WHY? or alternate title: Can one of you Brits explain this to me?

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

Bruce, in Britain's defence, that hideously grotesque, user unfriendly, engineering nightmare, called a grease gun, was probably conceived during a rubber shortage.
Its primary function was to distract German engineers from their work, while they pondered what it was and how to use it.

Ah-ha...it makes perfect sense!!! And any collateral pondering by colonial troops wondering the same thing as those German engineers was a small, manageable price to pay. Devilishly ingenious.