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10th Royal Hussars (POW - Prince Of Wales own)

Home Monday 10/08/1964 to Sunday 14/02/1965.

I enlisted in the army on Monday the 10th August 1964 and joined the 10th Royal Hussars (POW) .

The Training Regiment was The 3rd Royal Tank Regiment station at Catterick in Cambria barracks. I remember walking up the roadway to the Guard Room where I asked where my intake was and what block I was to live in. It was the last one up, what seemed like a very long road and this is where I had to do my army training which was 4 weeks of basic training.

The Training included...

  • Marching
  • Lots of PT, cross-country runs with full kit
  • Cleaning, making bed packs, bulling my boots until they shone like a mirror
  • Medicals

A Normal Day...

  • 06.30 Wake up. Wash and shave, clean the wash room and polish the floors, mirrors then scrub the toilets and showers,

  • 07.00 Breakfast. When you returned you made your bed pack and laid out all your webbing, brasses, K.F.S (Knife, Fork and Spoon), mess tins and best boots out on top of the bed, then you had to make sure you locker was clean and laid out as the plan said, all clothes pressed and folded in the correct way, then you cleaned the barrack room and bumpered the floor till it shone...

  • 08.30 The intake officer and Sgt came in and inspected the room, your kit and you. Heaven help you and the rest of the room if they found anything that was out of place or dirty.

    If everything was all right, you then started the day, if not - you would have to clean the room again and again until the staff were happy with it. You did this every day for 4 weeks all through your basic training. After that it got a bit easier you only got an inspection once a week.

With the medical check you have about 14 different injections. Once I remember putting both arms through a hatch and two doctors injected at the same time one in each arm. After the basic training you then have Trade Training, my trade was gunnery.

As I was under age to go to an Active Service station where my regiment was serving, but you have to be 17 years and 6 months to enter active service so I had to do another trade which I took Radio operator at Catterick.

After 6 months I was a gunner/operator in armoured car. In those days, it was the Saladin Armoured Car Mk2 which weight 14 tons and had 76mm main armourment and 2 Browning machine guns and a crew of , Driver, Gunner and Commander.

Once I had finished my basic and trade training I went on 4 weeks leave to Southampton awaiting a posting to 'A' Squadron which were in the Persia Gulf.

intake 1964

Intake 1964

intake 1964a

Intake 1964A

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