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February 1942 Sennybridge Wales.
After a couple of weeks here we were told to clean all guns and equipment so they would be spotless. Well the mud of the hills of Wales was indeed the gumbo variety, stuck to everything. What a job it was to really clan them properly. On my crew I had some good thinkers, and the easy way must be the better way. Stan Gillespie and Gordie Matheson suggested we take the wheels off our gun and ammunition limber, thereby we could really get a good cleaning job. So I was the sergeant and said, let us do it. We had just nicely started doing a great job when along came our Colonel Landers and the Camp commandant followed by major Bill Greenlay. Colonel Landers stopped at our scene of scrubbing guns and 'said now Sgt that is using your head and getting things done in style, [ I could feel the eyes of my fellow troop sgts. underbreaths saying that apple polisher and his crew ]. Well we were feeling pretty good with the Colonel's kind comments. Soon as he passed Major Greenlay said, "What in hell are you trying to prove? Those wheels will fall off before we are fifteen miles down the road and I will check up on you all the way.
In other words he certainly threatened myself and my crew. The upshot was Stan and Gord and the other members said Sgt. these wheels will never fall off when we get through with putting them back on. They were good to their word and after 60 years if that gun is still around the wheels are still on it as did the crew ever tighten them on using a four foot bar for leverage. Oh yes, Major Greenlay kept passing us more than once, mounted on a motor bike, checking on our wheels, also giving me the sign get up through the hatch into the driving rain. I must admit he went to a lot of trouble to prove a stupid point as the wheels stayed on and likely still are. Thank goodness, as he would have liked to court-martial me if it could have been brought about. But remember, the Colonel was on my crew's side and Major Greenlay, though an irritant, was not our major but 60 Bty Major
We all arrived back in Aldershot none the worse after digging roads and getting muddy in Wales.