During the winter of 1917-18 I was serving with my battery of Field
Artillery in Italy. We had posted to us a draft of drivers just out
from home, and one of them, seeing an observation balloon for the first
time, asked an old driver what it was.
"Oh, that," replied the old hand, who hailed from Hackney--"that is
the Air Force canteen!"--_M. H. Cooke (late "B" Battery, 72nd Brigade,
R.F.A.), Regency Street, Westminster._