The Veteran Issue 5

'We Served' A Personal Account Part 2
The Royal Regiment
of
Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery
Why? Part 2
To continue on from my previous article where I
covered my enlistment as a junior soldier in the
Junior Leaders Regiment Royal Artillery
(JLRRA) I now move on to my first experiences
in a front line unit.
Welcome to
4th Field Regiment Royal
Artillery
As with every soldier joining the Royal Artillery
(RA) you need to start on the Gun Line, I was
initially sent to Gun Troop, and was introduced
to the 105mm Lt Gun, quite a step change from
the Howitzer 25 pounder I had trained on at the
JLRRA. I spent my first six months in the
Regiment on A Sub learning the drills and skills,
most of the time moving 105mm rounds from
the ammo dump to the Gun Line, quickly
learning that you never walk on the Gun
Position, many Exercises followed in the first six
months, but then life for Gunner Kemp was
about to change. I was ordered to report to the
Battery Sergeant Major's (BSM) Office, of
course my initial thought was what have I done
wrong now, I was about to find out,
Article by Jack Kemp
President of the Alicante Branch
I marched into the BSM’s Office, halted at
his desk, the BSM looked up at me and
said, add the following five numbers
together. I was thinking that this was
going to be how many extra duties I was
about to be awarded as a punishment,
punishment for what I thought, anyway, I
quickly calculated the number in my head,
and was shocked when the BSM said well
done, report to Command Troop they are
short of Command Post Signallers, well
that was it, my test to see if I was suitable
to move from Gun Troop to the Command
Troop was adding the five numbers
together, strange but true.
I was soon placed on a Basic Radio Users
Course which was quickly followed by my
Basic Driving Course, I became the driver
for the Signals Sgt, Sgt Robert John
Maxwell.
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