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Michiel 2005

Michiel 2005 club

Posted: 13 Jun 2014

Taken: 25 May 2014

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Dordt in Stoom 2014 – Radio

Dordt in Stoom 2014 – Radio
On board of the ST Furie
18 comments - The latest ones
 Latium
Latium
2LO calling!

Love radios, had great fun with them in the army, just wish I had been taught Morse code.
9 years ago. Edited 9 years ago.
 Michiel 2005
Michiel 2005 club
When I was examined for National Service, they also did a morse test. First our group was taught three letters in Morse code and then they played all kinds of combinations of these three letters in Morse code and we had to write down the letters. I didn't do well, only a few boys showed aptitude.
9 years ago.
 Latium
Latium
Interesting that the Dutch armed forces were still requiring people to train in Morse at such a late date, although the ones with aptitude would most likely be seconded to the signals corps, as opposed to the fighting regiments.

Did you do National Service?
9 years ago.
 Michiel 2005
Michiel 2005 club
The examination took place in 1988 and armies are also a bit conservative, prefering often tried-and-tested systems over new ones.

I did not do National Service. It was abolished soon afterwards.
9 years ago.
 Latium
Latium
Morse is still a good backup for when IT fails.

Did the conscripts get posted abroad, my knowledge of Dutch overseas provinces and the like for that period is non-existent?
9 years ago.
 Michiel 2005
Michiel 2005 club
I think there were some training posts in Germany and longer ago also in France. The Dutch Antilles weren't served by the regular army I think, but mostly by the Navy. A small number of conscripts were sent to the Navy and the Air Force, so they might have been sent there. It depended also on what you wanted as a conscript: you could volunteer or take officer's training, but that usually meant you had to serve for longer.
9 years ago.
 Latium
Latium
Interesting that the army seems to have been where most conscripts were sent, but then I suppose it depends on the size of the Navy and Air Force, thanks anyway.
9 years ago.
 Michiel 2005
Michiel 2005 club
From what I understand the Navy and the Air Force required specialist and trained people, not badly-motivated boys who left after a year of doing service. The Army always needed soldiers, mainly to thwart a Soviet attack across Germany.
9 years ago.
 Latium
Latium
Only one year of National Service?
9 years ago.
 Michiel 2005
Michiel 2005 club
Officially 18 months, but in practise it was 12 months, certainly in the later years.
9 years ago.
Latium has replied to Michiel 2005 club
It was for 18 months in UK, with four years on the reserve list.

Conscription ended late 1960, and the last blokes were demobbed in '63, my uncle was one of them, most put out he was ;¬)
9 years ago.
 Michiel 2005
Michiel 2005 club
In the Netherlands conscription was suspended in 1996, but it can easily be reinstated in case of emergency, for instance if the French appoint another Napoleon.

Even with the twelve months, people complained that they had nothing to do after basic training.
9 years ago. Edited 9 years ago.
 Latium
Latium
That is an indictment of poor military administration, what's the point in having trained people to use a weapon then leave them idle, far better to extend their training so in the event of recall due to an emergency they are better qualified to dealt with it.

The proof is in history for the allies won the last war with conscript forces not full time professional soldiers, the standing army is only there to buy time until the conscripts arrive in force.
9 years ago.
 Michiel 2005
Michiel 2005 club
Idle is perhaps the wrong word, the soldiers were put to normal military duty such as guard duty, sweeping floors, polishing boots etc., but not exactly useful jobs. The conscripts didn't think their job was useful, while the army didn't want to invest in them, because they left after twelve months.
9 years ago.
 Latium
Latium
The conscripts were right, and the army were incredibly short sighted in not using the time to train the conscripts to a high standard, Esprit de corps and all that, for high moral works wonders.
9 years ago.
 Michiel 2005
Michiel 2005 club
By the early 1990s there was a system of "accomodation": call up as little conscripts as possible, don't let them do a hard work and keep them as short as possible. The fact that only a minority of the boys (and no women at all) were called up undermined the system, it wasn't considered fair. Forcing young men to do rather useless work was considered harmful to the economy too. Having said that, some people got their license to drive trucks in the army.

Esprit the corps is difficult to find in the Netherlands, as it doesn't have the same military tradition as in Britain, France and (previously) Germany.
9 years ago.
 Latium
Latium
Not about military tradition, it's about bonding and working together in adversity, and I think you sell your nation short for they have a history of being hard fighting men whether in war or trade, remember Chatham ;¬)
9 years ago.
Michiel 2005 club has replied to Latium
The Dutch army isn't part of national life in the same way as it does in Britain or France, that is what I meant with lack of military tradition. Don't forget we more or less had defeats all the way after Chatham. And before Napoleon overran us, we had an professional army (but not a standing army). Napoleon introduced conscription, but there wasn't much enthusiasm for it.

Of course military life means bonding and working together and establishing an esprit de corps, but you can only do that if the chaps are somewhat motivated. The conscripts on the whole were not. They saw the conscription as an unnecessary hold-up. There were of course people who revelled in it, in the absurdities of army life, the bureaucracy etc.
9 years ago.

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