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1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
wondered whether their antiquated Phantoms would actually work. The RAF were already in our bad books because, unannounced, a group of WAGS of RAF Lyneham Officers turned up on a ‘jolly’ around Beirut, flown in on the all-im- portant resupply Hercules. They caused much resentment, especially as we felt obliged to escort them everywhere they went. We assembled on the roof to spot the RAF Phantoms where we thought they would be – so high up
or caught in crossfire directed by the Muslim militias at the Falangists. Despite this, we struck up a great relationship with the Marines, particularly their recce troop who were in Panhard recce vehicles – the French equivalent of a Scorpion. We did, however, come into contact with the Foreign Legion. 2nd Troop was patrolling along the main road which intersected Beirut when they came across a heated altercation between two Jeeps of French
never answered the phone when we called! When they left some four months later, Corporal Bond was sent over to run a Northern Ireland style sweep of their position. This was watched closely by the locals who hadn’t seen a clear- ance quite so thorough and professional. Photographs even appeared in the press. We were convinced he would find booby traps. As they started, the SQMS shouted: “Don’t forget the telephone, it’s on my books!” This probably wasn’t foremost in Reg Bond’s thoughts, but as it happened, the site was clean and there was no sign of our telephone.
Relations with the IDF were not great and they tended to be quite antago- nistic towards us. Negative comments abounded, usually from their British members, such as:
“The British army spends its whole time on exercise and no time training. Good at building bashers, lousy on oper- ations.”
The IDF had a habit of complete disre- gard for the civilian population. I was Watchkeeping in the Ops Room when I received an urgent call from 3rd Troop requesting back up, stating that there was a dangerous altercation with an IDF armoured patrol. I requested to speak to the patrol commander, Sergeant Pritchard, but was told he was currently on top of a Merkava hitting the driver over the head with a pickaxe handle. 1st Troop was patrolling close by and was dispatched to the scene. They found a furious Sergeant Pritchard shouting at the commander of a Merkava and the driver standing back from the vehicle with his bone dome off and rubbing
but possibly just in sight. At the ordained hour, two Phantoms came screaming in from the sea at roof height. The noise was terrific and the buildings shook. The whole of Beirut scat- tered and on their second pass, someone fired at them. When it was reported in the press that it was the RAF, we gained huge respect.
The French, overall, did
not look kindly upon us.
They were indignant that
the British were inter-
fering in their old colonial
empire, feeling it was their prerogative, not ours. Their
contingent was comprised
of the Foreign Legion and
the Infanterie de Marines was based in the Christian quarter. Some bright French Staff Officer had billeted them next to the extreme right wing Chris- tian militia group who really resented the fact that France had not stopped the Israeli advance into Lebanon. They were often sniped at either by the Falangists
Foreign Legionnaires and an IDF patrol. As Lieu- tenant Renwick went to find out what was going on, he realised that amidst all the waving of SMGs, there was a great deal of German being shouted at the IDF soldiers, including some pretty offensive WW2 slogans! Fortunately, 2nd Troop’s arrival diffused the scene - which was ironic as we were supposed to be keeping the peace between the Lebanese factions, not the multi-national force.
We had daily contact with the IDF. They set up camp opposite us, presum- ably using our position as a shield to deter attacks on
their own position. We decided to run a telephone line to them from our Ops Room. SQMS Roberts was dispatched to engage with them and to install the phone. After the initial abuse from a couple of East Enders serving with the IDF, they agreed to having telephone contact with us. Needless to say, they
The French, overall, did
not look kindly upon us. They were indignant that the
British were interfering
in their old colonial empire
French contingent with 4th Troop