From: Norman Bassett, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
My father served with the KARs in East Africa at the
start of WW2 and about 200 KARs served with my uncle
Jock's regiment and my father in North Africa and up
through Italy into Germany and were "topped-up" with
fresh KARs when necessary.
Ever heard this song:
"Funga safari
Funga safari
Oom riawa na
Oom riawa na, Kapitini
Oom ri Ah Kay Ah"
(We're going on safari
We're going on safari
We'll know where we're going when we get there, says
the Captain
We are the KAR)
My maternal grandfather was in the Boer War and the
Great War and my mother had some interesting memories
of him. She was telling me about playing "Soldiers and
Brave Nurses" as a child after the Great War. The boys
had father-made rifles (with door bolts) painted the
correct khaki colour and the girls had rectangles of
white cloth tied to their foreheads with bits of
string. The girls crawled across to "wounded soldiers"
in no-mans-land with bits of string held between their
teeth in imitation of the nurses doing the same with
ropes to drag wounded soldiers back with. Her father
came home and saw this one day with a Ho, Ho, Ho! and
commented that the nurses wore grey uniforms about the
same colour as the Germans did and you had to be
careful about who you shot in no-mans-land.
Mothers weren't so keen on this game as the girls were
crawling round in the dust and the dogshit full-length
with their dresses. The girls liked the game because
they didn't usually get the chance to be Brave - they
usually got Captured, tied up and Rescued.
She also recalled him standing on the corner with his
rifle while police bullets from Lewis and Vickers guns
were cracking and whining along the street - that was
Ardwick just east of the centre of Manchester and just
after the Great War. Lest we forget.
If any one of you digs in your memory you'll come up
with gems - do it.
Regards
Norman Bassett
drakenfels.org
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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