大象传媒

Pantomime

After the North African campaign had finished and the Victory Parade in Tunis was over, we deployed to a mountainside near Setif. We were to refit and prepare for the Italian invasion.

It was getting near to Christmas so we decided to put on a pantomime to entertain the men and improve morale. We gathered together all the willing volunteers and outlined our plans. We would use the back of a 3-ton truck as a stage to perform 鈥淏abes in the Wood鈥�. We chose six of the hairiest men complete with tutus to form the chorus. They looked resplendent with hairy chests, very short skirts and army boots! In the pantomime when the babes were lost in the wood and lay down to sleep they were covered in leaves dropped by the birds. This presented something of a challenge, as we did not have leaves or birds!

We finally thought of a way of achieving this. We would place a Hessian latrine screen across the back of the stage, behind which, some performers would hide and throw toilet paper over the screen to cover the recumbent babes!

Our CO was a well rounded, pear shaped man who wore jodhpurs, sand boots and carried a flywhisk. In one sketch we wanted to point gentle fun at his physical attributes and the sketch went something like this:

鈥淲hat is that thing coming down the road?鈥�

鈥淎 barrage balloon?鈥�

鈥淣o it is the CO in his jodhpurs!鈥�

Needless to say this sketch brought the house down!

Next morning we had to parade in FSMO on a full Battery Muster parade
at 6.0 am and undergo a full inspection by the CO. He was not obviously best pleased with our Pantomime, particularly the Barrage Balloon sketch!

I found it hard to understand the CO鈥檚 reaction, did he think our show was 鈥渃ontrary to good order and military discipline鈥� or did he just lack a sense of humour? In any event it did the power of good for our morale, if not the CO鈥檚!

THE END

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