Sir: How apt that Frank Johnson should write, 'Most Britons
who visit Germany give a Nazi salute, and do a Hitler imper- sonation, at one time or other during the trip'. How many who served in the BAOR especially during those dog days of National Service — did not indulge in such clowning?
The following scenario was perhaps not atypical: Schussenfest time in the unlovely garrison town of Minden and certain ele- ments of my old — and since disbanded regiment, the 1st Battalion The Camer- onians (Scottish Rifles) were taking in the local colour. To the fore were two tried and true drinking teams — the Pipes and Drums and the Assault Pioneers. You would have had to look long and hard among these sons of Red Clydeside to find a Tory — they were Labour to a rifleman and at least two fantasised about the ILP.
One big piper — big for the Poison Dwarfs, that is — he was 5'8" — was Glasgow's Woodie Guthrie manqué. He Often pinned a notice to his pipebag when doing duty piper which proclaimed: 'This doodelsak kills Fascists.' Such commitment did not go unnoticed among the officers, who were a pretty broad-minded lot; nor among the sergeants, who were 120 per cent Tory. So there they were, mostly in their tartans with their 'ticket' bonnets pulled down hard over their eyes, drinking in the most hospitable of beer tents — that of the Minden Fire Brigade. The wine, the schnapps and the beer, were in, and the wit was out. It seemed a good idea — 'a rerr ter? — to form the riflemen up with the firemen for the Grand March behind the oornpah band through the town to the Ratskeller. It seemed only natural to goosestep at 140 paces to the minute and give the Nazi salute while doing the Hitler moustache bit with the finger under the nose.
Sore were the heads the next day when Johnny Cope sounded. Long was the re- morse of the more politicised who had visions of Keir Hardie and Jimmy Maxton birling in their graves. The last words came from a particularly thoughtful, though tone-deaf, punter in the Pipes and Drums, known in the battalion as 'the Monsoon Bugler': 'Look at it this way. They're no' that bad, they Huns . . . a lot better'n they Welsh bastards in the Swabs.' (The South Wales Borderers, who along with us and the Middlesex formed the Minden Bri- gade.)
Alex Morrowsmith
19 Beach Avenue, Leigh on Sea, Essex.
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