Not Flag or Fail (26 page)

The inside of the hut was empty except for one person who appeared to be asleep on the bed furthest away from the door. I walked towards him and as I got nearer, saw that he held a lit cigarette in his hand, he turned a pudgy acne’d face towards me and opened his eyes. “What do you bloody want, are you lost pal?” he said in a southern accent not unlike Fishy’s. I recognised an opportunity for some sport and I told him that I used to be in the same gun crew as Jack and Harry and that the Duty Officer had told me to bunk down in the same hut as them so here I was. “Well you’d better get down that end then by the door cus that’s where they are.” he said lighting a new cigarette from the butt of the old one.

“Where are they anyway?” I asked?

“All the rest of the boy’s are out on the ranges.” He replied and then added, “And before you ask I’m excused duty.” I looked at him for a moment and then asked him why? “Well I could give you the official answer which is that I have hurt my back, or I could tell you the real answer and mark your card for you at the same time see, and the real answer is simple, my sister’s husband runs this camp and he’s told me to run this hut for him and I let him know what’s happening see.”

“Blimey,” I said “your sister’s married to the Colonel is she?”

I asked, knowing as I said it that it was unlikely. “Are you as stupid as you look?” he asked, jumping up off his bed and going over to get a mug of tea from the pot on the stove. “Well who is she married to then?” I asked.

“Listen you dope, Officers don’t run this camp, my brother in law is in charge and I’ll give you his name so you don’t forget it right? It’s Sergeant Foxwell remember it, now here endeth the lesson, so bugger off down that end of the hut and leave me in peace right?”

I looked at him for a long time, in fact until he was about to speak again and then it was my turn to speak.

“You know Private, I think I like it down this end of the hut, it seems warmer, and in fact when I was last here we were all down this end if I remember right? But do you know, I think I’m going to bunk down in this little room here, the one that says Sergeant on the door. Is that ok with you?” I said, as I took off the cape and revealed my stripes. His face went visibly paler, “Now then,” I said” I don’t know how long I’ll be with you but I think it’s my duty to get you better as quickly as I can. So as I’ve always thought exercise was the best remedy for a bad back we’ll have some you and me, exercise that is, so a little later we’ll get into our PE kit and we’ll have a little cross country to loosen you up a little. Now get off that bed, put out that cigarette and find a brush and get this hut cleaned up.” With that I picked up my kit and entered the Sergeant’s room.

I unpacked my kit bag into the locker, took a look around to see what I’d got and then went back into the main hut. The podgy soldier was half heartedly pushing the brush around the room.

“By the way,” I said “you didn’t tell me your name?”

He stopped and thought for a while before mumbling Roberts.

“You mean Roberts, Sergeant, don’t you?” I said, lighting a cigarette as I spoke, “now then leave that and get into your PE kit I think you need some fresh air, it will cheer you up a bit.” He messed about in his locker and eventually, reluctantly stripped off, changing into his singlet and shorts, neither of which looked as if they had seen much wear. “Good lad,” I said “that’s better, now slip your plimsolls’ on while I go and get ready.”

Two minutes later I came back out of my room wearing denim trousers, a singlet and my soft boots.”Come on then Roberts let’s get to it.”

It was still raining quite hard and Roberts looked shocked as he left the warmth of the hut, he looked much worse though as thirty five minutes later we returned to the hut just as dusk was falling.

Roberts had struggled after the first five minutes but I had kept him at it, running him around the camp perimeter but avoiding the guard hut not wanting to involve his brother in law just yet, although I knew that it would only be a matter of time before that happened.

Inside, the hut was warm, the lights were on, five soldiers stood around the stove talking and smoking, all of them turned as we entered.

Roberts was blowing like a train and they all stared at him and then at me with puzzled expressions on their faces. “Hello Jack, Harry, remember me?” I asked as I walked over towards the group. Harry was the first to regain his composure “Blimey Bomb, you’re back, where’s Ronnie and Fishy?”

“Long story, I’ll tell you both later but there’s just me, the others aren’t coming back and for the record it’s not Bomb anymore I’ve got the other one now to complete the set. So for the time being I think I’m your new Sergeant.”

Jack told me that they needed to get off to the mess hut before all the food had gone and I agreed to walk down with them and get a meal too. I didn’t need a shower as I had not broken sweat during my recent exercise.

I ate a passable meal sitting with two Sergeants from the admin block who told me as much as they could about the camp routines during the meal. Later, while they smoked a cigarette and drank a coffee they invited me to join them for a drink later in the Sergeant’s mess. I told them I probably would and made my excuses to leave when I saw Jack and Harry getting up to go.

Outside I caught sight of the group from my hut and trotted up to join them. I couldn’t help but notice that the conversation dropped off when I joined them and I realised for the first time that my Sergeant’s stripes had created a barrier between us, the lads were friendly enough but wary.

Inside the hut Roberts was asleep on his bed but woke up when we entered, he pulled himself together, scowled at me and left the hut. All of the lads grinned as they watched him leave.

Someone got a brew on and I called Jack and Harry into my room, I gave them a plausible story about Ronnie and I being selected for officer training and Fishy transferring to Coastal Command. They seemed to buy it ok, I told them that I realised it was a bit awkward for them now I that I had my stripes but said I hoped they would not be too much of a barrier to our friendship? They agreed it shouldn’t be and then went out to join the other members of the hut.

Later that evening I went down to the Sergeant’s mess to join the two blokes who I had met in the mess hall, along with a third who they introduced me to. We all settled down to a game of whist and a quiet pint. I offered to get the second round in and ignoring the steward went up to the bar, bought four pints and was carrying them back on a tray when I felt a push in my back which caused me to stumble spilling two of the pints. I regained my balance and turned around to see what had happened.

Behind me, his face white with anger, his lips stretched tightly, stood Sergeant Foxwell “You need to be careful Hibert, next time you might hurt yourself and not just spill your beer.”

I stepped back and put the tray down on the nearest table “Oh I’m always careful Foxwell, just watch how careful I am if you push me again.” I replied watching him carefully.

“And I might just do that, you’re not dealing with a kid now you know I’m more your size, so now what do you say?” he said taking a step towards me his huge hands balled into fists.

By now all conversation in the mess had died and we were the centre of attention, almost too late, I saw his left arm shoot out towards my face, I moved but not quickly enough, a stinging blow caught my right ear. I stepped back and raised my left forearm to stop the right hander heading for my chin. More by instinct than judgement I replied with a right uppercut that caught him square on the chin, he went down, leaving me as surprised as he was. By this time a burly Sergeant had grabbed my arms and pulled me back saying in a friendly way “that’ll do for now son, we’ll stop now shall we while it’s still self defence.”

Someone helped Foxwell to his feet and he glared at me and said something like, “I’ll get you for this.” and then shrugging off the chap who had helped him up, turned on his heel and stormed out of the building.

The following morning I had an early breakfast in the Sergeants mess and a little before eight a.m. reported to the admin block requesting a meeting with the Duty Officer.

One of the Sergeants from the previous evening came into the room where I was waiting and called me over to him.

He explained that my return to the unit had caught them out, but it looked as if a slot had been found for me and I was to be given a bunch of new recruits to turn into an additional platoon. He explained they were going to do it anyway but my turning up meant they could do it earlier.

The Lieutenant I had met the previous day came in and asked me to follow him, which I did. We went down a passage, he eventually stopped outside a door, knocked and went in, signalling for me to wait outside, closing the door. A very short time later he opened the door and asked me to come in. Behind a desk sat a man in his fifties, with Captains pips on his shoulder and a row of medal ribbons on his chest. He looked at the Lieutenant and told him that would be all, he then looked up at me said, “Sergeant Hibert.” I stood to attention and saluted as smartly as I could. “I’m Captain Peters, you’ll be reporting to me from now on; now I see from your file that you don’t really have any experience as a Sergeant, although it looks as though you were doing alright as a Bombardier, got your lads back from Dunkirk etc. so we’ll hope for the best eh?”

He stood up from behind the desk and started to fill his pipe, he turned to look out of the window towards the parade ground and was just about to speak again when suddenly the office door opened, we both turned to see the cause of the interruption and there in the doorframe, red faced and looking extremely angry stood the unmistakeable shape of Captain Forbes-Hamilton. Except that, the Captains’ pips had now gone and he was now wearing the rank of Major. “Captain Peters,” he spluttered “I don’t know what you were doing with this man but whatever it was stop it immediately and get him on a charge and over to the glass house. Are you aware he attacked another Sergeant in the Sergeants mess last night? I’ve no place for a man like that here and neither has the Army; we need to arrange a summary Court Marshal just as soon as we can.”

Captain Peters looked as stunned as I was, but eventually found his voice “I thought only the Colonel could start Court Marshal proceedings sir?”

Forbes Hamilton looked at the Captain, a slight smile on his lips, “What you don’t understand Peters, is that the Sergeant and I have met before and believe me I will be doing us all a favour when I get rid of him. As you well know the Colonel is away and that makes me OIC and therefore authorised to instigate a Court Marshal which I fully intend to do. So let’s not waste anymore time, get him over to the guardhouse and set up the charges, common assault on a fellow NCO.”

The Sergeant of the Guard was called, and I was doubled across the parade ground over to the guardhouse, between him and a Bombardier. New recruits stopped their drill to watch as I passed them by, their Corporals angrily berating them for daring to stop.

Once inside the guardhouse I was put into a cell, my pockets were emptied and my belt and shoe laces removed. The cell door was closed and I sat on the bed alone for what seemed like a very long time. They had removed my watch so I had no way of telling. I must have dozed off but woke suddenly when I heard the key turn in the door. Captain Peters came into the cell holding a manila coloured folder he told me to sit down, I got back down onto the end of the bed, and he sat down at the other end.

“Now listen to me Hibert. I don’t know what’s gone on in the past between you and the Major but whatever it was he seems determined to take his revenge. I’ve tried to talk to him but he won’t listen to me, it seems that there is nothing I can do to stop this. I have to charge you with assault. Although there seems to be plenty of witnesses who say you acted in self defence, it would seem that because we are at war he can push this case through in camera, without a witness even needing to be called. You need to understand that you could be serving a sentence in a military prison by this time next week and I can’t think of any way to stop it?”

With that he read the charges out, gave me a packet of cigarettes and a box of matches and left promising to come back when he’d had another word with the Major.

I lit one of the cigarettes and thought about what to do and came up with nothing, not for the first time I missed having Ronnie to talk to. Later one of the guard Sergeants bought me a cup of tea and asked me if I wanted anything? From his conversation it seemed that all the NCOs were talking about my situation and that only the Major and Foxwell thought that I was to blame. Everyone else believing it was a minor incident that should never have left the Sergeants’ mess. But then he added something that made the situation seem even more hopeless to me. “Course it doesn’t help the Major and Foxwell being as thick as thieves, we never did find out why? Foxwell has very little ability and we have all wondered just how he got his stripes but something must have gone on in the past and now he seems to have the Major just where he wants him.”

As he turned to leave I suddenly felt very desperate and called him back. “Could you do me a favour?” I asked, he put his arm on my shoulder before he replied. “Sure, most of us here would, we’re all on your side, what do you want?”

“Could you telephone someone and tell them what’s going on?” I asked.

Despite his offer of help the Sergeant looked a bit doubtful but after a moment’s hesitation he gave a slight smile and agreed that he would, I gave him Lieutenant Baker’s phone number.

Early the next morning I was awakened with a cup of tea. Later, a bowl of hot water, soap and towel for a wash was brought the guard Corporal brought in a razor but had to stay whilst I shaved.

My ablutions over, I was told to dress ready for inspection later and then the Sergeant whom I had spoken to yesterday bought me a bacon sandwich and quietly mentioned that he had spoken to Lieutenant Baker who had told him to tell me not to worry, he’d make sure the boss got to know.

After he had left the cell I sat in there in my battledress playing patience and wondering just what would happen to me.