Guard Duty
Guard Duty
For one night only during our training, each hut had to be on guard duty. We were assembled in the guard hut and told about our duties. The usual rota was two hours on and four hours off but, as it had been snowing and it was a bitter night, this was changed to one hour on and two hours off. I was to stand guard at the back gate into the camp and check everyone for their identity card. We marched round to our posts and were left to stand guard. There was a sentry box but it was better to walk about and try to keep warm. There was little or no traffic through the gate but I heard a car approaching and a sports car appeared with the hood down. The driver was an officer and I signalled for him to stop but he put his foot down and I had to jump out of the road. Seemingly this was quite a regular occurrence and when I told the sergeant about it, he just laughed. After my first hour, I was relieved by another airman and went back to the hut for a cup of tea. I tried to have a short nap but it was quite cold in the hut and I didn’t get any sleep. I was back on guard at 1am but nobody came through the gate. Again I didn’t get any sleep when I went back to the hut and was on duty again at 4am for the last time. It was snowing quite heavily and I sheltered inside the sentry box. To my horror I realised I had fallen asleep but didn’t know for how long. Luckily there was 15 minutes before I was relieved so nobody was aware of me sleeping. At 7am we were marched back to our hut but not to sleep, another day’s training awaited.  
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