BROWN SHOES
On his
Commissioning Course at The Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in April
1975, Offr Cdt
Miles M Green
(later Intelligence Offr at Bn HQ and 2 IC A [Royal Norfolk] Coy, 6 R Anglian,
then Training Officer and Dep Commdt Norfolk Army
Cadet Force, as Lt Col) was espied by CSgt Proctor of The Black Watch ('The
Poison Dwarf’) wearing a pair of ‘Cobbly Wobblies’. The background needs
explanation. On his first ever TA weekend out in the field with 6 R Anglian
in 1973, the Regimental chronicler, Offr Cdt
JR Libald,
(later Major and TD**) shared an ambush site with Offr Cdt
Miles Green.
We crawled into position by the bailey bridge on Stanford Training Area, the
frozen nettle stalks snapping in the sub-zero temperatures. We lay for hours
waiting for the ambush to be sprung then gave up and slowly retreated across
the bridge. At that moment the enemy opened up with bursts of automatic fire
so we legged it, illuminated by schermulies and verey flares. Miles caught
his foot in a trip flare wire we had forgotten. The faster he ran the more
the flaming pot wrapped itself round his foot. Next parade night in Norwich,
the PSI, CSgt
Ben
Turner
conned him into exchanging that slightly singed pair of 1942 Army ammunition
boots for a pair of Cobbly Wobblies (Boots, Arctic, soles double). At Endex
Ben
Turner
asked the chronicler to return to a ruined house by the bridge and retrieve
a yard of cam net hanging from a tree. In due course this sample was
exchanged with the late QM
Danny
Bebbington
for
a 12’ x 12’ net! Those Cobbly Wobblies were later to cause Colour Sgt
Proctor of the Black Watch, Drill Instructor at The Royal Military Academy
Sandhurst, much grief. Firmly anchored by the boots and swaying to attention
in a stiff wind on the Parade Square at Sandhurst, elevated by the boots to
a height towering above the Poison Dwarf, Miles was informed: ‘Ye’ll no
come on ma parrrade in them boots. Have ye no shoooes Misterrr Grrreeen?’
Miles is the only Officer Cadet ever to complete the Parade Ground element
of the Sandhurst course in shoes brown. Then he conned the Band to play ‘On
Ilkley Moor Baht At’ when we marched off at the Commissioning parade!
B&C 97 Dec 01 |
B&C Norfolk Editor