NOW WE GET BACK TO THE STORY—LIFE WITH THE D.L.I.

From Berwick on Tweed I was posted to the 70th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, (The good ol' D.L.I.), and stationed in County Durham at Brancepeth and Barnard Castle. Pretty spooky for a young soldier on night guard in an old castle with peacocks.
Ever hear the spine chilling screeching of a peacock, by the moat of an old castle, in the wee hours of the morning. Very frightening.

During my time with the Durham's, I marched through the city of Newcastle on Battle of Britain day--now here's an interesting thing--we young Light Infantry soldiers marched at an incredibly fast pace with rifles at the trail and consequently had to give the rest of the parade a head start of ten minutes. Honest, no kidding.
I spent some time at Tow Law, but for the life in me cannot remember why.
I participated in a physical training display which I was very proud of as I certainly looked the part of a very fit, well trained, and disciplined young soldier.
I certainly should have looked the part because we, as a group, practiced incessantly.

I was also press ganged into becoming a member of a theatrical group that performed a respectable rendition of Shakespeare's "Henry the Fifth". "Once more into the breech dear friends once more, or fill up the wall with our English dead".
I still remember those words to this very day.
Both of these actions took place in the grounds of the Bowes Museum.
Perhaps there are still old photographs in the museum of those two momentous occasions of 1943.

Another thing comes to mind, the marching song of the young members of the D.L.I.
"We are the good ol' D.L.I. We'll meet the enemy by and by, every man in the Regiment is willing to do or die - Cor Blimey".
What am I saying, I don't remember being willing, "to do, or die", for anyone at any period, then or now.

As I remarked previously, my association with the D.L.I. was of relatively short duration.
I joined the 70th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry in January of 1943, and left to join the Parachute Regiment less than a year later in September of 1943.
The 70th Battalion was a young soldier demonstration Battalion to the School of Infantry. The wars we fought on the North Yorkshire moors is nobody's business.
During my time with the D.L.I I participated in several exercises involving live fire demonstrations to groups of Officers, including the renowned General Wavell.
I remember well his remarks after the demonstration, that we the young soldiers of the D.L.I. had used more live ammunition in one four-hour demonstration than his troops in North Africa used in a month. Incidentally we had a five percent casualty allowance.

One exercise involved advancing under a creeping barrage of twenty-five pounder artillery shells. On this particular occasion one of the gunners laid back 100 yards, instead of forward one hundred yards, a shell fell into a group of people and we suffered several losses. I remember that occasion well as I was a member of the burial party for one of the young officers.
Another exercise involved giving battle experience to Churchill tanks by firing live ammunition at them as they crossed our front.
One further exercise involved an infantry advance behind Churchill tanks to breech a minefield.
The troops were initially towed behind the tanks in small boat like structures until we reached the minefield. Advancing in this manner over rough moorland terrain was not the most comfortable manner of transportation, to say the least.
Upon reaching the minefield the Tanks would stop and the troops in the "so called boats" being pulled behind them would release pins located at the four corners of the structure and the sides would fall away allowing the troops to disembark.
The Churchill tanks equipped with flails, (A large rotating drum with chains attached), would then proceed through the concertina barbed wire obstacles and enter the minefield. Their objective was of course to explode the mines and allow the Infantry to advance through the gap created.
Much of the debris from the flails was thrown up into the air and we spent a very uncomfortable period trying to dodge the incoming missiles, churned up by the tanks, which were now raining down from the heavens above in our direction.