A number of junior army officers were gathered for a TEWT (Tactical Exercise Without Troops). Most of them were young men who had just joined their unit. However, there was one Lieutenant at least twenty year older that the rest sporting a chest full of medals ribbons from the Great War.
The subject of the TEWT was to capture a bridge. The details of the ground were that the river ran from West to East under the bridge before turning North. The bridge was to their front and over the bridge was a farm complex. The students were on the high ground South of the bridge.
Having been given their task all the young officers set about planning their attack. This involved much crawling up to sky lines and checking for covered routes. However, the aged Lieutenant sat on a tree stump watching the flight of the swallows and smoking his pipe oblivious to the scowls of the DS.
After the allotted time had passed the gallant warriors returned to give details of their plans. They were all broadly similar. A gun group plus would provide fire support from the high ground to the South. The rest of the platoon would move round to the East and cross by a ford they had located to the North East of the farm and attack the bridge from the rear. [Much nodding and encouraging noises from the DS.]
It then came the turn of the aged Lieutenant. He tapped out his pipe on his shoe, drew his service revolver and shouted “CHARGE!!”
Uproar! The DS went ballistic. “Had he learnt nothing ….!” “Completely missed the point….”
The aged Lieutenant just looked slightly puzzled at the commotion.
Once things had calmed down a bit he was asked to explain himself. He answered “What is the problem? That is exactly what I did in the last war and they gave me a MC for it!”
HOME Second World War, summer 1940