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During the war my father was a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps. During the blitz at around eleven o’clock one night his commanding officer called him in and told him to collect his co-driver. There was a truck with a delivery that had to be made immediately to a secure airbase near the South coast in the West Country. He was told that on the truck was a large wooden crate with a new experimental bomb. It was made very clear that the drivers should not mess with the crate at all and to be very, very careful. They were told that the delivery had to be made by the morning as the bomb was scheduled for a test drop the next day. This didn’t leave them much time so they headed off into the blackout of London, then along the country lanes towards their destination, taking things very slowly and very carefully. They didn’t want to hit a bump at speed or something and set off this new bomb on the back of their truck! After a few hours all my father and his co-driver wanted was a cup of tea and a cigarette, but there was nowhere to get any and no time to stop. On the road they saw two American GIs hitching for a lift back to their base, so they picked them up hoping they’d at least have some cigarettes to share. Much to their disappointment the GIs had nothing, but they sat them in the back of the truck on top of the crate and told them what was going on, warning them to be extremely careful. Needless to say the GIs were very nervous sitting on top of some new experimental bomb! After a few more hours of slow, careful driving they dropped the GIs off, and as dawn broke they pulled into the airbase. They drove in, still both dying for a cigarette, and pulled up to the guardhouse. There a French officer came rushing out and quickly embraced my father and thanked him over and over. He told them that the crate was actually full of cigarettes that were to be dropped over France for the Resistance. All that time dying for a cigarette and they’d had a crate full of them in the back of their truck! Obviously their commanding officer hadn’t trusted them, after all they’d have made a killing on the black market!

This story has been submitted to the website by James Barton on behalf of Edward Burton. Their son Terry Burton has given permission for their story to appear on the website and they fully understand the terms and conditions of the website

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