Carry on SGT

Question

Help me out guys ... sure one of you will know this

Where was the film Carry on Sergeant filmed ( what camp)

Some of it was filmed in Pinewood Studios and the Drill sequences were made in Staughton barracks, Guildford. The film was recently shown on Television.

staughton barracks , i feel sure that was the wrac barracks , if you notice the wrac band led the passing out parade , ginger

It was indeed, Jim. Home of the WRAC Boxing Team.

Don`t forget the wrestlers...They were a delight

"john boy" wrote:

Question

Help me out guys ... sure one of you will know this

Where was the film Carry on Sergeant filmed ( what camp)

Wikipedia says : Cardwells Keep, Stoughton Road, Stoughton, nr, Guildford

Which leads into the National Service period debate. As this film was set in the period of call up for those national service geezers. To anyone's knowlege, did many National Service squaddies sign up for the Regulars after their 2 years or so of Nation Service period?

I do remember a long served ex NS squaddie at 28 Sigs, a Lance Corporal, who wore some medal ribbon for the Suez Crisis fiasco. He had been called up in the 1950s for National Service. He had been rushed in as part of the UK contribution to a military intervention by the French and UK to try and block Nasser's grab for the Suez Canal.

This bloke came from Ireland, was a very quiet and unasumming geezer, well liked and popular so memory serves me right? He eventually completed 22 years in the regulars during the 1960s, and then left for civvy street in the same rank of L/Corporal. He never wanted any further promotion, even when recommended by the Troop Senior NCos or Troop OiC. He never really talked about his experiences of national service, but he always look smart and wore bulled boots, even on everyday barracks duty.

[quote="unclevanya"]Which leads into the National Service period debate. As this film was set in the period of call up for those national service geezers. To anyone's knowlege, did many National Service squaddies sign up for the Regulars after their 2 years or so of Nation Service period? quote ]

Not many in my experience.......... in fact I can't remember even just one. Quite a few signed on for three years when called up for NS, as the double pay was attractive but. again, I can't recall any of my three year mates extending their service. One big problem seemed to be that, with the NS lads' preoccupation with demob calendars, and being the vast majority, it tended to unsettle the few regs.
and have them yearning for release, too. Apart from a couple of three year lads
and an SNCO, there was only one other reg in my troop of 26 squaddies. And he wasn't the brightest of the bunch. Cliff had been a farm labourer,one who had been conned into signing on by a persuasive WO2 at his NS interview. He could look forward to nine years fetching and carrying as the Battery runner.

When I joined my Regular unit in '64 there were quite a few ex NS lads who had signed on, most for 6 years but one or two for 9, they seemed to enjoy it.

I had a troop commander who started off as a NS siggy..He made Brig.

unclevanya wrote:

I do remember a long served ex NS squaddie at 28 Sigs, a Lance Corporal, who wore some medal ribbon for the Suez Crisis fiasco. He had been called up in the 1950s for National Service. He had been rushed in as part of the UK contribution to a military intervention by the French and UK to try and block Nasser's grab for the Suez Canal.

Hate to raise this. having been wrong before, but was there a medal for the Suez fiasco ? I always thought it was decided that it shouldn't be celebrated.........

Sources for this opinion, one mate who's turned in his chevrons for harps & wings, was landed there with his Centurion and the Queen's Bays (he said) and was always irritated that he had no gong for his trouble when another mate in R.Sigs got a GSM for sitting on his arse in some sort of tented camp in the desert for his NS service. (he says. too). And I gather the GSM for this activity was only distributed belately, about eight years ago to anyone who sent in an application.

steve wrote:

http://veterans-uk.info/medals/suez.html

Thanks for that Steve. With the retrospective award in the recent past of a medal for Canal Zone service from 1951-1954, it confirms that the fracas of 1956 has been ignored. Elsewhere on the web a medal for that later event is offered on the same terms as a gong for NS. I.E It's unofficial, you've got to fork out something like £39 a pop and it can't be worn in uniform, or in mufti on the left breast which is reserved for official decorations only. Bet the yanks would have one. Or two or three perhaps.

I was in a nuclear missile regiment when Kennedy got topped.
We thought the shit was about to hit the fan.
Brown Trousers Order was in force.
Still waiting for a medal for that one.

I was at catterick when that happened.No medal for me either...just a case of nookie broon.

Can't have the troops wearing a medal for the embarrassing mess of Suez now can we.Anthony Eden resigned after it.

brum wrote:

I was in a nuclear missile regiment when Kennedy got topped.
We thought the shit was about to hit the fan.
Brown Trousers Order was in force.
Still waiting for a medal for that one.

Are you allowed (Official Secrets) to say what missiles with the Brit Army had nuc heads? I had an argument with a guy who said Bloodhound was nuc. The ones I saw had a great lump of RDX/TNT up front.

brum wrote:

I was in a nuclear missile regiment when Kennedy got topped.

Ah yes! Memories .......... and to claim some association with you rocketeers I can reveal that, when the news broke on the radio, three of us were in a pub in South Wales, taking a break from a familiarisation course on Thunderbird at the Manorbier ack ack school. It put a bit of a dampener on our attempts to become more familiar with the landlady's daughter.

Whatever became of that ? (Thunderbird, that is)

And seeing the later post on Bloodhound......... was that rocket technology ?
For some reason I've a notion it was jet propelled...... expect you'll tell me when I'm wrong.

[quote="Chemist)
Are you allowed (Official Secrets) to say what missiles with the Brit Army had nuc heads? I had an argument with a guy who said Bloodhound was nuc. The ones I saw had a great lump of RDX/TNT up front.[/quote]


An AA missile with a nuke warhead . . . well, at least you'd be guaranteed a hit.
The launcher crew would need to wear a steel helmet though !

I thought Bloodhound belonged to the RAF? Cartav, Thunderbird went with the demise of 36 Hy Regt around about 1979ish.

I was in a Thunderbird AA Missile Regt when the news of the Kennedy assassination broke. We were having a social (games and booze) evening with a German group. Both parties looked silently at each other for a lttle time, wondering what would happen next. The notion at the back of all minds for that short spell was that WW3 was to be the next event .

I believe that a GSM clasp was issued for the Suez effort in 1956. There was a very long running campaign to have a clasp retrospectively for service in the Canal Zone in the years before 1956 and this was agreed in recent years.

From the wikipedia article on Clasps for the General Service Medal (1918):

Quote :

Near East

This clasp was awarded for service in the Middle east in the period 31 October to 22 December 1956. This is the conflict often referred to as the Suez Crisis, or by its codename of Operation Musketeer.

Cheers,
Dan.

Bloodhound
www.bcar.org.uk/bloodhound
Mk III was planned to have a nuc.

Memory comes back. Talking about National Service soldiers. The lad I mentioned in an earlier post, a Lance Corporal, I forgot to mention also that he also had three upside down chevrons sewn on his number 2's. These I understood were long service stripes, each one represented 5 years. So by the time I met him, he had served around 15 years or more.

He had been asked to remove these, but he refused, and was within his rights to keep them on his uniform. He was proud of them, but they were regarded as a hangup from previous times.

anyone else remember some of these different and unusual additions to Number Two's, like Sniper or Marksman Badges.

I mentioned this one some time ago, don't think Brum could remember. Bdrs who qualified as T1 Surveyors (Normally in a Missile Regiment) wore two stripes with a crown above.