How the old goat lost his respect for authority

[magnu]

Not sure if this is the right section to put this, as the story although from WW2 is not strictly aviation related
but I thought I would share anyway.
Before I became a tattoo artist I worked at the shire horse farm and carriage museum for about 10 years
and was told this by the owner .
He was at school during the war and was strafed by a bf109 on his way home one day causing him to crash his bike and fly over a hedge fortunately escaping injury.
Later in 1944 he and a group of friends from school decided to go fishing one Sunday, most of the day was spent at a local pond with no luck. So they decided to improve their chances by using hand grenades so off they went to one of many US army camps. Sneaking into the camp through the perimeter fence they started to search the tents until they had what they had come for.
So back to the pond they went and were having a great time catching lots of fish.however hand grenades are not the most subtle of things and they were caught

Back at school on Monday the head teacher along with some brass from the camp told them that if they explained how they had done it no further action would be taken.
So they went back to the camp and gave a demonstration of how and where they got hold of the grenades
and were promptly expelled when they got back to school.
From that moment on he held all authority figures in the greatest of contempt.





During the war my mother and grandfather worked at the Bickford Smith factory in Tuckingmill , mother was in the chemistry lab making dynamite and grandfather worked in another part of the factory making hand grenades.
One night the Germans tried to bomb the factory but missed and hit the local rubbish dump instead blasting it all over the village and factory and making for a very smelly few days at work .

[timshatz]

The guy you talk about got screwed over in a big way. That sort of thing comes around (what comes around goes around, that sort of thing). What the school did is paying dividends even today. Dumb to promise on thing and do another with intent.

On the plus side, he probably had a lot happier life not expecting anyone to do anything for him and just doing what he wanted. Learned a very important lesson early in life (rely on yourself and don't expect everything your told to be true). Some people find out much later in life, if at all.

[Colin1]

He was at school during the war and was strafed by a Bf109

Presumably he wasn't at school in Cornwall

[magnu]

Presumably he wasn't at school in Cornwall

IIRC it was Surrey


Thinking back on the story I remember he did exact a revenge of sorts
He won the contract to re roof an army barracks, removed the slate very carefully took it back to the yard where it was given a through cleaning and replaced on the barracks roofs. turning a healthy profit in the process by selling them back their own roof.

[RabidAlien]

IIRC it was Surrey


Thinking back on the story I remember he did exact a revenge of sorts
He won the contract to re roof an army barracks, removed the slate very carefully took it back to the yard where it was given a through cleaning and replaced on the barracks roofs. turning a healthy profit in the process by selling them back their own roof.