title: In the Face of the Enemy: A Battery Sergeant Major in Action in the Second World War
author:  E.A. Powdrill 
description: Ernest Powdrill joined the Territorials in 1935 and transferred to the Regular Army in 1938. By the time his regiment went out to France in September 1939 he was a full gun sergeant.
zlib_text: **Party of the Two Parts**
  
  **William Tenn**
  
  **GALACTOGRAM FROM STELLAR SERGEANT O-DIK-VEH, COMMANDER OF**
  
  **OUTLYING PATROL OFFICE 1OO1625, TO HEADQUARTERS DESK SERGEANT**
  
  **HOY-VEH-CHALT, GA-LACTIC PATROL HEADQUARTERS ON VEGA XXI—(PLEASE**
  
  **NOTE: THIS IS TO BE TRANS-MITTED AS PERSONAL, NOT OFFICIAL, MESSAGE**
  
  **AND AS SUCH WILL BE CHARGED THE USUAL HYPERSPACE RATES)**
  
  **My Dear Hoy:**
  
  I am deeply sorry to trouble you again, but, Hoy, am I in a jam! Once more,
  it's not something that I did wrong, but something I didn't do right—what the
  Old One is sure to wheeze is "a patent dereliction of obvious duty." And since
  I'm positive he'll be just as confused as I, once the prisoners I'm sending on
  by slow light-transport arrive (when he reads the official report that I drew
  up and am transmitting with them, I can see him dropping an even dozen of his
  jaws), I can only hope that this advance message will give you enough time to
  consult the best legal minds in Vegan Headquarters and g