Chapter 13

Sunday morning was normal. They trooped off to church in Ripley and then Mark had an early snack lunch and left. His family all wished him luck in his new job and Serena gave him a passionate kiss in public which caused Elspeth to smile.

He arrived at Bulford Manor at about half past six and, having circled the house decided which door was the ADC's flat entrance. He knocked and the door was opened by a little man, no more than five foot six, with jet black hair, vivid blue eyes and a wide smile.

"Hello, Mark, I'm the Roddie you've been writing to," he said and shook his hand. "Where have you left your car?"

"Round the front, I'm afraid, while I did a recce."

"Tsk! Tsk! Bring it round here. We'll unload your kit and then you can put it in the garage over there."

Mark brought the car round. Roddie helped him with his suitcases and Mark garaged the car.

Mark took to Roddie immediately. He was friendly, amusing and nobody's fool. Roddie did however echo Mark's CO's words. "A lot of the job is fun," he said, " and you meet lots of interesting people, but you're in a privileged position and it can be lonely because you can't go to the Mess and whoop it up with the boys."

The handover was seamless. The two generals with the help of the secretary virtually did their own handover. The following Monday when they were in post, Anthony Collins called Mark into his office.

"So, Mark, how did your takeover go?"

"Brilliant!" replied Mark. "Roddie couldn't have been more helpful and gave me lots of useful tips."

"Good! I'm not going to bore you with the various problems I've been left with: money, manpower, overstretch and so on but I do need to meet the brigade commanders, commanding officers and independent commanders as soon as possible. I've met the brigade commanders this week but I need to spend more time with each of them individually. Would you arrange a programme for the next month so that I can do this?"

"Yes, Sir. Presumably you want to visit them, particularly so that you can see their units."

"Yes."

"What about slap-up lunches?"

"No!"

Mark smiled. "I thought you'd say that, Sir. I'll get on with it."

The visits went off well. Mark sat in on all of them and took notes for his general as he chose not to take a staff officer with him. Mark was fascinated with the discussions. They gave him a completely new outlook on soldiering: a far cry from being a lowly platoon commander.