Zofo
28-07-04, 17:03
Our troop was deployed as part of a countermeasures asset against various regiments, including the infantry and artillery, in summer 1988.
Working blue against blue was for us, extremely boring. The work was not too strenuous and as we were sitting on the top of the Bielefeld Ridge at the time our comms were top notch. Various other Signals types had pitched up and set up (they hated us so we pretended we were umpires) but they were quite some distance from us.
We were coming to the end of the night shift and it was pretty foggy everywhere. T was about 0500 and would be light in about an hour’s time. There was a guy in the troop who was non too popular and as he was going out to stag on, we thought it would be good if we could set him up and get a little pay back for him being such a waster. The guards had to wear their NBC suits but not boots and mask which meant a couple of minutes prior to going out by getting ready. Anyway, this chap had been on guard in the pit for about 10 minutes when one our shift supervisor got on the tele J (field phone, connected with dom 10 – see also DP’s stories!) and shouted in a very muffled voice, “gas, gas, gas”!
He told us the phone was dropped and there was muffled cursing. It was later replaced and we all had a giggle as the prat stood to in the trench in full NBC gear. His replacement went out with his mask on and our man came blundering into our complex. We could see his eyes open wide and could imagine the snarl on his lips behind the mask as he immediately saw he’d been set up! He struggled to get his mask off as his hands were slipping all over the place with his rubber gloves still on.
He was not amused of course, but we dined out on his discomfort for ages. In fact of course, I’m still doing so!!
Working blue against blue was for us, extremely boring. The work was not too strenuous and as we were sitting on the top of the Bielefeld Ridge at the time our comms were top notch. Various other Signals types had pitched up and set up (they hated us so we pretended we were umpires) but they were quite some distance from us.
We were coming to the end of the night shift and it was pretty foggy everywhere. T was about 0500 and would be light in about an hour’s time. There was a guy in the troop who was non too popular and as he was going out to stag on, we thought it would be good if we could set him up and get a little pay back for him being such a waster. The guards had to wear their NBC suits but not boots and mask which meant a couple of minutes prior to going out by getting ready. Anyway, this chap had been on guard in the pit for about 10 minutes when one our shift supervisor got on the tele J (field phone, connected with dom 10 – see also DP’s stories!) and shouted in a very muffled voice, “gas, gas, gas”!
He told us the phone was dropped and there was muffled cursing. It was later replaced and we all had a giggle as the prat stood to in the trench in full NBC gear. His replacement went out with his mask on and our man came blundering into our complex. We could see his eyes open wide and could imagine the snarl on his lips behind the mask as he immediately saw he’d been set up! He struggled to get his mask off as his hands were slipping all over the place with his rubber gloves still on.
He was not amused of course, but we dined out on his discomfort for ages. In fact of course, I’m still doing so!!