Saturday 24 November 2012

We're no awa' tae bide awa'


Supposedly sung by the 51st Highland division going into the bag at St.Valery sur Somme in 1940.

Father wouldn't know...he and a few mates had found a fishing boat..hull smashed in to avoid use by the Germans according to French orders... repaired it, and, bailing all the way, messed off to the other side of the Channel.
What, they wondered, had the French thought that the Kreigsmarine would do with it....invade England with six men singing Wir Fahren Gegen Engelland?

The subsequent court martial was not impressed by their opinion...they had disobeyed orders which were in their own interest. They could have been drowned.
Health and Safety is older than you think.

Spirited defence by the prisoners' friend (officer with bugger all legal knowledge but wise in the ways of courts martial) and the shortage of experienced troops got them off to fight again, rather than polishing dustbins in the glasshouse.

But it came back to me today as I packed for a trip to Europe...
I'll miss my blogging friends as I flit from Costa Rica to France, England and Spain with internet access severely limited.

Still:

I'm no awa' tae bide awa'....I'll aye come back and see ye.

24 comments:

  1. Oh, well...bon voyage et bon chance (avec le fromage)
    wanders off, humming will ye no' come back...

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  2. OK, that's a deal. See you when you get back. You have a good trip.

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  3. Have a great trip, legal stuff notwithstanding :)

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  4. Hope you have no need to bail yourself out...

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  5. Have a great trip Fly, and if you're passing by Wiltshire or Pembroke(?) do call in.

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    1. I would love to be able to pass by anywhere off my planned path, but would have particularly liked to call in on you!

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  6. Safe travelling, Fly. Your little anecdote tells me that you definitely inherited your thrawnness from your father.:-)

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    1. How right you are...tell either of us we can't do something and we're immediately planning how to do it...an attitude based on the view that the interests of higher authority differ vastly from our own.

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  7. Enjoy your trip - looking forward to your recollections when you return.

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    1. At the moment it's a cross between great and aaargh!

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  8. Make sure the boat has no holes!

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    1. I shall emulate the little Dutch boy...stuffing parts of the anatomy into the gaps...always something fit for purpose.

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  9. Speed bonnie plane like a bird ob a wing.

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  10. Have a good trip. Good luck with bringing back all the goodies!

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  11. What a story! Your faither wis some man (as we Scots say when we're impressed).
    Please do make sure that you come back Fly. I'm going to miss you.
    Safe journey.
    Lang may yer lum reek.

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    1. With this weather, thank goodness for reeking lums! Minus temperatures and freezing fog....

      He was some man indeed...but he and his friends weren't the only ones to take off by boat; some were picked up by the Navy and none, from what he said, drowned...

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  12. Guess I am a bit late in the day, but hope that you have a good trip. Diane

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    1. Thanks, Diane...so far it's going as well as could be expected.

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