Amusing Bren Gun story.......

[Peter Laidler]

As related to Peter Laidler by Brian Sylvester several years ago. Enjoy and smile

'.........We’d been on the ranges all day zeroing our Brens and I went home with a load of foresight blades in the pockets of my overalls. My wife put the dirty overalls into our brand new Hoover twin-tub washing machine. It was the height of sophistication in the late 50’s and had cost us almost £10, which was a LOT of money then. After several minutes of washing there was a terrible rattling noise coming from the machine but being new, she didn’t take that much notice of it. At the end of the cycle, as she emptied it, the cause of the noise became clear. The sharp edges of the foresight blades had cut through the pockets and chewed up my overalls and virtually shredded my little boy’s pyjamas and the rest of the washing. I told her not to worry because I could exchange my overalls at the QM’s (the quartermasters). I won’t tell you what she said about the pyjamas and the other odds and ends in the machine. Later she had to get all of the shredded cotton out of the drum. Only then did she realise that the foresight blades had taken great gouges and cuts from the washing drum and left many sharp edges. I was NOT popular…, the machine was unuseable. Fortunately the manufacturer/shop replaced the drum after I told them that it was the waist band adjusting buckle that caused the damage. I even showed them the ripped overalls too! The shop engineers must have realised that I was pulling the wool over his eyes because he told me that the NCB (the National Coal Board) tested these machines prior to full manufacture and THEIR overalls didn’t damage the drums, even after 50 washes! We still laugh about those foresight blades…Yes I remember Brens all too well”

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