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*****
Thinking of our troops in Afghanistan recently, I was reminded of an
incident that happened when we were night duty in July 1956 and I was a PC
at Hendon (Brent Street,
not West Hendon) Police Station, “S”
Division. I was posted as the R/T
Operator on “Sierra Three”, the Area Wireless Car. The driver was PC234”S” Roy Thompson, a
great guy and a veteran of WWII.
At around midnight we received a message to call
Information Room. On doing so I
was informed that there was a young Army Officer who was having a real
problem with his car which was at the bottom of a little known lover’s
lane called Burton Hole Lane
in Mill Hill NW7, near the Army Barracks.
It really wasn’t a police matter but we went because of the
somewhat unusual story that the IR operator told us. It was a filthy
night, but even the rain didn’t put us off
At the very bottom of the lane, a few yards from
where the tarmac surface ended, we found a young Army subaltern and his
very pretty girl friend in a little MG Sports Car. Apparently they had been there for some
time, but no questions were asked and no explanation was necessary.
Apparently however, when it was time for our young
Lochinvar to take his lady home, he put his car into reverse and promptly
made the wheels spin in the soft muddy surface. By trying even harder, he made matters
worse; eventually he realised the car was going nowhere.
When our rescue attempts proved equally
fruitless we decided that we had to call out the van from Edgware, which
arrived in due course. The Driver
was Jim “Ginger” Baldry, also a WWII veteran (and father of a young man who some
years later became known as “Long John Baldry” a Blues Singer of repute).
With the help of tow ropes, we eventually managed to pull the sports car
out of the quagmire and onto the tarmac surface once more.
We all got pretty wet (Lochinvar included) but
being gentlemen all, we had insisted that the young lady stay dry, in the
vehicle until her rescue was complete, at which point she nevertheless
insisted in getting out of the car, to thank each of us very warmly.
*****
So, what was it all about? Why did we turn out when it could just
as easily have been dealt with by the AA or the RAC? Well let me explain that, when we drove
along Mill Hill Broadway, each side of the road was lined by army lorries
all newly painted in a sandy camouflage colour. Also, a few days earlier, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser , the Egyptian President at the
time, had seized, or to use his words, “nationalised”, the Suez Canal
and our young hero was due to leave the following day as part of
the British Army contingent destined to take part in the ill-fated
invasion of the Suez Canal Zone.
The seizure by
Nasser, resulted from a decision by the US,
the World Bank and Britain
to withdraw an offer to provide the finance needed to build the High
Aswan Dam, which is a whole different story.
We never heard
further from our brave young subaltern, nor did we expect to. We were simply glad to help a very nice
young British soldier on the eve of his baptism under fire during what
may well have become his first real military engagement.
*****
Question:
I wonder what would
have been the reaction of the hierarchy in The Job back then if they had
known what their officers were up to.
Today, the questions would have included,
1.
Does this meet current targets?
2.
How will it affect our Budget?
3.
Could we recoup the costs from the young Soldier?
4.
What will be the consequences of such police action
should they become known?
*****
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