大象传媒

This NCO who was getting up Percy's nose happened to be in the area where you lorries were parked,and these lorries had a tyre pump built onto the engine and to engage the pump you had to engage the clutch and move a lever over,and then release to clutch and the pump started working.It made quite a noise when it was workink ,and this NCO who was quite near Percy's lorry,ask him what was all that noise.Percy decided to play a trick on this NCO,and said to him,there must be something wrong with the engine.go and pick up that broom and give the engine a sharp knock.The NCO got the broom and gave the engine a hard knock,as he did this Percy put down the clutch and the noise stopped.The NCO said that seems to have fixed it,with that Percy let the clutch up again and the noise started again,so the NCO gave the engine another hard knock,and Percy put down the clutch again and the noise stopped,the NCO was quite pleased with himself thinking he had cured the noise.Percy didnt bother to continue with his prank and turned off the pump and stopped the engine.He couldnt believe the NCO could be some dumb,and womdered how he had got his stripes.
Percy found another way to make money,most of the men in his platoon were broke by Tuesday,and pay day wasnt until Friday and most were gasping for a smoke.Percy always had plenty of money,and not being a smoker himself,he used to buy cheap cigarettes and offer them to the men at a dearer price than they cost and said thet could pay him on Friday.This suited the men fine as it was a bit of a godsend to them,and they didnt mind paying the extra,and they always paid up on Friday,or else they wouldnt get credit the next time they were needing a smoke.
Some time later word got around that the Company was going to be broke up and the men posted to different Companies in England and some would go abroad.The sargeant in Percy's company was quite distressed because he was told he was going to North Africa,and could Percy think of some way to stop him going.Percy said,if you had a broken arm you wouldnt be able to go because it would take months to heal.The sargeant said how am I going to get a broken arm,and Percy said I will break it for you,and he replied how will you do it.Percy said let your arm hang loose and I will hit it with a tyre lever,that should do the trick,or I could run over your foot with my lorry.The sargeant said he didnt fancy either way,and would think about it. Several weeks later Percy was posted to with several other men to a new Company at a place called Bordon,and they were billeted in houses that were once married quarters.There was one incident before he left Aldershot he was put on a paroling guard that meant walking around the barracks looking up at the sky to see if any parachitists were about.This was a very boring job and it was a very cold night and it was about one oclock in the morning,so de decided to to go and keep warm in his barrack room he wasnt there long and a NCO came into the room and saw Percy,and said why arent you outside patroling,and he said it was so cold and had come in for a warm up.The NCO said you will be on a charge in the morning for desertin your post.Percy knew he cold end up in the glasshouse,so he said if I am going inside for this I will want the money I lent you before I go inside.Fortunately for Percy he had lent this NCO some money when he wanted to go home for the weekend to see hi s wife.The NCO was taken aback at this remark and became quite flustered,and said get back out on guard and I will forget all about it.This suited Percy no end and was glad to get out of this near escape.
Percy never got his money from this NCO because he was posted to Bordon soon after.Not getting his money never bothered him because he thought it was a small price to pay to stay out of trouble
Several monthe before Percy joined the army his father bought him a forf car,he wasnt able to take it to Aldershot because ther was nowhere to park it but at Bordon there was lots of space for his car so he went home one weekend to get it.A couple of other men had a car to,so he wasnt the only one.
Again he got on very well with the sargeant maybe it was having the car that did the trick,but whatever it was it was nice haveing the man on his side
The new company he was now in had all civilian lorries and he ended up with an Albian open top and all the lorries used petrol.The work the lorries had to do involved civilians,and it wasnt long before he sounded out a men who was prepared to buy petrol First he ask this man to supply him with a five gallon drum to put the petrol in he also ask for a lenghth of hose to use to syphon the petrol out.Late at night Percy would go to the compound where the lorries were parked,and syphon a gallon of petrol from five lorries.A gallon would not be missed by the drivers of the lorries because there were no fuel gauges on the lorries.Next morning going on the job with the civilians he would sell the petrol to his contact Twice a week he would perform this scheme and was doing very well money wise.The work the lorries did was to pick up materials form a railway siding and take it to Hindhead where they were building a hospital.This went on for many months.At weekends Percy would take three of his friends to Maidenhead to a dance this he was able to do having a car.One weekend he took the sargeant and a couple of friends to this dance,but on the way back the car broke down miles awayfrom our destination.There wasnt any other traffic on the road to get a lift and the sargeant was getting quite panicy,but as usual Percy had the solution,one of his friends was on duty in the company office,so he told the sargeant to ring the office,and he would speak to his friend and ask him to come and collect them the friend was a bit doubtfull but when told the sargeant was with him he agrred to collect the.The sargeant was now very much relieved to know they would get back before roll call..

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