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NATIONAL SERVICE
In the 1950s and up to the start of the 60s, young men between the ages of 17 and 21 were required to serve for two years in one of the armed forces unless they were exempted because of unfitness, studying at university or some other reason.
When I went to College in 1962, one of my fellow students was among one of the last groups of young men who had done National Service. He was called up into the Army in 1960. The following year Kuwait, which had been under British control, became independent. Iraq, which had long claimed it as part of its national territory, began preparations to invade Kuwait and reunite it to the rest of the country. Since Britain still had a defence agreement with Kuwait, British troops were sent out to defend it against the Iraqi forces. My fellow student was one of these soldiers and he told us:
“We disembarked from the ship with all our equipment. We were rushed up to the border with Iraq and we dug in to wait for the expected invasion. There we were, supported by tanks, field guns and heavy machine guns and we had our own personal rifles. But we did not have a single shell or bullet for any of them. If the Iraqis had known this and had invaded, the only thing we could have done was to act as traffic policemen for their tanks as they crossed the border!
