The smashing of George's guitar

Poor George----before the 1965 UK tour even got officially started he experienced a tragedy in his life.   His favorite guitar, his 1962 Country Gentleman Gretch guitar was smashed to pieces along the side of the road.     How could such a thing happen?   

Alf Bicknell, the Beatles' driver explains in his book Beatles Diary

We got the stuff in the car.  Mal had already gone on with the van and all the equipment.  There were bits and pieces to come and, because there were one or two guitars, and all that, they went on the back.  It was really dark by now, and we get off.   On the motorway, there's this flashing behind me and Ritchy says, "Alf there's someone flashing you up behind," and I said, "Yes, I'm aware of that."  So I slowed down to see.  There was this big lorry, and I stopped.  This guy comes up to me and says, "Listen mate, you've lost a banjo back down the road."   I thought, "Oh no!" and Neil comes around the other side of the car and says, "Oh, no!  What have we lost?  What's gone?"  One of the straps had broken and he said, "You go and tell them," and I said, "No.  You go and tell them."  Anyway, I went round adn said, "We've lost a guitar."   "Which one is it?"  "I don't know!"  So, we get back into the car, a bit sheepish like because I'm worried about it, obviously.  John turns to me and says,"If we find the guitar, Alf, you can have a bonus."  "What's that?" I asked.  "You can have your job back."  So we continued on, and thanked this guy very much, and drove off and came back around the dual carriageway, and we found bits and pieces of the guitar all over the road.  I never found our how the Daily Express got hold of the story.  I never told them.  They had a huge, great story, they covered and made a whole page out of it.