Military tactic 1

From uncle Mick's archives 25/12/00

military situation 1

A horrible, wet night on the Locre-Dranoutre Road in 1914. A narrow
strip of pave road and on either side, mud of real Flanders
consistency.
I was on duty in a car following a long supply column of 5 ton lorries.
The car did not try to forsake the security of the pave, but when a
check of about 20 minutes occured, I got out &; stumbled through the
rain, well aabove boot tops in mud to the head of the column.
Impasse barely describes the condition of things, for immediately
facing the leading lorry was a squadron of French Cuirassiers, complete
with "tin bellies" and helmets with horse hair trimmings.
The squadron was in command of a haughty French captain, who seemed in
the lights of the lorry's headlamps, to have a bigger cuirass and
helmet than those of his men.
He faced a diminutive sergeant of the ASC, wet through, fed up, but
complete with cigarette.
Neither understood the other's language, but it was quite obvious
neither would leave the pave for the mud. Did the sergeant wring his
hands or say to the officer " Mon Capitaine, je vous en prie, etc " ?
He did not.
He merely stood there,and, removing the cigarette, uttered thes
immortal words - " ere, ally off the fuckin' pave you knight in shinin'
armour. "
And, believe me or believe me not, that is what the haughty one and his
men did.

MB ( ex MGC )