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As a nine-year old boy at Ellington School, Maidenhead, I remember that, in 1940, we used to go to St. Luke's Church Hall, also in Maidenhead, where we were taught the basics of making Bangalore Torpedoes (for blowing barbed wire) out of drainpipes and explosive, Molotov Cocktails for destroying tanks and armoured vehicles, plastic explosive for blowing railway lines, and Cordtex, for bringing down trees and telegraph poles. Unfortunately, we were never actually let loose with these goodies.
On taking a scholarship to the Windsor County Boys School, I had to join the Army Cadet Force, where I learned how to maintain and fire a rifle and the Sten Gun. The rifles we used were the old Martini type, from the South African war, but they were still very effective.
What most of us disliked was wearing the silly wrap-around puttees, which inevitably sagged on any but the best-shaped legs!
After all this, I went on to join the Royal Navy and enjoyed many years of pistol, rifle and Bren gun shooting competitions.

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