TRADITION !

I remember, as a pimply 18 year old being woken on Christmas morning by the door crashing open and two Sergeants, who it transpired had been boozing in the mess all night, lurching in shouting "Get yer f*****g mugs out !"

The said SNCOs were bearing a dixie of tea and a bottle of Myers rum which they proceeded to slosh into the proffered mugs in haphazard amounts.
With the exhortation "Gerrit down yer necks!" and "Merry Christmas" they then lurched off to the next room. (A lot of our SNCOs were from Yorkshire).

This traditional ceremony was called "Gunfire".

There must be many Regimental variations to this age-old tradition.

brum wrote:

I remember, as a pimply 18 year old being woken on Christmas morning by the door crashing open and two Sergeants, who it transpired had been boozing in the mess all night, lurching in shouting "Get yer f*****g mugs out !"

The said SNCOs were bearing a dixie of tea and a bottle of Myers rum which they proceeded to slosh into the proffered mugs in haphazard amounts.
With the exhortation "Gerrit down yer necks!" and "Merry Christmas" they then lurched off to the next room. (A lot of our SNCOs were from Yorkshire).

This traditional ceremony was called "Gunfire".

There must be many Regimental variations to this age-old tradition.

We do it on Cambrai Day (20 Nov), both WO's & Sgt's Mess & Orficers Mess along with 'Duke Box' Troop RV at the cookhouse at about 0630. The each Sqn is visited by their respective Officer's, WO's & SNCO's with a couple of 'Norgys' of tea and a few bottles of rum and 'Amber Nectar'! You don't half come across some not so pretty sights bearing in mind the lads normaly have been on the lash the night before.......................and nicked anything that wasn't nailed down!!!

Sounds like the norm..It could be a bit of a pain in the a£%e,depending which side you were on..

Then the ritual of Christmas dinner served by Officers and SNCOs..It was quite ammusing to see a guard report full of WOs and SNCOs when they took over the guard for a couple of hours..

Be a bit worried if some big hairy men crashed into my room and said get it down your neck to be honest!

Traditional Xmas Dinner.

C.O., youngest and oldest soldier sat at the head table.

A fully dressed turkey is brought in to be carved at the head table

( The rest of the turkeys were broken down and cooked thank goodness. Nothing worst than having to carve a dozen or so full turkeys).

The Xmas pudd was brought out, the butter/rum sauce was prepared in front of the troops with a full bottle of rum poured directly into the sauce with great cheering from the troops.

Moose milk was served ( Rum, brandy, ice-cream, all spice, 1/2 and 1/2 cream and a bit of ginger ale).

Of course lashings of beer were also served.

Teabag wrote:

Be a bit worried if some big hairy men crashed into my room and said get it down your neck to be honest!

Your mind moves in mysterious ways, my Scaly friend !

By the way. I'm proceeding to N.Wales tomorrow. Intend to stop at Happy Chef, (don't know what he's got to be so f****** happy about), Talacre, from which vantage point the Wirral can be seen - SO WATCH IT PAL !

brum

Hmmmmm perhaps you better take a weed wacker with you Brum

Was informed by a gent that the reason the SAS train in Wales is so they can condition the fellows to seeing what a third world country looks like ????
Is that true......or is someone pulling my leg?
Confused
Convict

brum wrote:

Teabag wrote:

Be a bit worried if some big hairy men crashed into my room and said get it down your neck to be honest!

Your mind moves in mysterious ways, my Scaly friend !

By the way. I'm proceeding to N.Wales tomorrow. Intend to stop at Happy Chef, (don't know what he's got to be so f****** happy about), Talacre, from which vantage point the Wirral can be seen - SO WATCH IT PAL !

brum

I'll give you a wave. Don't dress anything like a sheep though will you?

i heard a roumer that the welsh invented the condom by using a sheeps bladder,but the english refined the process by taking the bladder out of the sheep first.

Havent laughed so much in a long time


Gunfire is one I remember, the RAOC and RLC had some traditions but I think dormant - sadly.

Xmas dinner was always good as a singly, decent officers and sncos made for a great day!

Has Wales got more sheep than New Zealand ? I find that hard to believe

handler 69 wrote:

Has Wales got more sheep than New Zealand ? I find that hard to believe

No, just sexier one's. (allegedly).

I know that Wales has a rep for ugly vegetables (leeks) and bad singing and long words that no one can pronouce BUT SHEEP!!
Walking through Hyde Park in 1996, I was activly encouraged by two welsh gentlemen to enlist in the Welsh gaurds! They sais being an Aussie I would fit right in......I can see a wooly conection here

Hardrations

Thanks for the Moosemilk recipe, brought back happy memories of Cyprus and the Lord Strathcona's Horse farewell to UNFICYP festivities when they organised a mini Calgary Stampede. With tempratures in the high 90s liquid refeshment was essential

JPW wrote:

Hardrations

Thanks for the Moosemilk recipe, brought back happy memories of Cyprus and the Lord Strathcona's Horse farewell to UNFICYP festivities when they organised a mini Calgary Stampede. With temperatures in the high 90s liquid refreshment was essential

Your welcome. Be careful when and if you serve it. It'll sneak up and punch you out. Most people think it's to tasty to be bad. Traditionally it should be served New Years Day morning. I was trusted to make it being a none drinker. Had plenty of volunteers to taste test if for me.

Hardrations

Very true, even the Finnish MPs (hardened drinkers all) treated Moosemilk with the greatest respect. It was the ice cream which provided the dynamite in disguise

Welshmen and sheep....hmmmmm. You lot really do have twisted minds

Now, see, out in my neck of the woods (Alberta, land of beef and oil) sheep aren't really considered. Between docile cows and lots of oil....well....you do the math LOL LOL

This thread of sheep reminds me of a joke (well, several actually but most I wouldn't repeat here!): Why is it better to shag a sheep on the edge of cliff? Because it pushes back harder!

Sorry....I heard that little bit years ago and still think it's funny....I just get this mental image of Daisy Baa-aaaing and backtracking frantically, skipping stones down the cliff face with her front hooves and....well....never mind LOL

As for the disparaging remarks about Wales and Welsh.....tsk tsk tsk. I have a drop or two of Welsh blood in me, maternal grandfather's side (he was actually a Yorkie but, so the story goes, if the river had gone that way instead of this way, he'd have been Welsh). Is Yorkshire even close to Wales? Sorry, my British Isles geography has gotten a tad rusty in recent decades....

Stephen Lock wrote:

Welshmen and sheep....hmmmmm. You lot really do have twisted minds

Now, see, out in my neck of the woods (Alberta, land of beef and oil) sheep aren't really considered. Between docile cows and lots of oil....well....you do the math LOL LOL

This thread of sheep reminds me of a joke (well, several actually but most I wouldn't repeat here!): Why is it better to shag a sheep on the edge of cliff? Because it pushes back harder!

Sorry....I heard that little bit years ago and still think it's funny....I just get this mental image of Daisy Baa-aaaing and backtracking frantically, skipping stones down the cliff face with her front hooves and....well....never mind LOL

As for the disparaging remarks about Wales and Welsh.....tsk tsk tsk. I have a drop or two of Welsh blood in me, maternal grandfather's side (he was actually a Yorkie but, so the story goes, if the river had gone that way instead of this way, he'd have been Welsh). Is Yorkshire even close to Wales? Sorry, my British Isles geography has gotten a tad rusty in recent decades....

By Canadian standards Wales might be near Yorkshire but don't visit the UK and say that. Different countries never mind counties. Everyone knows that Daisy is a cow and not a sheep but your personal preferences are your own business.

Why is it that Yanks and now Canadians say Math and we say Maths? Obviously having invented the language we are correct because it is mathematics i.e in the plural so let that be an end to it.

As for the Welsh, well I live in a town called Wallasey. In early times it was known as Walea. Roughly translated as Island of the Welshmen. We were cut off on three sides by water and the other by bog. The Taffy's must have got here in boats then. Takes about 20 minutes drive to Wales but if they built a bridge, the sheep would be safer but we would have to lock up our men!

Teabag wrote:

brum wrote:

Teabag wrote:

Be a bit worried if some big hairy men crashed into my room and said get it down your neck to be honest!

Your mind moves in mysterious ways, my Scaly friend !

By the way. I'm proceeding to N.Wales tomorrow. Intend to stop at Happy Chef, (don't know what he's got to be so f****** happy about), Talacre, from which vantage point the Wirral can be seen - SO WATCH IT PAL !

brum

I'll give you a wave. Don't dress anything like a sheep though will you?

BAAAHH !

First posting out of AAS was to 34 Coy GASC Wksp REME. Christmas Day morning, attempting not to die from a Tiger Beer hangover when into the basha stroll Wacky Jacky (The ASM) and Bert Noons (The Q Man). They were pitiless, made us drink all this tea, 50/50 with Gurkha rum. Hrrumphh! Wouldn't be allowed nowadays........more's the pity.

it was the csm and cook sgt that brought the trolley round on christmas morning when i was at viersen , an urn of tea . plus an urn of coffee , into my pint pot drinking mug was poured a quarter pint of coffee and equal measures of whisky and rum to make up the pint , needless to say i was as a newt eating my breakfast , which was not a bad thing when you think of the mess the acc cooks were serving up , ginger

I liked the Xmas dinner tradition when you always got the Rs man standing up and saying no throwing food. Which always resulted in the inevitable. It changes now with pay as you dine as you end up paying for what you waste.

TDivers wrote:

I liked the Xmas dinner tradition when you always got the Rs man standing up and saying no throwing food. Which always resulted in the inevitable. It changes now with pay as you dine as you end up paying for what you waste.

Crikey what would the ACC serve up now for £3 odd per man per day. I watched Heston the other day, he was on HM Submarine, trying to change the diet, the story was that it was an allowance 3 quid odd to feed a man per day, throughout the forces.

I wonder what the troops would have to pay for Chrissie dinner.

Lobster, Prawns and Caviar would be off the menu for sure.

They have even less than that now Les. Dont forget the only money coming in now is from what the guys that use the eating establishments pay for. No more guaranteed money straight from your wages. So i believe that has a lot to do with the sub standard food. Nothing to do with the Guys cooking as i know the army chefs work hard, but unfortunatley they can now only work with what the civvys give them. Before i believe the budgets were left to the Master Chefs.