BATUS

A truly frightening experience...

I once drove the ATO out onto the area in a Landrover, he had to watch over Swingfire being fired. After the event we were told to follow a squadron of Chieftains, so in single file of we went. I was less than happy about being twenty feet behind a pair of noisy belching Chieftain exhausts and even less happy about the closed down tank behind us. Two things happened at once, I suddenly realised the air was thick with CS (which is probably why the tanks were closed down) and we started to cough and splutter, then to my utter horror I realised I had to drive over a scissor bridge, which is designed for vehicles with a far wider track than a Landrover. I was sh**** myself as I tried to stay on the bridge I continually wiped my eyes and coughed my tits off flapping about the closed down tank feet from our rear bumper. Once off the bridge the ATO who by this stage had wrapped his jacket round his head in an attempt to filter out the CS yelled at me to get the hell away from the convoy, he didn't need to tell me twice...

Such fun.

Another interesting experience.

In 1975, in between almost back-to-back NI Tours, I was an FOO in 54 Bty of 25 Fd Regt RA based at Munsterlager. That year, we deployed to BATUS with a BGp comprising 2 Sqns from 3RTR and D Coy 1PWO. I drew the short straw and was attached to the Inf. We had "value engineered" Abbot 105mm SP (no electrics in the turret) and Mk1 432s (petrol engines). On one of the exercises the guns were firing at extreme range (17km) and we were using an OT range of 7km - a thing we had never done in Germany because there wasn't the room. Anyway, it was an airburst Fire Mission and my party was dismounted on a ridge. When it came to Fire for Effect, we heard the guns 10km behind us and then a few seconds later 6 bangs overhead as we were showered with shrapnel. Luckily, no one was injured and it later transpired that the CVT fuzes had fired prematurely. Needless to say, our ATO immediately condemned the entire lot and we never used them again at BATUS. It was a bit hairy at the time but as Andrew say...........Such Fun!

Another BATUS story...

When we arrived at BATUS me and a couple of mates decided to club together and buy a car, at the time I didn't have a driving licence but didn't see that as a problem since my mates did have licences. Anyhoo, we purchased a huge Dodge Polara, biggest car I'd ever seen. We could easily seat four on the front bench seat and five or six in the back. On this particular fatefull day I decided to take it for a spin around the camp, I had a mate in with me (Mick Cone) who did have a licence. I sped off past the tank sheds and workshops, but as I turned a corner an MP car passed me going the opposite way. The MP quickly turned round and pulled me over. I got out of the car and was horrified to see the figure of the dreaded SSgt Evans RMP bearing down on me. He looked at me as if he had just trodden in something unspeakable. He asked for my driving licence, I was just about to tell him I didn't have one when I noticed Mick had thrown his licence along the seat, so I picked it up and handed it to SSgt Evans RMP. He studied it for a minute or two and for a moment I thought I'd got away with it, until he asked for my ID card! at which point it all went a bit pear shaped and he marched us off to the the RSMs office.

No sense of humour MPs.

Boy has this post brought back memories, one of the first cars I bought when I emigrated to Canada was a Dodge Polara 880, as you say Andrew a big s.o.b., some 17.5 feet long, 8 cylinder that went like a bat out of hell. Just before we went on a camping vacation one year I lost the reverse gear (automatic tranny), so I drove close to 1600 miles without one, boy did it make for some interesting driving when it came to 'getting out of where I had just got in' ... Ah!, Memories ..

Len (Ciphers)

Yes indeed Len it was a big car. We had the altenator go while we were in Banff, unfortunately (or fortnately depending on how you look at it) it was at the end of the weekend as we were about to drive back to Suffield so we had little cash left due to us trying to drink Banff dry. We had the car towed to a garage where it was looked at and we were told what the damage was, we hatched a plan. Taffy had a very nice radio/cassette player that was worth a few quid and was his pride and joy. We took Taff to a bar for a last beer assuring him the car would only cost a few dollars, it did, plus his radio cassette. Back at BATUS as we unloaded our bags from the car Taff went to get his beloved radio cassette, at this point we ran for it, he had quite a temper bless him.

My most frightening trip in BAOR was compliments of the REME.
On a Nato execise up north, I was doing a stint as CO's driver signaller, in a Champ, when on descending a very steep slope on the training area the brakes failed. After a very hairy descent I managed to stop in one piece. Whilst the CO went off to change his trousers I was sent off to the LAD for repairs. After much banging and cursing and after dark, it was decided that the only option was to take the champ to the rear and collect a new master cylinder, a round trip of 100 miles. Having expressed my reluctance to drive that distance with no brakes the REME Sgt took up the challenge and off we went. Now to the uninitiated the champ had a huge rolls royce engine and went like shit off a shovel it was also open sided like a jeep. This REME guy was a nut case and we covered the 50 or so miles in under an hour. We spent an hour and a half picking up the spare, not fitting it, and drove back equally fast. My fingers had to be prised off the seat rails when we got back.Talk about brown trousers we spent more time on two wheels than on four and in a country lane we met a pair of headlights approaching fast and without slowing we went through the hedge into a field and back out onto the road. To this day I still wake in a cold sweat. I wonder if that means I have PTSD.