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specific tasks allocated on an ad hoc basis. One task carried out by 5th Troop was to accompany the British Ambas- sador into bandit country in the Chouf Mountains for a meeting with Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Druze militia. This was identified as a high-risk oper- ation as the Druze had a fearsome reputation. There are about 800,000 Druzes in the Levant and their religion is an unusual mixture of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. The Druze do not permit outsiders to convert to their religion and forbid marriage outside the Druze faith. Little is known about them as they keep themselves totally apart from outsiders. Walid Jumblatt was the leader of the most powerful Druze clan and head of their militia. We were not told why the Ambassador was meeting him and it was not clear as to whether the patrol was in danger of being kidnapped or not. So, when 5th Troop encountered the first checkpoint in the mountainous pass above Beirut, there was a certain nervousness felt all round. Yet as Lieu- tenant Roe stepped down to talk to them, the senior militiaman embraced him and declared that the British were their undying friends.
“You supplied us with arms in our time of need.”
When the patrol returned intact that evening, the Intelligence Corps Sergeant sent Lieutenant Alex Roe’s report back to the Ministry of Defence with a query about whether we were still supplying arms to the Druze, as this had come as a bit of a surprise. We received a signal by return informing us that the British had supplied arms once to the Druze in 1859 in their war against the Christian Maronites. With memories like that, it was not surprising that no one in the area could get on!
Towards the end of our tour, we were tasked to protect the British Embassy whilst they had a conference of various leaders there. It was significant enough for the Squadron Leader to join the Oper- ation and I think the protective screen occupied most of the Squadron. Trying
Corporal Humphreys with Palestinian children outside the Sabra camp
1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards 109
to communicate with the police and army was frustrating and we left it to the Squadron Leader who did his best to try to diffuse the friction between them in his Pidgeon English. Eventually, an alter- cation broke out between the two groups and guns were being levelled. Just as we wondered where this was going, Major Stewart jumped up on to his Land Rover and started shouting and barking orders at them – in fluent Arabic! This brought the shocked Lebanese and C Squadron to a standstill as the Squadron Leader restored order.
“And?” I asked him.
“Need to know. Much better they don’t know you can speak the lingo until you need them to know,” he replied.
On the day after our arrival, 4th Troop and 1st Troop (Lieutenant Vestey & Sergeant Ratcliffe) were the two patrol troops. I was sent to the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. The events there had hit the newspapers back in the UK and we were very curious to see the camps for ourselves. On the 16th September, i.e. four months before we arrived, up to as many as 3,500 Palestinian civilians were massacred in two adjacent refugee camps.
Cpl Simpkins making friends
Patrolling into mountains through Wadi Beirut