Hi all Just wondering if anyone could help with a bit of terminology have been reading through a diary of my grandfathers from 1942 in India where he mentions being on Prowler duty / guard in the evenings. Just wondering if anyone knew what this was. I wondered if it was looking out for wild life as I can't find any info in it. Thanks in advance James
In some parts of India it was a matter of some prestige to have an SMLE stolen from the British Army and in general almost any army establishment was a possible source of petty larceny so I would guess it was being on the lookout for general thievery.
One night our lads were doing a prowler guard and they encountered a lot trouble with the pipe connections being undone! they eventually found a horse and cart, but instead of the milk churns being full of milk, they were full of petrol, they found two young French kids who had been steeling the petrol and selling it BBC - WW2 People's War - 53 years later
Twas ever thus. I once worked with a guy who in 1946 had been a corporal responsible for distributing coal in the British sector of Berlin - a period he remembered with a dreamy look as the time he had had control of a gold mine
anemone question - hes in the RAC. they were still awaiting tanks in India and he spent a lot of Time with the trucks maintenance, instructing etc. He calls them trucks, sometimes 15 t sometimes 30 t and sometimes Chevi. He then referee to busses a lot. 'taking the bus out' ..... 'We all put our towns on our busses. I named my Bus Sprotbrou’ my troop includes - Doncaster, Sheffield, Selby, Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford, & Amapolai (?)' I'm assuming a bus isn't a bus as such ? any tips much appreciated
The prowler guard was a member of the guard ordered to patrol around the camp/barracks/depot rather than stand at a sentry post. In less troubled times they were usually armed with a pick-axe handle in place of a small arm. Idle guards might be tempted to hide in the bunks instead of prowling. I once jailed two recruits for putting Woolwich barracks and their comrades in danger for kipping instead of prowling.
At one time a bus was anything mechanical and mobile. It didn't even have to be earth bound so that in 1915 a Vickers Gun Bus was an aircraft that carried a machine gun. Today's buses come from omnibus - a vehicle carrying a lot of people Yonks ago when I was a Graduate Apprentice at the old Rolls Royce I was one of a group assigned to a project in the Glasgow factories. We were scattered amongst a number of hotels and every morning we were picked up by an ancient but immaculate Rolls Royce and delivered back in the evening. I was furthest out and so first to be collected and last to be dropped off so that each day the hotel saw me get into "my" chauffeur driven Rolls Royce. The driver always referred to it as the old bus.
Am sure these busses are just some buses.Lots of transport needed all the time to move numbers of soldiers about. Pride in their home town with these names painted on the sides probably helped identify individual vehicles as well as create a bit of esprit de corps.
I hadn't thought of that .. a bus being ...a bus .. nice thought especially with them all being personalised
