"
This is to warn all honest men to beware of No. 007 Field
Company, R.E., known to its victims as "Chaucer's Gang," the most
conscienceless crew of body-snatchers and common thieves in all the
B.E.F.
I am myself no fastidious precisian, being in a Labour Company, but
there are limits--or should be. My own particular grouch against them
started at Ripilly-sur-Somme. They, being skilled Royal Engineers,
were clearing undergrowth and putting up huts in Ripilly woods for a
division due to arrive, and my scorned rabble were unloading the huts
in sections from barges at Ripilly canal wharf and loading them on to
lorries for transport to the woods. Chaucer and his Royal Engineers
were living on the spot--Ardennes waving o'er them her green leaves
and so forth--and we were in rest billets (loud roars of raucous
laughter) in Ripilly village, the least sanitary spot in the whole war
zone.
Chaucer wouldn't let us stay with him in the huts--said the Chief
Engineer was very keen on men living next their work. But between
Ripilly and the canal wharf was an ideal spot.
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