'I was so tired I fell asleep standing up in a trench' - Daventry U3A columnist shares his experience of war

Here's the latest column from Daventry U3A member Lyn Puleston.

Lyn was born in 1937 and lives in Daventry District. He is married to Brenda and they have two children.

Most men over the age of 82 are likely to have memories of doing National Service. For most of us it was in the Army, but some 25 percent were drafted into the RAF and a nominal two percent in the Royal Navy.

You were allowed to state a preference for which service you would like to serve in, but most of us ended up in the Army with the majority serving in an infantry regiment. That was my fate. In September 1955. At the height of the Cold War I received notice that I was to report to the Royal Hampshire barracks at the end of September which I did.

Arriving at the station along with a lot of other young men we were greeted by a sergeant shouting 'over here at the double; you’re in the Army now'. We were herded the short distance to the barracks where the first thing we did was to register and we were given an Army number.

The next stop was to the barber where we were all given a very close haircut. To the Army, hair was enemy number one, before the Russians, who were number two. We were then shown to our barrack room where there were 15 of us.

The next day we were kitted out and told to blanco our webbing equipment, polish all the brass fittings and shine our boots. We were, also all given various inoculations which resulted in very stiff arms.

The following day was a Sunday and apart from attending a church parade we were left to our own devices. We spent the day attending to our kit. For the next two weeks we were woken up at an unearthly hour, paraded, inspected, chased around the square, shouted at, insulted ,and generally denigrated by rather unintelligent NCOs with total power over us. After two weeks about 15 of us were told to get all our kit together and packed into a kitbag.

We were then marched to the station and dispatched to Topsham Barracks at Exeter. We were considered to be Potential Officers, and the War Office thought it was unwise that we should do our basic training with those who we might later need to command. Although we had just as hard a time in our basic training, we were fortunate enough have an excellent sergeant who treated us reasonably well. Most of us had been in the CCF (Combined Cadet Force) at school and this helped considerably. The basic training which lasted until the middle of December consisted of drill with and without rifles, shooting on the range, bayonet practice, assault courses, field craft, and to 'bull' our kit to a high standard .

There were some talks about our regiment and also some discussion groups. Padre’s Hour on a Monday afternoon was just about the only time we were not shouted at. It was an opportunity to go to sleep.

In the second week of December, we went on a three day exercise to practice trench warfare. It was cold but fortunately dry. We were given very little time to rest, let alone sleep. I fell asleep while standing in a trench. On the third day we marched the ten miles back to our barracks.

A few days later we had our passing out parade in front of the Commanding officer of the depot. Before Christmas we were sent to Barton Stacey for the WOSB (War Office Selection Board). This was to assess whether we should proceed to do officer training. For three days we did all sorts of task, held discussions, completed fitness tests, and were interviewed by senior officers. We also had to give a talk.

At the end of the three days we were told whether we had passed or not. I passed. We returned to our barracks where we received the unwelcome news to be told that our Christmas leave had been cancelled, and that we were to do guard duty over Christmas. We did get a week’s leave after Christmas.

At the end of January those of us who had passed the WOSB were sent to Eaton Hall Officer Cadet School, near Chester, where for four months we went through rigorous training to become officers.

These are memories I will always remember.