MIKE SMIFF ALL GAS NO BRAKES 3 ZIP SHARE PLUSThe length of a cable on its huge wooden bobbin would correspond to the distance between the joint boxes we had to build in concrete complete with round iron lid and iron rungs in the wall to allow workmen known as ‘Cable Jointers’ to descend into the box and join the ends of the cable using solder and blow lamps plus large amount of tarred tape. The Post Office Engineers would come along at a later date and complete the job by pulling massive tarred cables through the pipes and thus enable some of the outlying towns to communicate better instead of gathering wood as they had done over the ages for a huge bonfire on the nearest hill to light should the area come under attack from marauding Sassenachs, Vikings and Danes. MIKE SMIFF ALL GAS NO BRAKES 3 ZIP SHARE HOW TOI reflect on the fact that we humans had to be taught how to do this when cats and dogs do it naturally and without the aid of compasses or maps. I had voiced my intentions to my stand in Father who was the Foreman of the gang who roamed about the countryside digging trenches in the ground and laying heavy ceramic pipes in them and then covering them up with earth. The last nine days had been made miserable by rain and cold, and each day I had re-assured myself that “Tomorrow must be a better day”Ī week before, on the onset of bad weather I had been thinking again of joining the Royal Navy. I used to think God would to sit on high and as soon as I got out of bed he would signal to Big Gabbie,(God’s number one Minder) to pull the chain and it would then rain for the rest of the day. Lets leave today (May 23rd 2003) and travel back to the 9th of August 1938 when I first walked into the Recruiting Office in Suchiehall St, Glasgow, Scotland. The reason for which will be found in the following pages. To avoid confusion later I would point out here that I changed identity tags for the last two years of the War with one Harry Tenny who was a Sgt Engineer in the R.A.F. If one wishes to check the validity of this enterprise please contact British WW2 Service records, Ministry of Defence,ĬS(RM) 2b, Bourne Avenue, Hayes, Middlesex, UB3 IRF. In short if one removes the walls from a house there is nothing to hold up the roof. To write this and omit some of the detail because it may offend some would be akin to the zoo with no animals and therefore pointless. had demanded they all be returned to the wild, one would feel cheated. I would point out however, that if one were to go to the zoo and on finding no animals there, and were informed that the R.S.P.C.A. Since some memories invade my mind when I try to sleep I have been forced to take medication for the rest of my life.īut I have made bold with the happier times of my service. With this in mind I have leaned toward the lighter side and some of the happier or comical episodes of my service abroad. Many books have been written about the miseries and tragedies of war with dates and witnesses and whilst being informative can at times be boring. It has been written from memory, but since there is no way I can remember the actual conversations but can vividly remember the dialects and the faces of the speakers and the situations I am able to write this in some detail. This is an eyewitness account of what I saw, heard and could not avoid from September 1938 to 1945. I had signed up for a total of twelve years, seven years with the colours and five years with the reserves. My Military title for next seven years was No 2982252 Pte T.O. However due to a wily Scottish Recruiting Sergeant who lined his pockets at my expense when I was working out my notice of quitting my job whilst lodging in Glasgow, Scotland, I ended up in a Scottish Regiment. I was born on the 23rd of May 1921 in a small house on the corner of Brigg road and opposite Hopper’s Offices in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, England.īy dodging my Father’s heavy hand I managed to survive till I was 17 and tried to join the Boy’s Service in the Navy. EYE WITNESS TRUE STORIES OF WORLD WAR TWO
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