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National Service
The first six months of my national service was spent on Salisbury Plain at the Larkhill School of Artillery, where I was trained to be a flash spotter. The idea was that with a series of observation posts the first flash of an enemy gun would be seen by one or two posts who would give approximate bearing and distance to headquarters, who would pass on "look in angles" to the post that had not seen flash. On the second firing the position of the gun would be located within a few hundred yards and on the third firing a precise location would be found. Part of the training was to direct high explosive shells onto tanks only a moderate distance in front of us. Calculations were done on slide rules and, surprise surprise, we always ranged the first shot too far.
Thirty five days on the troop ship Dunera to Hong Kong was not the most pleasant means of transport and the final five days from Singapore to Hong Kong were in a big swell with 95% of the troops sick as a dog. Arrival at Hong Kong in January was quite some reward for all the suffering. Sunshine temperatures in the high 60's, and ladies who wore cheonsongs, split to the waist. The poverty was dreadful and whenever we stopped for a snack on exercises, queues would form for any left overs. The observation post looking over the border to China were probably all of 2,000 feet above sea level, but young Chinese would drag up crates of Coca Cola in the hope of exchanging them for army ration biscuits.