Page 21 - ABA Salvoes 1999-2024

THE GUINEA-PIG SUBALTERN
by Major P H Morrish MBE TD
This is a unique account of Pat Morrish’s time as a National Service officer in the NGS world from 1950 to 1952. For our younger readers this is undoubtedly real history, and for those of us who are respectfully approaching Pat’s vintage it is a reminder of how things used to be when we were all younger and fitter and when there were different places to go and more toys to play with than now.
On 7 September 1950, I was called up for two years National Service in the Royal Artillery. Basic training at Parkhall Camp, Oswestry and War Office Selection Board at Barton Stacey, near Andover was followed by Officer Cadet Training (under the watchful eye of the gigantic RSM Britten) at Mons. After passing-out, I was posted in April 1951 to 267 Combined Operations Bombardment Battery RA at Fremington in north Devon. Any unit with the word “bombardment’ in its title had a definite fascination about it – my father, in the RE in both world wars, was highly intrigued. The Battery had an HQ at Fremington, A Troop was in Malta, B Troop in Trieste and No.3 Independent Troop was in Hong Kong with one OP party (Capt J W Mann-Thompson) in Korea. The Battery Commander was Major Jake Newbury and Capt Paddy Cairns, who knew everything and organised most things, fulfilled the role of Adjutant for the whole Battery. The establishment was 1 Major and some 8 Captains, all of whom were trained as Forward Observers Bombardment (FOBs) and Bombardment Liaison Officers (BLOs). An FOB party consisted of 1 Officer, 1 Naval Telegraphist, 1 Technical Assistant, 1 Signaller and 1 Driver (for a Land Rover + trailer). I was the first National Service Officer /2nd Lieutenant to be posted to the unit and as such was known as ‘The Guinea-Pig Subaltern’! Shortly after my arrival Major Jake told me that he was off to visit the Battery and would be back in 2 months. The role of the Battery HQ was primarily to train new recruits prior to their posting to the 3 Troops. Training consisted of wireless operating (68, 62 & 19 sets), voice procedures (Allied Training Pamphlet No 4), spotting/adjustment of fall of shot on a miniature range, small arms firings and morse code (first thing every day for everybody), driving instruction (at the age of just 19, I found myself as chief driving instructor), vehicle waterproofing and fitness. I fulfilled the role of Troop Leader, MTO, Pay Officer (I always had a guard of 2 soldiers when I went to the Bank in Barnstaple of Friday mornings), and was most fortunate to be able to spend nearly all my time with the soldiers. Sgt Rayner, with a row of medals, kindly took me under his wing. In dire moments I would hear him whispering to me, “I wouldn’t do that if I was you, Sir. Why don’t we try ...... instead?” He saved my bacon on a number of occasions. The British Army was indeed fortunate to have a core of professional WOs and NCOs who were prepared to steer a vast array of stuck-up, largely ignorant, young National Service officers.
The highlight of the training year in the UK was, of course, the Home Fleet bombardment at Cape Wrath. In those days the routine was to open up an old army camp at Evanton, near Invergordon for about 10 days while we ‘worked-up’ the Fleet anchored in the harbour, before moving on up to Durness. I had the pleasure of meeting 881 COBBRA (TA), commanded by Major Gordon Sinclair (wartime COBU) and supported by Mac Feeley (881 Chief Clerk) for the first time on 3 June 1951 at Evanton. My introduction to the Royal Navy was to live in the Gun Room (where all the midshipmen messed) of HMS SHEFFIELD (4 triple 6” turrets as per HMS BELFAST currently moored on the Thames) alongside a young midshipman called Sandy Woodward, who subsequently commanded the Falklands Task Force, and to bum a ride from Invergordon through the Pentland Firth to Loch Eriboll. In Durness I lived in the Parkhall Hotel (too junior for the Cape Wrath Hotel/better to be nearer the soldiers, so I was advised). However, spotting for HMS SHEFFIELD, acting as BLO in HMS ST KITTS (commanded by Lt. Cdr Godfrey Place who won a VC in a midget submarine attack on the Tirpitz), a day in HNLMS Kortenaer, struggling into a diving suit and going deep-sea diving and a first visit to the Cape Wrath lighthouse were all extremely interesting and memorable experiences. On the way back to Devon, one FOB party joined the Scottish Beach Brigade TA in a wet landing on the Isle of Arran, putting our waterproofed Land Rover to the test. We went ashore in a Landing Craft Assault, while our vehicle followed from a Landing Ship Tank, HMS SULVA. This was the first, and only time that I ever did a wet landing.
In October we returned to Cape Wrath. This was to be a short, sharp visit so we took tents. I was charged with taking a small convoy of 4 vehicles with trailers with all our kit, including 3 casks of rum. I was instructed to sleep with the rum during each of our overnight stops! All seemed to be going well on our drive north until Gnr Cook, our lead driver, suddenly stopped the convoy on a busy main road. “Offside rear, Sir”, he shouts as he leaps out. This was a pee stop and I had been allocated the most dangerous wheel. The next time we stopped I am afraid I pulled rank and told my three travelling companions that I was taking the nearside front wheel! We pitched our tents just short of the OP at Faraid Head. The local doctor was required to certify that, due to ‘inclement weather’, we should partake of a daily rum ration, as per the Royal Navy. Unfortunately he over-reacted and condemned the whole of our tented establishment. Jake Newbury’s response was simply to double the daily rum ration.
Early on the morning of the first live firing day, I was despatched in a DUKW with the 2 man range pickets to close the road across the range. The DUKW swam across the Kyle of Durness and headed out along the road to
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