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This year's recruits' weekend took place at RAF Barnham near Thetford. This is compact, well-drained training area with a mixture of terrain that makes it ideal for the novice cadet.

Over the weekend, the sixth form junior NCOs delivered a training package that covered the basics of field craft: cam and concealment, patrolling, and life in a platoon harbour were some of the areas covered. On the Sunday morning, a series of competitive events was run to see how much knowledge the recruits had gained.

Although the weekend was demanding, it proved to be a highly enjoyable event for all involved, with good weather making life easier for those new to the joys of sleeping in a basha.

Lt Burden

CCF Recruit Weekend: The Recruits Story

This weekend was very different to how we normally spend our weekends.  After school on Friday, we all trekked off to Bedford School to collect our heavy backpacks and line up with our NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) in our sections.  We were registered off by the RSM and took a long bus ride to the RAF Barnham training area. 

When we got there it had already started to get dark and so we quickly collected our ration packs and learnt how to cook them using Hexie Blocks.  We then were led to a large expanse of trees where we built our accommodation for the night: bashers.  Our night activity was to patrol, spy and gain information on the enemy, who were boasting about their plans around a campfire.

The next morning, our NCOs taught us various skills including hiding ourselves,  compass reading, hand signals and obstacle clearing.  We practiced the skills for the morning and ate a lot of Yorkies and biscuits!  Then we had fitness training by playing a game of cricket/rugby. 

After a long and tiring game, we went back to camp, packed up our things and trekked off to our new site where we would sleep that evening.  We set up our new bashers, had supper, then went for a night patrol as it was getting dark by this stage.  We got back late and had to run to put on extra layers as the "light show" was about to start; we were taught about how we can tell our position by the North Star, about how easily you can see and hear things at night and how bright and loud parachute flares are! 

Afterwards, we were led back to the entrance of the training compound where our platoons were dispatched at 20 minute intervals and given a compass and a bearing to follow.  A short way into the exercise, we met up with two other platoons, and after a short patrol where we found the right bearing to head off on, we joined forces and found the location of the enemy.  A short meeting later and it was decided that we would invade the enemy from all angles.  We successfully achieved our mission and were sent back to camp.

Then we had to do sentry duty.  Although the days were pretty hot, the nights felt freezing and being woken up every few hours to go on duty didn't help.  So there we stood, by a clump of trees, shivering so much we couldn't see straight and paranoid that someone would invade.  I realise now that most of the time I was on sentry, every five seconds I was demanding;  "Who goes there?" of trees.  After only a few minutes of being back in camp, the call went out to; "Stand to!", and we lay on our bellies for forty-five minutes, freezing and totally exhausted.  However cold I was, I was more tired so fell asleep standing to!

About four hours sleep later we were woken to start our training again.  We packed up our sleeping bags and bashers and ate our breakfast then headed off for the portaloos which, by now, we all needed.  Then we learnt how to "fire band maneuver" (charlie section covering fire, while delta section move) and assault a tree. 

We were then shown a demonstration on how to assault and taught quite a few mnemonics to remember how to assault.

Next we put what we learnt into practice then subsequently had a small competition to see which section learnt which lessons the best.

We demonstrated an assault, carefully scanned the ground to see if we could see remnants from an enemy's camp, overcame obstacles, saw how well we could disguise ourselves with camo cream and grass, learnt some first aid techniques, learnt the phonetic alphabet and were tested on creeping up on someone without being seen.

My section won the assault which was my favourite activity.  I found the weekend thoroughly enjoyable and will definitely carry on CCF and go on more weekends, however the camo cream did take quite a while to get off...

By Lilla To (Emma Woodman and EJ de Wit)