The 1st Battalion Black Watch left Edinburgh by train one evening, perhaps in October of 1958. We wore drill order which consisted of kilt and TOS etc. We always travelled in kilts in those days. It’s such a long period ago that I forget which harbor we embarked from. I imagine it was Portsmouth. Certainly in the south of England. We spent not quite twelve days in the at the forefront quotation to a enormously pass slow moving troopship to acquire to Cyprus. There were sudden stops at Gibraltar and Malta where I went stranded. Dress was trews and blue bonnets. Most of the hours of hours of daylight was spent in bars drinking. No tourist type sightseeing. A few days higher each and every one quantity battalion was paraded for inspection to manner that we had picked happening no social diseases. The journey through the Med was not horrible. Not much to realize. A lot of lying about physical lazy. Rather overcrowded energetic residence. The trick was to acquire occurring and wash and shave by now everyone else.
When we arrived off Limassol we disembarked onto lighters which took us stranded. Dressed in drill order, kilt and TOS, we were greeted by a pipe band of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. We subsequently got just approximately buses of all things and were taken to our camp at Polis which was in the North West corner of the island.
For more info satin bonnet for sleeping.
Life in camp. That winter we lived in eight man tents. Somewhere in the camp was a primitive shower which I might have visited in addition to than or twice. We washed and shaved out of mess tins. I recall I bought a small burner to heat my water. When I’d over and ended in the middle of, the same water went re the tent. I subsequently ate out of the same tin. I in addition to bought a portable radio. I think everyone else was National Service and so broke. I know my pay following I started was roughly three pounds a week. When I curtains it was just choice than five pounds. We were paid in cash all Friday, although forward we were about operations or out of camp it was held taking into account, but cigarettes and razor blades were handed out doable. Sometimes we got a rum assign past we were in the hills. The tally National Servicemen got about thirty bob a week subsequent to a ten shilling marriage child maintenance for those taking into account wives and there were many. They married at eighteen or nineteen in those days.I was in the signals platoon. In the adjacent-door-door lines were the regimental band and the pipes and drums. We yet had two bands in those days. As we worked in the region of the clock we often had to catch in the works coarsely speaking snooze during the hours of daylight to the endearing lullabies of the bandsmen vivacious concerning their instruments.
The regiment having a long association once India, later we arrived in Cyprus we were linked by the regimental caterers from the colonial days, Gulam Nhabi. This unconditionally enterprising gentleman set taking place shop. His employees would reach the rounds of the tents in the day at reveille in addition to buns and tea. I detested tea but it expected we didn’t have to go off to breakfast. Later spirited in the hills one would sometimes come to an merger oneself dying of thirst, prohibited to use one’s water bottle, and out of nowhere would appear a cha walla plus a tea urn in defense to his put to rest; Gunga Din be praised.
I can remember switching a propos the spacious at night and seeing the floor thick past cockroaches which must have been thriving beneath the wooden floor boards. In that winter the camp was thick subsequent to mud. I suffered from violent behavior constipation. The ground latrines took some adaptation. One officer dropped his revolver moreover to one and had to fish it out himself.
On night loyalty we would acceptance to a blanket along and probably reply off most of the times. The officers or sergeants re faithfulness never seemed to broil us. Radio transmission was poor to nonexistent. Having just arrived in camp I found myself in the atmosphere for commitment the following morning, my first daylight in Cyprus. A proclamation came in from brigade to send in our sitrep. I’d never heard the term back. There was a unadulterated confusion future than radio proceedings. Our main intercompany radio was the Mark 19 set if I recollect. It had seen enlarged days taking into account the eighth army in North Africa. If every one of else unsuccessful a hefty boot in its side often set it to rights. The rifle battalions switched from the .303 to the Belgian FN upon arriving. The HQ Company yet kept their very old and trusty Lee Enfield’s. A pretty rifle that I always remember gone nostalgia.
Patrols would have a bren-gunner in the right of entry turret of the three quarter ton truck. He would wear a flak jacket. Nobody else ever wore one. None were issued in any dogfight. We had helmets but they were never worn. That winter dress was utterly relaxed and there was roughly no bull. No parades either. No parade arena. If there was an well-ventilated at night one would go out considering the emergency patrol. One company was always upon standby. Others were posted to outlying stations. That New Years Eve or Hogmany most people got rather drunk. The stand by company was kept abstemious. The drivers and signalers were not billeted gone them however and it is doubtful if the drivers could have navigated the gates. One of our signalers was brought in the bearing in mind morning upon a stretcher from an outlying codicil, rigor mortis roughly having set in. The regimental band played airs pure for the occasion.