question was " Where When he was shown the ground his answer »v;i\ " You're kidding/' He soon found we weren't. What a jiarJ life we lead. After Double Take came Exercise Lang Hop, and evidently the most strenuous exercise to date. This was the Unit's Summer Camp in Bavaria. Ten days of cultural entertainment ensued, such as visits to Dachau and the fairy castle of Neusch- wanstein at Fussen, plus numerous walks around the local countryside. As always 20 OFP had community relations in mind, and in order to strengthen these we played two local village football teams. Unfortunately we lost tc Wilpoldsried 5-0, but we were able to hold Borwang to a 3-3 draw. Since returning from Bavaria we have been very busy preparing for the Jubilee Parade at Sennelager, This promises [0 be a good day. STORES SECTION 5 FIELD WORKSHOP WELL, what a busy period we've had—what with the Queen's Jubilee Celebrations as well. We ourselves, have a small detach- ment up there as back up to the Workshop. We also had an active edge call in which Private Holland decided to put an- other ditch at the side of the road. Still it's good for drainage! The OC, Captain J. F. Rollason, has just returned from his expedition to Corsica. He assures us the natives are friendly there. We welcome Sergeant Ramlu to the Unit from Belize and Private Luke from Depot. We say farewell to Sergeant Guild and family and we wish them well on their new posting, also to Private Asham who is posted lo Paderborn—under protest 1 The Unit has been on annual Summer Camp, to Manheim. Needless to say the wives are not happy; they don't believe we go there to work! Last, but not least, we say farewell to Private Gay who ru; left for that great jungle called Civvy Street. 26 ENGINEER REGIMENT WORKSHOP IT has been all go in the Section since our last report—what with 25/35 kilometre hikes over the hills of Iserlohn, and the steady flow of receipts to back the new plant equipments, a sports afternoon has become a luxury for the lucky ones. We say bon voyage to Sergeant Pat Henly who intends to take up farming in the BATUS area. Congratulations to Private Bomber Edwards who passed his HGV 3. Despite the shortage of sports afternoons, W02 Forde and P-;vate Edwards have represented the Regiment at cricket, and Corporals Bauld and Robinson at tug-of~war in the 6 Brigade meet. Combat- Supplies Battalion WELL, the Combat Supplies Battalion is still here! Quite a surprise to some maybe, but nevertheless, fact All the Com- panies have returned from Summer Camp where they each sp^.nt an enjoyable two weeks in Lampertheim State Forest 4- RP Company were left with the onerous task of pulling down the camp—built by 43 RP Company—and shipping it back from whence it came. This was done in record time, even before the troops had marched out! I believe, however, that they omitted to bring a thirty nine seater coach back with them. A minor problem! The Officers Mess was fortunate to have the RAOC Staff Band at the last Guest Night. A successful night, with the guests—the Garrison Commander and CO QRIH—being well wined and dined. The only casualty was the Adjutant, Captain f^-tr Maynard, who, on storming out of the bar after losing at har dice to the CO, slipped on a piece of lemon and attempted to knock some sense into himself with the wall. As he was heard to mutter later on his return from the MRS, 'Lemoned again!* The Battalion athletics has happened! Yes, on the 17th June. This date was kept a very closely guarded secret and several alternative dates were published—just to keep every- body confused. Battalion Headquarters finally confused itself so much that it let the real date slip out and, as the Head- quarter Machine produces only the truth, the Unit all turned U P at the Inselbad Stadium to see 43 RP Company win—yet Congratulations to Captain Tony Hitchings and his wife Ubby on the birth of their daughter Katrina Phillipa, born in Germany of a New Zealand family with the British Army. How contemporary E it Ordnance Depot Antwerp VAGUE mutterings from contributors in Ordnance Depot Antwerp recently that the Unit GAZETTE correspondent has, in the past, been too liberal with his paring knife, thereby deny- ing the Corps at large the opportunity of reading, at first-hand 4 and unexpurgated, the various literary gems' submitted. By way of change therefore, this month all departmental con- tributions are * sailing under their own colours.' Depot Stores Department. This week we welcomed back Staff Sergeant Spence who is now firmly embedded in the Sergeants Mess Treasurer's chair. All the Senior Ranks are expecting an upsurge in their mess bills. There is a rumour that Staff Spence has ordered a Mercedes as did our last Treasurer Staff Sergeant Jimmy Bowen, who seems to have got away with it. Dave Beattie, one of our hard working Corporals in the DSO world, is off again. Last week it was sailing in the Baltic (with our OC Major Livingstone no less). This month he is in Norway. He must have connections. Another of our stalwarts, Corporal Dixie Dean, has gone in- to his second childhood and is now playing Camp Com- mandant in Breskens where a party of our school children have gone camping for a few days. It is unlikely that any of the children will escape while Dixie is in charge, but they formed an escape committee before they left. The notes this month must include a larger than usual batch of helloes, goodbyes and congratulations. Welcome to Staff Sergeant Pound and to W02 Frith on posting in. Farewell to W02 West and to Staff Sergeant Darling on posting and to Mr Ron Moss and to Sergeant Caul on transfer. Sadly we say also a final farewell to Mr Albert De Backer who died shortly after retiring from many years of service to the British in Belgium, Congratulations on promotion to Staff Sergeant Caul, Lance Corporal Davey and Sergeant Hector, and on receiving his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal to Staff Sergeant Pound. Regimental. Regimental training has gone wild just lately with all the courses being held in the field. One senior rank was heard to remark that he didn't believe there was "more than one way to skin a cat" until he was told to catch his own dinner for that evening. The Queen's Birthday Parade turned out to be a rather damp occasion. The band of the Light Infantry had some of the flag orderlies almost running to keep in step. There is no truth in the rumour that they are excused BE tests, OIC Golf. With our limited number of golfers we had prided ourselves in reaching the quarter-finals of the BAOR Inter-Unit Golf Competition. It was a little surprising there- fore to be informed there had been a mix-up by the organisers and we have to play a match against Headquarters Regiment I (BR) Corps before we reach the last eight. We have recently concluded our eclectic competition which has been running for some months and the first three places went to Sergeant Derek March, W02 Flan O'Regan and Captain Brian Jenkins. A four-ball league competition has also recently been con- cluded and was won by W02 Bill Martin with, we understand, a little backing from Captain Joe Mollett, W02 Bill Barker and Staff Sergeant Jim Bowen were runners-up. We under- stand that despite this success Bill does not yet intend hanging up his soccer/hockey/cricket boots. We wish Bill Barker the best of luck in Berlin. OIC Shooting, The Unit shooting team, comprising W02 Bill Martin, Sergeants Barry Wolohan and Rick Smith, Corporal Taffy Hector and Lance Corporal Gordon Parkin, headed for the Hal tern range to try their luck in the Rhine Area Skill-at- Arms Meeting. All in all it was a disappointing shoot with the team gaining only ninth position (out of fourteen) in the Minor Units Championship. W02 Bill Martin and Lance Corporal Gordon Parkin qualified for Stage 2 of the Rifle Match, the former being placed second equal on points in Stage I. The week, however, wasn't a total disaster in view of the nightly visits for brocky and frits to the rather pleasant village of Dulmen. OIC Sailing, When Major Livingstone and Corporal Beattie went on their Baltic sailing trip, they took along one vehicle specialist and one signals communicator. Goodness knows why, the Kiel boats have neither engines or radio. The four were our entry in Exercise Danish Blue III. Although nowhere amongst the winners, they did manage to get thoroughly soaked, and to sail about two hundred miles without getting lost or shipwrecked. And they did * overnight' in Denmark! British Forces Antwerp Wives Club. Dawned bright and |
| Book number | R0246 |