SURPRISE VISIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 103, 28 October 1939, Page 11

SURPRISE VISIT

A DAY WITH THE TROOPS

KING AT TRAINING CAMPS .

(By Air Mail from "The Post's*

Representative.)

LONDON. September 22. Troops training in the West of Eng land were paid a surprise visit by the King this week During a long and tiring day he had his lunch in the corner of a field, sitting on a rug behind a haystack. The King, everywhere, expressed the greatest satisfaction with the morale, spirit, and general health of the ofli'cers and men. Accompanied by two generals and a party of aides-de-camp, he visited all the units which make up a .modern infantry division. He shook hands and chatted with many of the men. The first unit visited was a crack infantry battalion which had been on trench-digging duty throughout the night. Here the battalion's headquar ters were a canvas lean-to against an Army lorry, ba-ked against a hedge. Many of the soldiers, who were wearing full battle-dress, were sleeping at the bottom of their trenches when the King arrived. The next battalion visited was stationed some miles away in a valley close to an old stone village. Unknown ito the villagers, the Royal party drew up in a quiet lane and it was not until the regiment, with their steel helmets held aloft, were giving three cheers that the villagers became aware that something was astir in the camp. In a field he decorated one of the officers with a Military Cross for gallantry in Palestine. This was the third officer of the regiment to be so decorated, and his Majesty spoke again to the other two officers whom he had received a few weekd ago at Buckingham Palace. Wherever he went the King sought out reservists amon: the Regular troops and asked them what occupation they had followed in civil life. "Everyone I asked," sa^d the King, "seemed to have been a postman."