266 (GVA) O.P. Bty R.A. (V)
1974
Exercise Beat Blow
Exercise Beat Blow
Pictured are Sergeant Mike Hambly, Captain Nick Eleanor, Sergeant Tony Brighton, and Bombardier Bill Satchel.
"Admit it Sir were lost !! and the map should be the other way up." - Photo by J. Morris
Cyprus - May / June 1974
In the later part of 1973 the battery had good news, we were off to Cyprus for our annual camp the following year. For many of us it would be the first time abroad, we all had to have a passport so we had to have our photos taken, this minor task proved mammoth, as trying to get people in at the right time as the photographer was not an easy job, the chief Clerk could be seen pulling his hair out at times. The paper work seemed endless, inoculations and the general health lectures that we all had to attend. Looking at the films that were shown to us by the RAMC, made some question what they had been told earlier in their lives and some were so naive as to believe that it couldn't happen to them.
We left Bristol aboard coaches for Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, and we boarded a VC10 for the 4.½ hour flight to Cyprus.
We flew into R.A.F. Akrotiri S.B.A. (Sovereign Base Area) on banking to make the approach we had a lovely view of the island set in a clear blue sea and the sun shining on the water.
We were all tired when we arrived but just breathing in the warm Cyprus air we were revived and raring to go, our coach trip was a bit hairy as our driver drove like a man possessed, we found in the days to come that all Cypriot coach drivers were processed. We were attached to 12th Light Air Defense Regiment R.A., Dekalia Barracks is in the South Eastern side of the island, our billets were right on the beach, right out of bed in the morning and straight into the sea.
I spent the first day sorting out the signal stores, with the new PSI Sgt Norman Halshall (ex-5th Regt) the heat was really repressive by mid afternoon and it made the work a chore, I was not use to that. Still, after we finished the days work the afternoons were all ours we were let loose on the local town of Limasol or Famagusta the U.N. troops were in sandbag sangers all round the towns. The atmosphere and the people was very good and cheerful, much beer was drunk and the Taxi drivers all seem to have relatives living in London.
The heat was oppressive and by midweek we were all washed out, the M.O. complained that we should have had 14 days acclimatization before going out on exercise after one of the men fell asleep on the beach and was very badly sun burnt he was a redheaded guy and he looked very sore.
Two members of the battery, John Garland and Vic Haynes were very good friends and they would set up the regular officers of 12 Regt, Garland would start by asking Vic Haynes, in a voice load enough to be overheard by the officer "How is Dorothy going to get here after camp?" V. H. "I really do not know she should be letting me know soon" was the reply, Well said J. G. "why doesn't she fly to Gibraltar and meet up with Daphne and they both can travel down to Cyprus on the yacht, it is just moored up, and waiting there for me to make the arrangements", no further comments were forth coming. As the day seemed to get hotter it was decided to go back to camp, on the way back I was asked by the officers driver "Who was that talking about a yacht" Oh I said that was Lord APSELY of Clifton, or as we call him John, He's a lord was the cry. "Yes" said I, why is he not a officer was the next question, well, he has been offered a commission I said, but he feels more at home with the other ranks.
Nothing more was said, we heard from our officers the next day that questions were being asked in the officers mess about the "LORD" within our ranks. Our officers, making no comment on it, only seemed to strengthen the rumour, so much so that after three days the B.C. on morning parade said that the joke had gone far enough, and we were to stop all references to "LORD APSELY OF CLIFTON".
This only added to the general mayhem the lads got up to, the R.S.M. of 12th Light Air Defense Regt, R.A. chased my store man around the signal stores with a machete, threatening him with a hair cut, but after a week we had trained on the artillery range with 105 Pack Howitzers and shot on the small arms ranges, the S.M.G. range was in a dip in the ground and the sun reflecting off the white chalk made me sweat buckets and gave me a very bad headache.
L/Bdr Derek Driscoll and Gnr Dennis Dyer on 105mm Pack Howitzer
We would spend some off duty time in the small tin huts within the camp, these huts were used by some Indians as a cafe we would drink tea, sweeten with condensed milk, some even had desert boots made to measure which were then posted back home to them within 2 weeks of returning to the U.K., you took your boots off and stood on a piece of brown paper and the shoe maker would draw around your feet and that was all the measuring required.
Our sight seeing was fantastic we went to Salamis just north of Famagusta to see the ruins of a Greek Gymnasium and the Roman Amphitheatre there were very large underground water cisterns which stored water from the Roman aqueduct which bought water from the hills.
We also visited a grave of a man buried with his horse, war chariot and his personal possessions.
Our evening time was spent mostly at the St George Club which we reached by walking along the beach. We also visited the N. A. A. F. I., The prices were very low, a Brandy Sour and a packet of nuts cost less then 100mils or 2 shillings. We held a party at the George Club and they sold out of bottles of champagne!! well they only cost 16 shillings or 75pence each in today's money.