A BRIEF HISTORY OF LIFE IN REME
A Craftsman’s Story 1948 to I953 Contributed
by: Phil KEMPSTER Chapter Three. Blackdown Camp and Bordon Workshops.
August 1948.
We
packed all our gear and said our goodbyes, there were only a few us going to
Bordon, some were training to become Vehicle Mechs, and a couple of us to
become Driver Mechs. One of my mates,
Fred Moles, was going and I was pleased about that. I think we were transported by road in a
Personnel Carrier to Blackdown Camp, it must have been sometime around the
end of August ‘48. The camp at
Blackdown was a few miles from the workshops in Bordon, it was a very old
camp and dated back to the First World War I think. We were billeted in long
wooden huts, the beds were iron frames with metal straps across and they were
in two parts and folded up into each other.
The mattresses were called biscuits and were made up in three pieces
end to end, the most uncomfortable beds I had ever slept in. It was quite a large camp surrounded by
high fences with two large entrance gates near to the Guardroom with a sentry
box just inside the gates, I will never forget that. We had to do turns of Sentry Duty at the
gates, you reported to the Guardroom where you were issued with a rifle and
had to stand at ease outside the sentry box and check anyone wanting to enter
the camp. Now and again you sloped
arms and marched to and from the Guardroom and, if an officer was entering
camp, you would smartly slope arms and salute by placing your left hand on
the butt of your rifle. That was not
so bad but I thought to myself, I hope no high ranking officers want to come
in as my present arms was a sight to be seen.
Anyway I was lucky none did while I was on duty thank God. We soon settled down in our room with the
same old routine of cleaning and polishing making your bed up ready for daily
inspection, then a quick breakfast and back to our room ready for roll call
dressed in denims waiting to go to the workshops at Bordon. I can not remember if we marched or were
transported to the workshops each day, I just remember the size of the
workshops with a huge square filled with all types of vehicle and surrounded
by the workshops buildings. They
repaired any thing from tanks, armoured vehicles, trucksand motorcycles, if
it was mechanical it was repaired or maintained here. Also in addition to this there was a
Recovery Section with Scammel tractors, tank transporters and all sizes of
trailers and recovery equipment, quite an awesome sight to us rookies.
We
were marched to the vehicle maintenance and repair training workshop, this
was huge, full of workbenches, tool cupboards, engines set up on frames, some
with cut out sections so you could see how it worked, and one particular
thing I will always remember was a Bedford petrol engine displayed in a large
glass container running merrily along, completely submerged in water with
just the air intake and exhaust pipes sticking out at the top, what an
amazing sight. This was explained to
us in simple terms as water proofing to enable vehicles to cross rivers and
other water hazards, this was used by the Armed Forces successfully towards
the end of W/W2. Of course there was
much more to it than just having the two pipes sticking out of the water, the
whole of the ignition system had to be water proofed and the REME could do
it. The
Driver Mech course was very interesting and you learnt a lot in a very short
time, it was mostly to do with roadside repairs and general maintenance. For
example, changing distributor points and spark plugs and setting the correct
gaps with the aid of feeler gauges, the points gap on the Another
thing that was impressed upon us was when changing wheels. To remove the wheel from the vehicle you
only undid the nuts that were painted white, the nuts painted red were for
splitting the wheel into two halves for removing the tyres and unscrewing the
wrong nuts could result in a fatal or serious injury. We went on to learning how to check oil and
water levels, greasing all the joints and moving parts that had grease
nipples, and these were quite numerous on vehicles. You did this task with the aid of a grease
gun included in the tool kit and after approx two weeks instruction on what
and what not to do, we were given practical tests to do. I remember being taken to an engine on a test bench and being
told by the Instructor to start up this engine Private Kempster. So I did all the oil and water level
checks, switched on the ignition, pulled out the choke and pressed the
starter, the engine turned over but refused to start. I then thought back to when we were being
taught about ignition problems that could occur. So with the help of a chart with the parts
of a distributor in order of assembly, I checked the points gap and plug
gaps, they were okay. I then checked
the leads to the plugs and coil, they seemed okay. I then turned the engine over with the
distributor cap off to see if there was a spark across the points, there
wasn’t one. I thought, I know what’s
wrong. I picked up a screwdriver and
undid the plate that held the points to the base of the distributor, lifted
the points out and noticed the insulation fibre washer was missing. I asked my instructor where I could get
this washer and, with a smile on his face, he handed me one from his
pocket. I refitted it all together,
reset the points to 15thou with the feeler gauge, clipped the cap back on,
pressed the starter and Bingo, the engine roared into life. Guess ''who'' had a smile on his face now.
After a few more tests and written exercises I passed out a very happy
Craftsman Driver Mech, one of the best days of my life. No more guard duties. I was taken on as permanent staff and took
charge of a I had not been travelling very long when I noticed a lorry
belonging to the haulage firm that my stepfather worked for in Hemel
Hempsted. We were only travelling
slowly so I had a good look at this lorry and was surprised to see my step
dad driving it. He noticed me and
waved, the officer asked me who it was.
I said “It’s my Dad Sir.” He
said “Pull over and go and have a chat with him.” So I stopped at the side of the road and
got out. My Dad had stopped so we
greeted each other, he was quite surprised to see me driving after such a
short time in the army. We had a good
chat and he wanted to know if I would like to stay with him on my next spell
of leave, I said I would be glad to and would write to him when I was next
due for some leave. We said our
goodbyes and, after thanking the officer, we were on our way again, chatting
away like buddies, what a grand chap he was.
I can not remember there being a N.A.A.F.I. at Blackdown Camp, I only
remember there being a Salvation Army Club that was quite good. Most evenings we would travel to the local
town by train, this was known as the Blackdown Flyer. I think it was operated by the Royal
Engineers, they had a huge camp and stores depot with its own railway system
not far from Blackdown. It was now
towards the end of Sept ‘48 and I was being posted to No 4 A/A Workshops,
Barton, Published: 1st August 2007
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