Page 113 - QDG 2022

1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
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top marquee. We were shown inside and were seated amongst the Italian troops. Unfortunately, the first half of the show consisted of a comedian and given our lack of Italian, Lieutenant Vestey and I decided to slip out for a smoke. Conscious of the fact that the Italians received wine in their rations, we went into their lines and greeted a couple of Italian troops with the only Italian we knew:
“Ciao! Vino?”
Whereupon we received two bottles of (marginal) red wine. We walked towards the perimeter fence and sat down under a tree. Before we had consumed the wine (honestly) there was a small burst of machine gun fire across our bows which appeared to have come from our left. Immediately, there was a return of fire from our right, which led to a short but angry exchange. Then silence. Then a siren and a blue flashing light. We decided to leave our grandstand seats and make our way back to the big top where we met the friendly Bersaglieri Officer who had invited us. He looked flustered and explained that a terrible accident had occurred. A sentry had accidentally discharged his Subma- chine Gun (SMG) and had hit the sangar opposite, who had thought they were under attack and returned fire. Unfor- tunately, this resulted in two casualties - which I believe were not the only ones of their tour. (Some Italian soldiers were shot in the Palestinian quarter, allegedly for getting too close to the ladies.)
Unfortunately, a similar incident
occurred in our base when a Trooper, having come off guard, cleared his SMG in the unloading bay and turned round to face the Officers who were having dinner in the vehicle park. He fired a single shot, a negligent discharge, that went under the table and between our legs – no injuries, but much surprise! The Squadron Leader nearly dropped his fork.
C Squadron was one of four contin- gents that made up the multi-national force, which the locals called the ‘multi-national farce.’ We were closest to the Americans, who were made up of a Mobile Amphibious Unit (MAU) of the US Marine Corps (USMC) and who were based at the airport. They attached Liaison Officers to us in the form of Signals Sergeants who worked out of our Ops Room. Their call sign was ‘Sunny Skies,’ no doubt some form of joke about British weather. We used to get flagged down by their foot patrols, most frequently to be asked if we could show them where they were on the map. They used to invite the Squadron to their Troop entertainment but the fact that they were ‘dry’ was a big deterrent. However, they did ask us out to visit the USS New Jersey, their huge Iowa class battleship
affectionately called the ‘Big J’ by the US Navy, which was stationed just off the coast. As the Israeli withdrawal started, the
airport was
heavily shelled by the Druze. This led to the first casualty for the USMC and some thirty casualties amongst the Lebanese Army. The Americans retaliated and we had grandstand seats from the roof of La Regie, watching Big J lob shells the size of Volkswagen Beetles into the moun- tains.
Occasionally, you would hear their F14s fly over, but they were so high up you couldn’t see the plane. Forward Air Controller training was provided by the US Navy while our troops were on patrol. Unbeknown to us, every time a practice air strike was called to the US Navy offshore via the USMC Liaison Officer, a live response was carried out using a pair of F17 Tomcat Fighters, but on a 180-degree adjustment that took them out to sea, the objective being to keep the crews ready for a real emer- gency call. Major Stewart decided to test the RAF in Akrotiri who were supposed to provide air
cover for us. He tasked them with a dummy run. The idea caused much hilarity as we
The big top marquee located in the Italian camp USMC outside the US embassy after it was bombed
Replen at the airport