My Army Days bulling for Britain

                          Photo subject to Foreign Office censorship                     Bulling Boots. At least one to two hours each evening was spent obtaining an immaculate polish. It resulted from rubbing in black shoe polish along with spittle, to harden the very thin layers of polish being applied.

In addition to this laborious task there were all your webbing brasses to shine without a trace of a blemish. Brasso by the gallon was used throughout the unit to acquire this perfect finish. The billet floor had to be polished to a very high shine on a regular basis and this was achieved by first stripping off the old polish and embedded dirt with your eating knife. Once this was done, a liberal application of floor polish was applied over a long period to bring up a shine you have never seen before. Such was army bull!  All of your dress kit had to be ironed nightly together with dressing your belt, gaiters etc.

Daily duties involved, cleaning the ablutions and barracks ready for inspection parade before breakfast. If the corporal-in-charge found the slightest blemish on your drinking mug, it was tossed in the air towards another corporal, who by some magic let it through his hands, only for the mug to crash and break up on the parade square.

A tour of duty was allocated on a two weekly basis in the cookhouse. This invariable meant sitting in a cold wet area with tons of potatoes to peel. In addition, there was also the washing up for six hundred hungry soldiers. No wonder the enemy could have a field day, when there were no British troops out there fighting their corner! Perhaps, with hindsight, in was safer for us to peel spuds than to be shot at! Dam clever our bosses at Army High Command, or were they just cowards like us or wishing to keep medical bills to an absolute minimum?  Who knows what they were thinking of in those days. We were not allowed the privilege to think for ourselves. "Just do as you are told and at the double"

         Cleaning Parade. We had to have some fun before we set about cleaning washbasins, toilets and showers.

     Some of the same recruits as in the photo below!

    Official Guard Parade. We had to look at our very best or else! We were even paraded in the rain without raincoats

        Group Photograph outside Stalag 9 RE.  We  referred to the three billets as Stalag 3, 6 and 9. It was like being in a

     concentration  camp for sixteen weeks. The youngsters nowadays wouldn't survive for one day. I am 3rd from right.

            Tank Commander L/Cpl Le Clercq RE

                                                                                                        Preparing for D Day at Cove near Aldershot - I am on the extreme right.

    Barrack Room Inspection - the floor had to be spotlessly clean

          My Judo friend giving me a lift home to the barrack..

On official duty

        HOMEDavid Le Clercq

Who loves you baby?