Paras
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British Army Chefs were qualified Fitters and Turners, they could fit perfectly good food into pans and turn it into sh*t
Join Date: Feb 2012
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Joke away you crabs. Cooks are an easy target for cheap shots. I experienced at first hand the products of Army chefs for 34 years, in barracks, on exercise and on operations. I can confidently state that they are bloody good, highly skilled and amazingly versatile, able to produce tasty and nourishing meals under appalling conditions using compo and whatever local fresh produce they can be supplied with.
Can't comment on crab cooks though.
Can't comment on crab cooks though.
Crab cooks
I can comment on crab cooks. Falklands 1983 "Fly Navy, Sail Army, Eat Crab" The Navy ran the choppers, the Army ran the the boats in the harbour and the RAF did the cooking and they were brilliant.
The only downside - no chips for four months. Sad.
The only downside - no chips for four months. Sad.
Thread Starter
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SF are necessary and useful but the British Army has a very long history of spinning off "special" units which are supposed to be some sort of silver bullet and not concentrating on the PBI - who actually have to do the bulk of the fighting
I suspect its because we've never had a very large army and if we expand it w quickly slim it down again - so there is a constant search for something, anything that enables them to claim they can do more with less
I suspect its because we've never had a very large army and if we expand it w quickly slim it down again - so there is a constant search for something, anything that enables them to claim they can do more with less
Red On, Green On
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HH - way off topic now, but I disagree. All the private armies that were formed in WW2 (Popski's, Stirling's, the Chindits) were disbanded very soon afterwards. The Parachute Regiment and Royal Marines survived but were not then or now considered to be SF.
21 SAS was formed in 1947 as a TA regiment only and it was not until 1952 that 22 stood up, and that was due to the development of jungle warfare in Malaya and the need for a regular battalion.
If you look at recent conflicts it's clear that traditional military combat with defined front-lines and territory being lost/won is on the wane. Both SF and PBI need to adapt to survive in the new environment.
21 SAS was formed in 1947 as a TA regiment only and it was not until 1952 that 22 stood up, and that was due to the development of jungle warfare in Malaya and the need for a regular battalion.
If you look at recent conflicts it's clear that traditional military combat with defined front-lines and territory being lost/won is on the wane. Both SF and PBI need to adapt to survive in the new environment.
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Gzornenplatz
My FI memories are the same though the best food was on board the RFA's if you were ever lucky enough to be invited on board.
The RN seemed to get the first pick of any fresh rations sent down, the army next and the RAF got the left-overs - still the RAF cooks were brilliant and the results were great for maintaining both the waist-line and morale.
Best of all though was 1312 Flight who through a cunning plan with the met officers in Ascension and who were based on Green Mountain, managed to import (for a price) fresh tropical fruit; pineapples, grapefruit and melons were serious "currency" to barter favours.
One "trade" I did was to get the loan of an army motorcycle (with spare jerry can
) and so was able to set off (with others in company for mutual support in case of an accident) across the Camp and so get to places I'd never otherwise have got to see up close, such as Two Sisters, Wireless Ridge and Tumbledown and round to the Murrel river.
MB
My FI memories are the same though the best food was on board the RFA's if you were ever lucky enough to be invited on board.
The RN seemed to get the first pick of any fresh rations sent down, the army next and the RAF got the left-overs - still the RAF cooks were brilliant and the results were great for maintaining both the waist-line and morale.
Best of all though was 1312 Flight who through a cunning plan with the met officers in Ascension and who were based on Green Mountain, managed to import (for a price) fresh tropical fruit; pineapples, grapefruit and melons were serious "currency" to barter favours.
One "trade" I did was to get the loan of an army motorcycle (with spare jerry can
) and so was able to set off (with others in company for mutual support in case of an accident) across the Camp and so get to places I'd never otherwise have got to see up close, such as Two Sisters, Wireless Ridge and Tumbledown and round to the Murrel river.MB
Last edited by Madbob; 23rd Sep 2014 at 11:28. Reason: typo
Regarding the earlier quote that we no longer train significant numbers of paras anymore, that may be true but how many are already qualified and in receipt of para pay that need to maintain currency?
I understand the ratio is in the order of 10:1 for those needing to maintain currency versus the actual number of trained paras required.
As for 'no mummies boys' in the Red Devils, sadly the same can't be said for Air Command!
I understand the ratio is in the order of 10:1 for those needing to maintain currency versus the actual number of trained paras required.
As for 'no mummies boys' in the Red Devils, sadly the same can't be said for Air Command!
Last edited by Party Animal; 23rd Sep 2014 at 10:57. Reason: typos
My first 10 weeks at MPA I lived with the contractors - food was plentiful, with vegetables, salads and fresh fruit in abundance. When the military took over the first thing to go were the duvets |(not scaled, but we did get them back) then fresh fruit and fresh salad. When queried we were told that we only needed one piece of fruit a month to stay "regular"!
