Back in the late 70s the Battalion was exercising in Sudan and about midway we had Adventure Training. The Pl Cmdr had the bonkers idea of going through the desert to Suakin in a couple of landrovers for those of us not quick enough off the mark to sign up for scuba diving or just about anything else but dying in the desert.
After several days of hell digging and tracking our way he relented and we started to head towards a pipeline and track that showed on the map. In the far distance we could see a building but it stayed a long way out of reach as we dug and shoved the rovers along in fine sand.
Eventually we saw movement by the building and a truck set out towards us. It was a Magirus-Deutz with, I'm sure. 8 wheel drive and it was driven by East German soldiers who gave our wagons a tow back to what turned out to be a pumping station/maintenance depot.
They turned out to be good eggs even though their boss and ours both behaved like standoffish pricks. That night the Pl Cmdr and Pl Sgt built a fire and gave a little "let bygones be bygones and it's been tough but what the hell" kind of speech, (because we were clearly unhappy teddy-bears.) So we built our own fire, broke out the Tuskers and shared them with our new DDR mates. After a couple of hours of sitting in lonely silence by their own fire the Pl Sgt ordered us to put out our fire and turn in.
The next morning we had all sneaked up a nearby Jebel and watched as our leaders had a melt down as they thought we'd done a bunk for freedom. A couple of the DDR lads were up early and wanted to come with us thinking that we were serious, (Germans hey).
I've often wondered what those East Germans made of their encounter with the British Army at its finest...
After several days of hell digging and tracking our way he relented and we started to head towards a pipeline and track that showed on the map. In the far distance we could see a building but it stayed a long way out of reach as we dug and shoved the rovers along in fine sand.
Eventually we saw movement by the building and a truck set out towards us. It was a Magirus-Deutz with, I'm sure. 8 wheel drive and it was driven by East German soldiers who gave our wagons a tow back to what turned out to be a pumping station/maintenance depot.
They turned out to be good eggs even though their boss and ours both behaved like standoffish pricks. That night the Pl Cmdr and Pl Sgt built a fire and gave a little "let bygones be bygones and it's been tough but what the hell" kind of speech, (because we were clearly unhappy teddy-bears.) So we built our own fire, broke out the Tuskers and shared them with our new DDR mates. After a couple of hours of sitting in lonely silence by their own fire the Pl Sgt ordered us to put out our fire and turn in.
The next morning we had all sneaked up a nearby Jebel and watched as our leaders had a melt down as they thought we'd done a bunk for freedom. A couple of the DDR lads were up early and wanted to come with us thinking that we were serious, (Germans hey).
I've often wondered what those East Germans made of their encounter with the British Army at its finest...