08 March 2007

The Pants-er Division

Nothing very newsworthy tends to happen in the Hampshire town where I grew up. So imagine the local excitement generated by the discovery of an unexploded WWII bomb near the centre of town:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6419521.stm

I should point out that "town" here refers to an urban sprawl of around 5,000 people, so although "village" might be more accurate, I would be dipped in in tar and feathers if I were to even suggest Whitchurch were a village. At Hofflimits we pride ourselves on our accuracy.

Returning to our incendiary device, it was found near the town's main tourist attraction - a fully working silk mill. It seems to me that, if the luftwaffe was intent on knocking out all our silk mills, it should be little surprise they were ultimately unsuccessful in their attempts to defeat the allies. Unless this were an elite luxury underwear hit squad, designed to sap the morale of the upper classes by forcing them into flannel pantaloons.

Mind you, it would explain why stockings were in such short supply.

1 comment:

Phil Woodford said...

There's a World War II parachutist's song (to the tune of John Brown's Body) which goes:
He counted loud, he counted long and waited for the shock,
He felt the wind, he felt the air, he felt that awful drop,
He pulled his lines, the silk came down and wrapped around his legs
And he ain't going to jump no more.