Drill
Drill
Quite a lot of our time was taken up with learning how to march in time and learn all the various orders connected with this. Now there was little chance of the R.A.F. needing to use this drill training once they had reached their regular stations but it was a good enough method of teaching people how to work together.

It was hard work at first learning how to quick march, about turn, right wheel, left wheel, etc. but gradually we were able to keep in time.

A peculiar event was happening at this time. Most recruits will tell you that they hated marching and didn’t see the point of it but, after we had reached the stage of keeping in time with each other and keeping in line, if someone turned the wrong way or didn’t halt exactly at the right time, the others would berate him when they got back to the hut. He had let the side down and would have to try better next time. The orders from the sergeant was “put some swank into it” and this is what we did. We wanted to get praised from on high and we were starting to enjoy marching.

When we had reached a certain stage of marching, we moved on to rifle drill. At first, these rifles were very heavy and after a few hours of marching with them on your shoulder and swinging them about, your arms were aching but we would gradually build up strength on our arms and it would get easier. As with our marching, we gradually acted as one unit.

You might think that everyone in our flight had the same training but it was not so. Two recruits were professional football players, Stuart Leary of Charlton Athletic and Frank Upton of Derby County, and they had special arrangements for their training. They continued to play for their teams on Saturday and played and trained with the RAF team during the week. We never saw them from Monday to Friday but they would turn up on Friday afternoon, pack their bags and leave, not to be seen until Sunday evening. Frank Upton slept in the next bed to me and I always looked forward to him coming in on Sunday evenings as he usually had tins of fruit, etc. which he shared with me. Arrangements had been made for him to get access to the officers mess squash courts but he had no partner. He asked me to accompany him but I was uncertain of the welcome we would get so I declined. In the week prior to our passing out parade, they were taken out with two drill instructors and given individual training for a full day so that they could march with us on the parade. I suppose they spent the remainder of their service with the same arrangements.
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