The Filthy 13
We were a filthy bunch of people since we were only permitted one bath a week because of the water shortage…and that was set up for Saturday. Come Saturday I wanted to [be] right in the middle of that Red Light District in Piccadilly Circus in London. I did not want to be standing in line waiting for a bath. As soon as me and my boys got passes, each of us would just grab one set of those ODs and put them in a sack and away we went. We would go in our junk clothes into one of those Red Cross buildings over there in Regents Square in London. We would go in and get us a shower, shave, and shine, change clothes and boy, we had one or two women before any of the others even got into town. We would then raise Cain until Monday morning. So they were getting to call us the "Filthy 13." Thirteen men was the number of men in a demolition section.
-Jake McNiece
