When I was researching the background to I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II I joined a forum called World War Two Talk. I lurked around the site for several months before I signed up. It was here that I got my first clue as to why my dad had been sent to Freetown , Sierra Leone Freetown
While exploring the site I realised that several members were asking for help with their enquiries into a wide range of topics. I had become stumped by several abbreviations that my dad had used in his diary and decided to see if any members of the site could help: so I signed up, introduced myself and posed my question. Within a couple of days most of my problem abbreviations were solved but one remained stubborn. "P.D."
My dad had used the abbreviation twice:
Monday 3rd January 1944
"Rising at 06.00 comes as a shock after two days of lying in but we recover.
Messing about all morning with P.D. gear."
Wednesday 5th January 1944
"Again nothing to do.
While taking a P.D. in the morning noticed how perfectly camouflaged the crickets are. They look exactly like a piece of brown grass and only give their position away by their loud chirping."
Several suggestions were made by WW2Talk members including physical development, photographic development and packing department. I weighed them all in the balance along with a suggestion I'd got from another source and annotated the diary accordingly. However, somehow I overlooked one member's suggestion which was pack drill. Now I've researched "pack drill" I've found it to be the name for a well known military punishment which involved walking up and down wearing full kit of rifle, bayonet, ammunition, knapsack and overcoat. Pack drill was often undertaken at double time i.e. twice the normal marching speed. The practice was introduced in the nineteenth century and is found in Kipling's poem "Cells" in "Barrack Room Ballads" (1892):
I've a head like a concertina: I've a tongue like a button-stick,
I've a mouth like an old potato, and I'm more than a little sick,
But I've had my fun o' the Corp'ral's Guard: I've made the cinders fly,
And I'm here in the Clink for a thundering drink and blacking the Corporal's eye.
With a second-hand overcoat under my head,
And a beautiful view of the yard,
O it's pack-drill for me and a fortnight's C.B.
For "drunk and resisting the Guard!"
Mad drunk and resisting the Guard --
'Strewth, but I socked it them hard!
So it's pack-drill for me and a fortnight's C.B.
For "drunk and resisting the Guard."
I started o' canteen porter, I finished o' canteen beer,
But a dose o' gin that a mate slipped in, it was that that brought me here.
'Twas that and an extry double Guard that rubbed my nose in the dirt --
But I fell away with the Corp'ral's stock and the best of the Corp'ral's shirt.
I left my cap in a public-house, my boots in the public road,
And Lord knows where -- and I don't care -- my belt and my tunic goed;
They'll stop my pay, they'll cut away the stripes I used to wear,
But I left my mark on the Corp'ral's face, and I think he'll keep it there!
My wife she cries on the barrack-gate, my kid in the barrack-yard,
It ain't that I mind the Ord'ly room -- it's that that cuts so hard.
I'll take my oath before them both that I will sure abstain,
But as soon as I'm in with a mate and gin, I know I'll do it again!
With a second-hand overcoat under my head,
And a beautiful view of the yard,
Yes, it's pack-drill for me and a fortnight's C.B.
For "drunk and resisting the Guard!"
Mad drunk and resisting the Guard --
'Strewth, but I socked it them hard!
So it's pack-drill for me and a fortnight's C.B.
For "drunk and resisting the Guard."
(C.B. stands for Confined to Barracks……another abbreviation that's unfamiliar to me.)
Whether pack drill was what my dad was alluding to I'm still not sure. It certainly makes sense in the second quote from his diary but less so in the first.
Anyway, many thanks to the people on WW2Talk who helped me out in my researches. This is a link to the thread and if you are interested in finding out more about WWII, this is a great site to go on.
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/war-sea/48502-does-anyone-know-what-these-abbreviations-stand-2.html
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/war-sea/48502-does-anyone-know-what-these-abbreviations-stand-2.html