“I never wanted to get into crime.....I was a victim of circumstance.
It was the Tour, you know, back in ‘36.  The Belgians looked good to win.   I was just a domestique, you know, not a contender for the Jersey, and like I said before, I have no idea how those tacks got into my jersey pocket.
 
    And who’d have thought folks would get so upset?  I mean, it’s just a game, right?  Sure, I can understand the curses, the foul language, but death threats?  Really...

    Yeah, that’s when I joined the FFL.  Of course it’s not my real
name; hell, the Legion doesn’t care.  Besides, North Africa’s not that bad a place.  I even got to keep up my flying lessons.  I’d got all kinds of free flight time by convincing the Krauts I was a good little German boy, back in the mid thirtys, and the FFL had a couple of Arsenals and Dewontines around.

    When the war broke out, I thought I was sittin’ pretty.  I mean, what would anybody want with a bunch of damned desert?   How was I to know there was all that oil down there!
Woke up one day with the Africa Corps thicker than fleas, and then the bloody French go and surrender.....

    Well, I didn’t fancy sitting in a POW camp, so I borrowed a 109 and worked my way  across Europe.  Krauts respond well to rank, you know, and the 109 came with a nice Colonel’s outfit...
So....I didn’t have no papers, or job skills, just a nice shiny aircraft and a few deutchmarks.  Yeah,  Germans like to gamble as much as anybody; that’s how I got the uniform!

    So, like I says, I was just a victim of circumstance.  Landed at this funny little airfield one night, and there’s this bar there, yeah, Canelo’s, thats it.  Anyway, needed a job of some sort, and this guy says, “nice plane ya got there”, and that was it.   Bad companions, you know.

    Like I said, I’m just a victim of circumstance.
 

 
 
 
 

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