The rumour that we were to embark upon an assault course on September 29th,1942 became a reality.
We were marched, along with other Squads to a plot that looked well churned up, if I remember rightly. Fortunately our Squad was not the first to attempt the course and as we stood by watching the others struggling with a variety of obstacles I thought to myself " I'm not going to like this one bit".
We moved slowly nearer the setting off line and when we reached it we paired up to tackle the course. I was not over excited at the prospect of climbing fences, crawling under nets or any of the other 'niceties' that was prepared for us but what could I do at this stage of the exercise? Our NCO shouted out the order for us to Go! Go!

The first obstacle was a 6 or 7-foot wooden fence to climb and drop over, we had to approach it two chaps at a time. When my turn came, I commenced to run forward with another Erk; halfway to the fence a plan came to mind.
My mate got there first, up and over he went then I reached it, climbed up, and would you believe, I 'twisted' my foot when I jumped down. Imagine my disappointment not being able to finish the assault course. Strange as it may seem by the time the lads had finished tackling the rest of the assault course I had made an amazing recovery and was well able to join them in the trek back to where we did our arms drill.
NOTE: I DID ENJOY ARMS DRILL AND TARGET PRACTICE ETC:

Fatigues were another 'no go' area for me.
Along the Central sea front Esplanade we, at times, would have to line up 3 or 4 deep. The N.C.O. in charge would count a number of ranks and issue various fatigue duties to be carried out when 'dismissed'.
On these parades a friend and myself would ensure we were positioned nearest the sea side of the Esplanade and when the order 'Dismiss to your Duties' was called we jumped onto the beach and ran along close to the wall until we reached the North Shore where we then 'surfaced' and mingled with the crowds in the Amusement Park.
There were always a fair number of girls walking around the Park and invariably we would make dates to go dancing, in the Tower Ballroom mainly, sometimes the Winter Gardens or whatever. I remember there being a small Menagerie on a lower floor of the Tower Ballroom.
Thinking back I can't remember ever going into a Pub all the time I was in Blackpool but I did partake of a 'drink or two' at the Bar in the Ballroom, when I could afford it, which was not very often. Having said that most of the girls I dated would not let me pay for anything, as one of them explained they were on holiday from their work places (mainly factories around Lancashire) and if they did not spend out, they would not consider it to be a good holiday. They also realized that we, in the Services, were not exactly over paid throughout our training period. Even so it took me a while to accept this fact and I showed my appreciation by giving them a good time whilst they were in my company.

It was 1943. We had docked at Alexandria, after an eventful passage through the Mediterranean. Some time later we began our 800 mile journey, by lorry, to Benghazi (our first overseas posting) and being very young we were pretty excited.
Whilst we were having a break at Mersa Matruh several of us went for a 'walkabout' to stretch our legs and to have a general look around. One of the chaps spotted a small black object protruding from the sand, we had been warned to watch out for anti personnel bombs which could still be 'hanging about' and might detonate with any vibration.
We got some lengths of sticks that were dotted around the sand then we formed a circle, some eight to ten feet from the object and lying on our stomachs we began to inch in towards it with the intention of setting it off with the sticks.(IDIOTS!). We finally got close enough to hit it but nothing happened. We dug it up from the sand to find it was only some sort of electrical socket. We looked and felt like a right bunch of 'nanas'. All the same we had a darn good laugh at ourselves but not daring to tell the other 'bods' when we got back; we'd never live it down.
I remember the whole trip was a fantastic experience which, unknown to me then, I was to repeat a few more times before I returned to Blighty.

Submitted to this site by L.A.C. Douglas Storey