THE COVENANTER
from each hand until he made his leisurely marking time with the front ranks faces up
way home and was safely inside. It was all against the wall!. Whilst watching the squad
to no avail, the damn stuff would not even march away from him he had been walking
light never mind burn. I found out later that slowly backwards and had of course walked
the boilers had to be started with ordinary backwards into my beautifuly painted pit.
coal and got up to temperature before this He actually fell down the steps of the pit
stuff was used. and the only damage was to the back and
elbows of his BD. After that the QM spoke
I had another idea though. In the garage to the civilian run REME workshop across
was a large inspection pit covered for safety the road and a few days later we had a fine
reasons with heavy duty timber boards, set of brand new pitboards. They were safe
well impregnated with oil and grease; about enough though, by this time the weather
four feet long; a foot wide and six inches had improved and the miners strike was
thick. They fitted exactly the length of the over.
pit. I enlisted the help of Bill Brown and
we removed one of the boards and sawed One summer day with not to much to do;
it up into nice neat log sized pieces to fit Bill Brown and I decided it would be a good
the fireplace. Then we moved every other idea to go down to a cafe on the Biggar Rd
pit board about an inch leaving the pit still much favoured by long distance lorry drivers
covered but with a little gap between the for their superb steak sandwiches. This cafe
boards. The logs burned brilliantly and I stood at the junction on that road where the
could even bulk up the fire with some of the access track was for those wishing to walk
stuff from the boilerhouse but it only lasted up Tinto Hill and it seemed like a good idea
one night so another board went the same to go round that way, then it seemed like
way and the gap between them got wider. a good idea to see how far up the famous
hill we could get the Landrover. It wasn’t
After the third board had been used the too hard until we reached the old quarry
gap was so ridiculous that we just cut up the about half way up but after that there was
rest. The law of unintended consequence no proper track and although we got quite
operated about a week later when one of close to the top I (who was driving) found
the recruits on stag in the small hours of the I’d been a bit over ambitious and was in a
morning decided to nip into the dark corner very dodgy situation with the truck stuck at
of the garage for a quick smoke and fell into an angle across the hill and liable to turn
the pit. Luckily it wasn’t too bad, he had a over at any minute, couldn’t go forward
sprained ankle, a swollen knee and a filthy or back in a straight line or turn to face
greatcoat. He also had a severe chewing downhill. We finally got away with it by
out for being off his beat on guard and a creeping backwards on full lock with Bill
week on light duty. ( In todays Army he hanging off the uphill side to add as much
would probably get a half million pounds in weight as possible until a point was reached
compensation). where I could back down to the quarry in
There was a great deal of looking into the reverse gear.
pit by everyone from the training officer to
the RSM but nobody mentioned the lack Unfortunately when we came on a nice
of covering boards and nor did I. Guard piece of open woodland near Carmichael I
commanders were told to impress on the had another good idea; which was to have
guard that they were not to go into the a speedy little run around the trees. It was
garage. I added my bit by suggesting that all good fun until I charged over a low bank
we could paint the inside of the pit with and ended up in a bog. The truck went
snowcem paint so it would be a bit more right in up to the floor of the chassis and
obvious at night and this was duly done. there was no chance of driving it out. Bill
Rather nice it looked too. went down to the main road; got a lift back
to camp and returned with the one tonner
It didn’t end there though, a week later and a tow chain but the chain was pretty
one of the junior nco’s was taking a drill short and trying to get close enough to
period in the garage because it was raining attach it, the front end of the One tonner
heavily. He had them marching towards sunk into the bog. I hadn’t yet learned the
the end wall and had given the preparatory warning phrase “When you are in a hole,
order to “about turn” but the executive Stop digging” So Bill went back to camp
order never came and the squad were left again and came back with the Three tonner.
35
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