By Frank Reeve
People in the story;- Myself
Location of story;- R.A.F; HUCKNALL, Nottinghamshire
This story is a list of unbelievable suprises? I had been posted to a R.A.F; station work-shops that was host to a Polish Fighter Pilot training school; how ever I was granted permission to hold a sleeping-out pass which improved the situation. My next suprise was to be told to report to the Armoury for my weapons. The first item was my PIKE, this was a six-foot council brush stale into which the joiners had driven a eight inch nail that was then ground down to a dart point. The next item was a bigger suprise,I was pointed in the direction of several WAAF'S sat at sewing machines. The first one machined a long strip of green webbing into a long tube, the second one proceeded to fill this with several pounds of air-gun pellets and then machined the top closed, the third completed a neat job by machining and attaching a very secure wrist strap. this was my TRUNCHEON and I was asked to sign for both items. Before I left I was reminded that I was due to be shown both the Mobile Gun and the perimeter defences against air-bourn attacks. The mobile was from a local breakers yard, it was a ex coal-mearchants flat truck on which a double wall of corrugated iron sheets had been formed into a square and filled with sand bags. The mounting for the 303 machine-gun was a flanged pipe securely bolted to the floor. I was still getting settled when a visit to the outer defences was arranged and this really did make my day. We left camp and were taken to what was described as a ideal dropping zone for Paratroops, I had already noticed the strange attachments to the tallest of the poplar trees, car inner tubes looped in daisey-chain fashion to form what I can only describe as a very large catapult, which if properly loaded would shower the area with deadly shrapnel from the old ammo boxes that were to be used as dischargers. You will by now I suspect know why my story was titled "with fingers crossed", at this point I was doing more night duties than the hours spent doing the work that I had been posted to do. It was now that I decided to volunteer once again, this time it was for Air-crew duties. |
