Pete & Gary's Military History · Peter Hart

SPECIAL: South Notts Hussars - Germany & Post-War

·54 min·4 clips

d they always said, the thing that stuck in their mind was, it was the kids

Pete and Gary close out the regiment's story in Germany. The episode starts with the end of the regiment and the end of the war's practical business, with the usual bit of banter before anyone gets sentimental. Demob is the word. One veteran remembers a party that went badly wrong over German schnapps from a local still, a marble statue of a girl, and the sort of heavy lifting that always ends in trouble when sergeants think they have a bright idea. The statue crashes down, the man underneath loses his teeth, and his demob is delayed by six weeks. Pete and Gary then pull the thread back to how the men were actually sent home. They explain that the Army used age groups, trying to avoid the unfairness that followed the Great War. The method mostly worked, though there were always exceptions. A quote from Albert Swinton adds the ground-level picture. Different groups went off in numbers, and the men who were leaving got gathered with their mates for a drink that predictably became a bit hectic. The whole thing has the feel of a unit slowly emptying out while everyone pretends not to notice. Captain Ian Sinclair appears as the official voice of the disbandment. He had started as a sergeant and was a gunner at the beginning, and now he is the one reading the notes that mark the regiment as finished. The episode keeps moving with quick interruptions, bits of performance, and the kind of dry side comments that make the history easier to carry. It never treats the paperwork as dull background, because the paperwork is the point. What looks like admin is really the final shape of the war for the men inside it. By the end, the episode has turned a regiment's ending into a story about homecoming, damage, and the strange dignity of being told you are finally done.

As heard by us

A fitting final chapter that mixes demob paperwork, German schnapps, and the job of getting men home.

Pete and Gary finish the South Notts Hussars story in Germany with demobilisation and the unit's official end. The episode keeps one foot in the paperwork of getting men home and the other in a party gone badly wrong, with German schnapps and a heavy marble statue doing most of…

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Why you'd press play

If you want the demob story at the end of a regiment's war, press play.

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