Sauna.......with a bang!!
It had been opened just a few days. I had never had one in my life but had heard about how cleansing they were. The sauna of course, the one in Albert Street Mill. We heard that Geordie Dee the QM had one installed at the Mill, and, it was open to all............too good to miss this opportunity but, who do I get to go with me and, how do I get there. After asking a few questions in the right ears, namely B Company Commanders ear I was given the OK. So I started my hunt for a driver and an escort for the journey to Albert Street Mill. I managed to find them all within the space of a few minutes without too much persuasion and bother. Guff was the driver, Katy Boyle and Bob Hutch from 5 Platoon the escorts. Dead easy really we all wanted to try the sauna. So I grabbed a radio and we all headed in to the vehicle park to get a landrover. I jumped in the front, Guff jumped in to the drivers seat whilst Katy and Bob jumped on the tailgate and away we went.
Bob Guffick was Coy HQ and was a cheerful Hartlepuddlean who during the 74 tour went around Mullhouse singing Abba's song "Waterloo" but replaced Waterloo with Hartlepool. Katy Boyle and Bob Hutchinson were excellent soldiers always talked to people with respect and knew their business as soldiers. I had a lot of respect for them both.
Anyway, we got to Albert Street OK and got into the sauna. It was brilliant. I marvelled at this thing in the middle of the floor full of hot stones I took great pleasure in dropping a mug of water on it from time to time. It was very relaxing. Then it was time to go.
We loaded up and started back to Mullhouse in the Distillery Area. This journey required us to pass through the worst area in Belfast. The Lower Falls. (B Company were having a hard time of it. Shootings, Weapons Finds Riots, you name B Company had to deal with it). When we were driving along Cullingtree Road, which ran accross to the Lower Falls area and on to Grosvenor road, we had just passed what I think was the junction of Leeson Street when suddenly from out of the darkness leading into a back lane, I saw a brilliant light arcing towards me, the landrover and everyone else on board. This brilliant light was just like a sparkler, you know, when you throw a sparkler through the air how it keeps sparkling and draws an imaginary light trail behind it. Thats how it was. A sparkler had been tossed at us by some appreciating Roman Catholic cheering us on our way........I think not. In a fleeting moment I imagined it as a sparkler nothing else crossed my mind. It was a sparkler...............what else could it be. This sparkler landed right in front of the landrover more or less in line with my seat. And, we drove right over it. All of a sudden all hell broke loose from behind me......."Blast Bomb" shouted in perfect unison, by Katy and Bob riding shotgun on the tailgate and a mad scramble as both clambered into the armoured rear of the landrover. Then it went off........................."Boom". Then in a flash of seconds a number of things happened. Katy and Bob got back on the tail gate and someone shouted "Hot Pursuit" which was brave of them, I felt myself being forced back into the back of my seat as I started speaking into the handset of my radio "Contact, wait out, Blast Bomb Thrown in Cullingtree Road, Blast Bomb Thrown in Cullingtree Road, Blast Bomb Thrown in Cullingtree Road". Like some rambling idiot. I was thrown into the back of my seat not through any bomb blast but by Guff putting his foot down and going hell for leather past the back lane and across Grosvenor Road - without looking left or right.
When we got back into the Distillery area things started to slow down again. Guff was laughing, I was shaking, and someone on the back shouted "That was a f***ing Blast Bomb". We should have done a hot pursuit - OK, OK, why did people keep suggesting "Hot Pursuit". Anyway, I was starting to worry at this point as to where some form of backup was coming from. I had heard no response to my radio message. I had fully expected that all of B Company and the SAS were on their way to bring us all back safely. But nothing. Suddenly we were back at the base. I jumped off the landrover and ran to the Ops room, where Major Nich and the crashout platoon commander were looking at the Ops Map and talking about a bomb blast they had heard. I shouted out "It was thrown at us in Cullingtree Road. Did you not hear my radio message". "No" replied Major Nich and without looking for a response from me said "Why did you not do a hot pursuit". That silly suggestion that the company clerk do a hot pursuit again was mentioned........................what was it with everybody. I only wanted to try the sauna. I did not want to be Audy Murphy with a few weeks left to do. I wanted to get back to BAOR and sample the delights of Bacardi and Coke with ice in.................Hot Pursuit.......Me.
Major Nich walked away from the Ops Room map and was starting to strap his pistol on and as he walked past me he said, out of earshot of everyone else in the Ops room "TRY PRESSING YOUR MIC SWITCH NEXT TIME YOU SEND A CONTACT REPORT"..........Boy did I feel stupid....
I am thankful for three things on that night The first, was that we had taken an armoured landrover and not the open topped one. The second was that I had two really professional soldiers as escorts who knew their business and thirdly that I had Guff as driver who had the presence of mind to put his foot down and get us all away from a possible ambush AND that he did so without giving me the chance to even consider doing a "Hot Pursuit"
Street map of part of Lower Falls and the Distilery Area
of Belfast 1974 |
The actual landrover all four of us where in
when it went over the bomb. I was in the passenger seat.
The guy standing was driving it on the night
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