Arthur narrates his experience of army
training which included completing physical tasks such as going through the
obstacle course as fast as he could whilst avoiding barbed wire and swinging on
ropes to cross over the other side. He also describes how a gas bomb was thrown
into the air raid shelter that his cohort was sleeping in
and they were locked in. Afterwards, he was sent to deliver a dispatch based on
a map reference number which was actually the
divisional army headquarters. Upon his return, the officer was very impressed
with how fast he had been able to complete the task.
AB: We had to go to another part where
er some railway lines had been made into goal posts, and that railways were
high up [speech unclear] and eh they were con- they were concreted in of course
at bottom, and wielded in at tops to keep the top bar on but underneath were loads of er quails of barbed wire, circle of barbed
wire all underneath. We had to go scrim at one side as fast as we could, and go
across the top as fast as possible, and down the other side as fast as
possible, then we had to eh go eh swinging on the rope to cross a wide stream
of the other side and it-it had been raining heavy almost slid ourselves to
death [speech unclear].
An
eh when we’d done that we had to go back eh to brigade
and then eh they put us in the, in the air raid shelter, one end the door were
eh fastened at other one-one end, but unfastened at the other. Well, when it
got to about 2 o’clock at morning, they threw a gas bomb in and shut door,
fastened door so couldn’t get out and I shouts “gas”
straight away, and awakened them and none of us was prepared. Some of them were
fast asleep, then they all, they all awakened when I shouted gas.
We
went to whip us aspirator on, and then eh after so long they let us out and eh
then when it got to about eh 2 o’clock at morning eh they said to me eh they
gave me this map reference number and they said, “Deliver this, this dispatch
to ss?? [word unclear] map reference,” and when I got there it were divisional
HQ, eh army. And eh had to sign a slip to say I’d
taken it, the dispatch, before I set off. When I got down to take two, two
slips with me, when I got to other end, they had to
sign one and keep one, and sign other and give it me back, for-for me to prove
that I’d taken it. When I got back, eh the eh officer said, “I thought you gone
eh without dispatch,” I said, “Yes I’ve been and come back.” He said, “You
can’t have.” I said, “I have, here’s your…here’s your, here’s your little slip
to prove it.” He said, “If I sent anybody else they
wouldn’t have been back until tomorrow”. [laughs]
[00:02:40]