The first National Front march

[Davejb]

When I was about three years into my police service, there was a very large NF march up North ,the first major one in fact, it was either Leicester or Nottingham, I cant remember which but I do remember a very large prison with very high walls right next to a wide road. This march was supposed to be about 6-700 supporters, thats where everything went pete tong. It turned out to be 2-3 THOUSAND NF supporters. At first there were three forces involved, Herts, Essex, and the residing force. I think there were about a hundred of my force, two hundred Essex coppers and about the same for the residing cops. Due to info received , the Met were called to back up and were on their way along with two more surrounding forces, But in the mean time we were it.Now in those days you did,nt have all the protective gear they have now, our helmets were not reinforced, no stab vests, no crash helmets with visors etc, we had our helmets, uniform ,gloves and our truncheons. Info was passed down that a large number of these supporters were forming up near to the road where the prison was, so a squad of our guys were sent there. we totalled  about thirty hairy arsed coppers and found ourselves in the road next to the prison. Our inspector told us to link arms as some NF wallers came around the corner about two hundred yards away. Big joke , this road was so wide that we ended up holding hands at full length, then we saw just how many were heading towards us, at least a thousand, all armed with lumps of wood, bottles, bricks, you name it. They actually started to charge towards us,and then as they got closer they all stopped dead, we could,nt work out why. It was when another three hundred coppers ran up behind us pushed into our rank and linked arms that we knew why. Behind them were 40 police dogs and their handlers, all running forwards, we broke rank and the dogs came through and headed straight for the front supporters, you,ve never seen so many people literally jobby themselves and scatter, one minute they were there , next they were gone. Paul Daniels could,nt have done a better vanishing act. The dogs were recalled and our bacon was saved, for the time being, A police helicopter had been flying around spotting likely trouble areas.We were all formed up near to a Multi storey car park, there were by now about three thousand coppers , all spread out on various trouble spots. The group I was in were being issued with shields as we were shield trained. there were about 150 of us. All of a sudden a shout from the helicopter warned us that the top floor of the car park was full of NF and they were armed with petrol bombs.We formed our shields into an overhead turtle, a bit like how the Romans did it, We were lucky as the next thing that happened were bottles, bricks, Kung Foo stars were thrown down at us. The shields saved us from serious injury except the guy in front of me panicked and pulled his shield down, leaving a gap. I stood there and watched as a petrol bomb came sailing through the air straight through the gap and burst into flames right between my legs. I was now on fire from my legs, arms, chest and even my back. If you have ever been on fire you run around like a headless chicken trying to keep the flames away from your face. A Sergeant from my force acted quickly, threw me to the ground and covered me with a rain cape, others helped beat the flames out, but it took a while as the petrol bombs were laced with a sticky oily jel substance that turned out to be fairy liquid. I was helped up and amazingly I only had minor singes here and there, but the uniform smelt awful, like a wet and burnt hair of a dog, and I had to stay like that for the rest of the day. On the coach home no bugger wanted to sit next to me, which I could,nt blame them for. I eventually got home late that night to find my missus having a girls party with other coppers wives. I nearly cleared our living room as I walked in. uniform all burnt, hair singed, eyebrows singed. But when I told them what had happened, they were all over me,helping me get undressed, which I did,nt mind , (but I think the wife did), running a bath, drinks in my hand, I was well happy. But a few days later it hit me and I realised just how lucky I was. there were quite a few coppers injured that day, but a whole lot more of NF with bad dog bites and truncheon marks. The Sergeant who literally saved me became one of my best friends in the force

 

[HetzersGonnaHetz]

Good story there Dave, it was probably Leicester as there's a bloody great big prison slap bang in the centre of town opposite the rugby stadium. 

[Davejb]

That looks familiar, I reckon thats the place, look how wide the roads are around there, but I think the road where we were was around the back, with very high outer prison walls

[HetzersGonnaHetz]

Yeah the walls are bloody huge, Dads from Leicester so we go past it every so often, bloke once tried to escape by jumping off the top of a wall, his legs didn't fare too well!