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using our landrover made our way to the border between Kuwait and Iraq. The location was euphemistically known as `Uriahs Heap`, from a novel by Dickens. Just a pile of sand on a ridge. We soon dug in and started to ‘enjoy the sights’. It was the biggest beach I had ever seen, and a fair old walk to the sea. The latrines were a 100-yard walk with a entrenching tool. It was my first taste of sand storms too. We appeared to be miles from anywhere, but we were still accosted by young Arabs trying to sell us eggs and even ice, don’t ask me where they got it from in the middle of the desert, but the eggs helped supplement our diet of Compo rations. I learnt how to make a Benghazi cooker with an empty tin can, a load of sand and some petrol, and we were able to cook a meal in half the time of the Hexi burners we were supplied with. One night I remember we all settled down in our bivvys and during the night were awoken with a tremendous noise only to find that a squadron of tanks had driven through our camouflaged bivouac area and narrowly managed to miss killing us. It was a close call, they assured us the following day that they knew of our position, but I doubt it. After about three weeks the panic died down and not a shot was fired in anger.
We then returned to Singapore, but I didn’t return in Bulwark. Captain Morris felt benevolent and I was loaned to HMS Rocket because they were short of radio operators due to sickness on board, and I helped them out on the journey back to Hong Kong. I’m sure with my tales of the Army, I had convinced a few more to join the ranks of Combined Ops. Eventually after further exercises in Borneo and the Phillipines, my time in Hong Kong was up and I reluctantly had to return to Poole in December 1961, and took some home leave. During the Christmas leave I was with relatives in Bedfordshire when on Boxing Day morning there was a knock on the door. I opened it, to be confronted by a local Police Officer who told me that my leave was cancelled and I had to return to my unit at Poole immediately, there was a flap on somewhere. It brought to mind my being on 24 hour standby for any emergency around the world On arriving at Poole, we learnt that the panic was Kuwait again, and by midnight that night we were flying out from RAF Lyneham to Bahrain. At Bahrain airport we were met by some Foreign Office official who informed us that the flap had temporarily abated and we were to re-board our flight and make our way to Aden and await further instructions. We ended up under canvas in an RAF transit camp at Kormaksa. We spent the next 6 weeks waiting for a flight home. Our time was spent keeping fit and I cannot remember the number of times we ‘ran’ up the local Mount Sham Sham.
We got back to Poole early in February 1962 just in
time for me to go to a Valentines dance at the Pavilion in Bournemouth, where I met the girl I later married. As it happened her father was an ex WW2 L/Cpl from the Dorsetshire Regiment who saw service in India in 1943- 1945 It was then decided that our unit would amalgamate with 29 Field Regiment Royal Artillery and be Commando Trained, so come March 1962 I was posted to Royal Marines Lympstone in Devon for Commando training. Following weeks of running across Woodbury Common through mud and water filled gulleys, a night compass march across Dartmoor, numerous 9 mile marches with full pack and rifle, and a final 30 mile yomp across the moors, I was awarded my green beret. I felt ten feet tall. A Para Red Beret and a Marine Green Beret, I had earned them both. Following the amalgamation we became part of 148 (Meiktila) Cdo Battery. In November of that year I got married, and was then posted back to HMS Mercury, Petersfield to take a Killicks course for Leading Radio Operator. I duly passed the relevant exams and was then afforded the rate of R01 In June 1963, my skills were required in the Mediterranean! I was posted to 3 Troop based on Manoel Island in Malta. I met up with another group of service friends, namely ‘Daisy’ Adams, ‘Chunky’ Adams, [Now a retired Lt Col.] Pete Jones, Bob Lewtas, Nev Batley, Jim Buss, Ernie Gent, and Lou Costello, another RO2. We were under the command of Major Murray Franklyn, and Captain Pillidge. Our Troop Sergeant was Jim Davies. I replaced R02 Sandy Sanford and within a short period I was promoted to Leading Radio Operator, and for the next two years, we carried out NGS in Tunisia, Libya, Sardinia, Cyprus, Crete and Sicily.
During one night escape and evasion exercise in Malta my FO party managed to evade the “enemy forces” all night, and subsequently achieved our objective by using an abandoned shepherds’ hut as an OP from where we could bring down fire on the “enemy”. I later had to go before the Commander Land Forces Malta and a whole load of top brass and explain how we managed to evade capture. Our Major, Murray Franklyn, was tickled pink to think we had put one over the Duke of Edinburgh‘s Regiment. I also become accomplished in Forward Air Controlling and we exercised with RAF Meteors. We did a night jump in Cyprus followed by a hard slog up through the Troodos Mountains, where we set up on observation post and directed fire from RAF aircraft onto “enemy targets”. After two years in Malta I finally returned to the UK in July 1965 and was posted back to the Navy proper and joined HMS Murray, and my time in Combined Operations and working with the Army came to an end. By this time I had completed a total of 21 parachute jumps in various parts of the world, and considered my 6 years in Combined Ops to be the best time of my service.
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