By stephen stallebrass (Drstallebrass) (62.253.32.5) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 02:49 pm:

Hi,

Earlier tonight I was chatting with my Great Uncle who served with the Kings Royal Rifle Corps as a gunner during the war and the subject of abusive officers came up.

When he was training there was this chickenshit and highly abusive corporal an MP (Military Police) that for some reason hated the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and anyone associated with it. My Great Uncle is usually quite open about his war stories and generally doesn't leave anything out but tells it how it really was, but on this occassion he didn't seem to say too much, (of some of the things this corporal had done). What he did say was that one of the terriblle things was when this corporal used to beat the trainees with his guard stick.

When I asked him what he and the others did about him he told me that it was simply this. He and some of the others that had agreed something had to be done about the corporal were luckily all around at the same time and decided to sort this out once and for all. One night whilst the corporal was on guard duty: sleeping during a break they identified and took his rifle and promptly buried it under one of the traing huts.

Of course this is a serious offence in the forces to lose your rifle, he ended up being court marshalled for it and sent to the nick (jail) for 6 months. The red caps (RMP's: Royal Military Police) never did find the rifle and my Great Uncle never did dig it up so its probably still there. What a way of dealing with an abusive officer like this, what imagination pure class.

I did wonder whether he felt bad at any time for doing it but my Great Uncle is a brilliant man that fought bravely during the war and it wasn't an individual thing he did, it was collaborative. He and the others would never have done such a thing had it not been neccessary at the time. I can't imagine what else this bastard of a corporal did to push these trainees to do this but I can only imagine de deserved it and probably got off lightly, especially with the outbreak of war.

I just thought this was such a great story that I had to tell you all.

kind regards

steve stallebrass

By Marigold Papa (Marigold) (203.160.183.79) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 04:55 pm:

Nice one Steve. Thanks for sharing with us
Glad to know that abusive officer didn't get his way!

gold

By Jamie Wicks (Jwicks) (24.220.222.254) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 05:45 pm:

Smart men for not putting their lives in the hands of an incompetent leader. I know how frustrating it is having to work in a regular job with incompetent people above you. I can't imagine what must go through the minds of a soldier who is preparing for battle under the leadership of someone like bosses that I have had in the past or present for that matter. Kowing what I have been told about some of the ranking officers that military aquaintances have had, I'm sure that throughout the many battles that have been fought this has been a major concern many times. In cases like this, common sense is under appreciated and overshadowed by "book knowlege"

By Jonathan Jones (Jonjones) (81.131.40.198) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 06:52 pm:

There was this officer who had to do parachute training. He was a real snotty ponce (er, very flash? full of himself? thought he was god, that kind of thing) who showed disrespect to everyone below his station. "Here my man, do this for me.."
We all know the sort. Cold and nasty, too.

Well for some unknown reason on the day of his first static line jump his party were next in line for take off when the plane roared overhead and the lot before his jumped out. It was a shoddy show with them taking what looked like half an hour to jump. Right in the middle of this lot came this trainee that plumetted down to earth 'cos his 'chute didn't open. The medics shot over to the site like sprinters after the gun but what could you do?

Before the horror could set in, this officers party were bundled into their plane and were in the sky in no time. They were all very scared by then but the jump instructors were going to throw them out of that plane, anyway. When the old lights started to flash, they all nervously stood up and hooked up. More than one were throwing up (which they'd be made to clean up, later - pilots are very sensetive about their planes cleanliness)A few seconds later and they were whimpering their way out of the door. "Go! Go! Go!" Just as this officer was about to exit, "someone" held up a spare static line hook and shouted "Is this yours, Sir?" He thought that he wasn't hooked up! "Go!" and he was out the door, screaming like a lunatic all the way down to earth. Even though his 'chute had opened.

It turned out that "someone" had loaded a dummy in full jump gear onto the previous plane and pushed it out with the other men.

The funny thing was that a few hours later and he'd gone. Strange that.........

Regards, Jonathan.

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