cyprus 73/74 Turkish invasion cyprus.

[pom11]

16/5th Queens Royal Lancers.served with them in cyprus 73/74.acc.smudge,dessy,tich,tom,jock,wilky.webby.pergamos camp.   me Gus Grieve.

[rubberguts]

 G'day Mate,  I served in GHQ Episkopi in '55. Had to cook on a new type of American oil burning stove. A nightmare to light from cold. Dam things kept gushing a fine stream of diesal out before fully evaporating and kept blowing up. Put a few of me mates in dock. Just wondered if you guys still used the same type of cooker and had the same problems with them blowing?.Cheers.  John Everitt.

[pom11]

Hi john.i was at pergamos camp Dhekelia.73/74. worked in qfficers mess.sgt mess.ratings mess. torkish invasion cyprus 1974 ,july.son born at dhekelia,BMH.we used to use the number one burners on exercise,at Akamas and other places.sounds like the ones you used.kept blowing back,fine jet of fule,then somtimes explode,before they lit.i lived in larnaca 8 months ,then on camp.after that went to Germany, woofers.Good to here from you mate.(David).

[rubberguts]

Happy times, Eh? Kept us on our toes. Never knew if the next petrol bomb would be thrown through the door of  the cafe we were sat in.
Wonder if you remember the name of the local brew? Was it Top Beer? Things always became a little blurred between beer, Brandy Sours, and Turkish coffee.
 Remember one time we were departing an out of bounds 'House of Ill Repute' to see an MP's Landy rounding the corner.
Think we might still hold the record for the fastest time to pile into a Taxi.
After a slow drive around the narrow streets of Limassol and with no way to overtake, the MP's wearied of the chase. and we breathed one very big sigh of relief.

[Ian E Scott]

I was posted to Training Camps Cyprus (TCC), in January 75 as Cook Sgt and based at Anzio Camp, Dhekelia, just down the road from Pergamos.
 
By the time of my arrival training was very much on the back burner and Anzio was full of 800 British Passport Holding refugees, this role went on for 3 months after my arrival, before the refugees took over the feeding of the camp themselves.....along with the trusty Turkish Cypriot cooks!

TCC re-located in the April to the old parachute school building in RAF Akrotiri to await the first of the Lion Sun Exercises of the year in May, as I re-call this was 22 Locating Battery RA from Larkhill.

I still find it hard to understand why almost 40 years on this Island is divided! 

May'be, just may'be it has something to do with the mainland Turkish & Greek Governments interferance in the Islands politics!

Hopefully I will live long enough to see full re-unification of this lovely Island 

[pom11]

Anzio.yeh ian i remember it well/their used to be a little cafe near it.i worked with turkish cooks also ,from the village,pergama.eddie(hussain).oxo eddies brother.scouse.nico.Good times eh.from Gus .(pom).

[rubberguts]

Not sure mainland interference is the sole reason the Island remains divided Ian. Could the distrust and hurt smoldering within also be a factor?
 Sad to witness. Hard to accept. Both ethnicities are fine likable folk.
Will it require a natural occurrence for differences to be resolved?
I am sure all who are familiar with the area feel as you do
 
Believe the sparrows breathed a sigh of relief at my departure. Pickled, they were my weakness.
Um.... The sparrows I mean. Probably a bit of both though.

[Ian E Scott]

Bingo Jim!  I remember Eddie, dark hair and long sideburns....if this had been a POW Camp he would have been known as The Ferret

[rubberguts]

Suez Firing Practice.
Because things were starting to get ugly and we were to be issued with rifles, it was decided firing practice was in order.
Having discharged five rounds, I rested up my rifle and surveyed the view in front of me, High on a mountainside trail some distance away beyond the firing range, a row of dots appearing to be a laden donkey being ridden by a male while his three bints (wives) walked in front. I was idly wondering why on earth anyone would want to marry three three women and suffer a life time of tongue lashing,  concluding some men must be gluttons for punishment, when the party burst into life, high tailing it along the trail. A cloud of dust had just kicked up below them the clue that a bullet had landed too close for comfort.
 Compassionate leave to be married meant Kenny had missed initial firing range instruction. I quickly explained to him the rules for aiming but forgot to tell him to keep his eyes open. Eyes closed, he let fly, bullets landing far and wide.
 Kenny was a good sort and a firm favorite of our off duty clique As a new arrival he was subject to endless ribbing about having longer left to serve than any of us, Fate intervened, he contracted Tuberculosis  and was shipped home after some months in BMH Fayid receiving an early discharge and a pension.
Kenny sent us a postcard  to let us know he had made it back safely to Blighty.
Somehow the card had a hollow ring to it like a scene from a prisoner of war film.