Mission Scapula

Chapter 3

The Strip Mine and dozens of other lethal weapons we tried for the first time, they all came from the minds of men that said, "Nothing is impossible" Here is an example of the type of man we were working with by the name of Freeth. This was the guy that devised the hollow charge principal for the Anti-tank Bomb and the Spigot Mortar.

We had no target similar to a Tank to use it on, all the Armour we had was to valuable to use. So on the way to the demonstration range he spotted a large farm roller this was used to level the crop. That, he decided looked like a tank and would make an ideal target “Christie, stop” I did.

Out of the car we got, we set up the Spigot Mortar at a range of about 100 yards. I pointed it in the direction chosen "Bang" one roller disappeared in a cloud of smoke all he could say was “Damn good show, perfect”.

This would have not been to bad on the range where we would have had permission to do such a thing, but in this instance we were on private ground and no one knew who we were.

The Police no matter what we said, did not accept our explanation. We were frog marched into the local Police Cells still trying to explain as best we could without giving away too much. Mind you looking from their point of view, I suppose it was not every day someone blows up a useful thing such as a roller.

It eventually required the War Office clearance to get us out of there in time for us to reach our destination, and the demonstration.........Continues