The Scrounger

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QBg0lHqv6E

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As a young lad Joe joined the signal corps in the British army .
With a high IQ and desire for danger it wasn’t long before Joe was selected for officer school .
Joe soon achieved the rank of Captain in the infantry .
At twenty one he had enough spunk to take on the world .
He soon learned there were special privileges for being an officer .
While enjoying the great food and conversation with other officers in the mess there was something missing in Joes life .He wanted to be much more active with the war effort .
Eventually he proposed an idea to some fellow officers in each station where he was sent . The idea was put forward to British intelligence and after a brief communication it was accepted .
Europe was full of intrigue for Joe and his linguistic skills in French and German soon opened up a place for Joe in the underground Intelligence movement .
With the royal signal corps in went Joe then he was on his own .
He soon made himself an known identity on the black market in Europe .
World war 2 was in progress.
It was easy for Joe to get around Europe . His networking between his long list of contacts was as good as a European taxi service .
He had call on tanks jeeps and motorbikes with a sidecar . He could be any place at any time .
Yes his multilingual abilities were used to full advantage. While selling goods to Germans he overheard conversations and was able to pass on vital information to intelligence group leaders and the French underground .
Joe often sat in pubs and commanded his hawkers license around the quiet corners of Europe . He was a popular man with the troops on both sides .
While he was able to bring back invaluable information for the British he was able to please the Germans with a regular supply of rare items on the black market .After a good track record with his customers Joe found a new demand to provide goods for some important people in Berlin .
News arrived in the shape of a weekly order list which also provided him with the secret in roads to the German Army network .

Joe instantly gained the trust of the elite members of the German Officer Ranks .
Now supplied with his own car and driver by the Germans Joe brought them in cases of drink as well as chocolates and cigarettes . At the same time Joe provided the British Army their daily movements and some places of interest .

One of the most popular orders FROM the German officers was French Cognac and ironically it was with the help of the Wild Geese in the French Underground that he had a regular supply of that particular item .
Joe was very often now busy on the road with collecting goods and information that he lost touch with how the war was actually going .
One evening Joe and his driver were at the Dutch frontier waiting for a truck load of Cognac to arrive . As the truck pulled in Joe gave the driver the nod and the truck parked on the shoulder of the road .
He spoke in German and told the driver of the car to wait in the car .
The road was empty of traffic and a sudden thick fog dusted the frontier as this dumb looking truck driver came over . Joe was taken by surprise by a small group of French mercenaries who mistook Joe for a German officer .
Joe was quick to see the situation and answered sharply in French , he told them he was a British Army Officer working with the intelligence and told them he had confiscated a map of the German Headquarters located in the Black Forest .
He quickly gave it to the mercenaries and asked them to get it to his contact in France .
After they muttered among themselves Joe had made his a point and they took one step back and winked at Joe before lifting their weapons , one by one they began spraying bullets all through the place.

They shot Joes driver and spat on the ground where he lay . They smashed up the truck on the side of the road shattering every mirror and taillight in the rampage .
Joe joined in and began to fire in rapid bursts from his Waltner PPK .
They all stood there and continued shooting until the fog lifted .
It was a hell of a demonstration .
When it was all over the small group of French mercenaries broke the news to Joe that the war was over .
Joe could hardly believe the news and asked for some proof .
The communications officers was send and within sixty seconds they opened up a backpack and took out a radio .
The operator made contact with a local infantry battalion of the British Army who were now taking control in Berlin .
Joe spoke to the commanding officer and asked for the rest of the details on what had just happened.

The old man on the reciever told of Normandy and battle that ensued .
After a while they signed off communication amd it wasn’t long until Jor broke into the back of the truck and brought out cases of Gin, Vodka Whisky and of course French Cognac. You name it and they all drank it .

Joe and the French renegades sat and drank there for quite a long time . Before they left Joe packed some of the liquor into the jeep back down the road . Most of this was sold on the black market.
Joe still traded for a while even though the war was officially over .
During the war he had made a good living for himself out of the depression and recession . He never had a care for anything .
He had lots of scams happening like collecting empty tank shells for this German scrap merchant or the rare art pieces that he had copied and passed on as authentics but Joe had kept the real McCoys for himself .

Finally now that the war was over Joe joined in with this massive celebration . The party went on all over Europe .

In Brussels pints were going for ten francs with Dolly Birds on your knee for free . In France and Britain the Brits sat with the Yanks drinking and dancing the dust off their heavy boots .

Where ever you went there was a party .
People were out and about .
The situation in Europe made it difficult to actually get out of the place .It was a slow journey back to England for Joe .Finally returning to his home town Joe found Sheffield to be a cold place to come back to .
He kept thinking about his wild frolics during the war and wondered what he was going to do with himself now . The years passed by with a variety of events for Joe . Some good but mostly bad .
He could never really adapt to his civilian life and so in the end he escaped from it . He sold some of his art treasures he opened a small gallery where he placed many of his collected works .
He then started paining in a small studio in Paris and remained there until he died .

THE END

By Paul McCann