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EXERCISE “FLYING SPANNER” Contributed by: Leonard SYMONDS (54A) The
advice was good and Turkish Customs and Immigration was a breeze. However,
the road on the other side isn’t much more than a track. We were constantly
stopped along this road by Army patrols right in the middle of nowhere a lone
armed soldier would step out and flag us down. The magic words ‘English
Tourists’ gained our release each time. There was plenty of snow and ice and
we were constantly in 4 wheel drive. Just when it was at its coldest, snowing
hard and getting dark – we got our one and only puncture. It was a nail
looking suspiciously like an MFO Box Nail from the hangar floor back at
Sharjah. We were down to one spare wheel. The scenery now became much more
interesting although it was extremely cold. Our front external water cans
were frozen, the plastic containers bulging with the expanded ice inside and
jammed in their metal frames. Not a good idea after all.
Len ‘where-the-hell-are-we’ Symonds with
local inhabitants
Len Symonds on horseback, with local
inhabitants Just
outside Erzincan and still climbing we passed 8000 ft where the effect of the
thin air and low octane petrol we were using was becoming alarming. Running
like a rough tractor we almost came to a stop several times. We made frequent
stops and met many Turkish people who were very friendly and enjoyed hearing
their voices played back on our tape recorder. The officials we met were a
different matter and had to be treated with great politeness or they would
keep you waiting around for a long time. On to
Steve Langridge and Len Symonds
(photograph: Mike Estridge) The
Alexandroúpolis The
Greek Customs were quite tricky, absolutely everything out and painfully slow.
We now sported our European translation plates and GB sticker. The absence of
stone throwing in
(left) Steve Langridge, (centre) Len
Symonds, with the resident owners of ‘
(left of picture) The Land Rover parked
facing camera, on the opposite side of the road Steve Langridge and Len
Symonds (photograph: Mike Estridge)
Len Symonds and Steve Langridge
(photograph: Mike Estridge)
On to Customs
the best yet, waved through with smiles all round. Lots of big potholes in
the road requiring constant vigilance. Unfortunately
the weather deteriorated and it was raining hard. After an uncomfortable
night – the tent, which really needed a ridge pole, sprung a leak; we emerged
and cleaned ourselves up for a trip into town.
Once
again impossible parking, two shopped while the other kept one step ahead of
the traffic wardens. One member of the party (who shall remain nameless) got
lost here and our pre-arranged rendezvous system paid off. Before we entered
any large city where we might split for a while we wrote the name of a
Railway Station on three pieces of paper and took one each. The missing
member eventually jumped in a taxi and we picked him up from the Station later.
Len Symonds and Steve Langridge
(photograph: Mike Estridge) Swiss
Customs was no problem, straight through and on to Biasca where we weakened
and booked into a hotel. Still raining hard. Baths, dinner and a long night’s
sleep with everything hung over the radiators. Dried out and thoroughly
refreshed we made a late start for It was
time to visit friends en route and that we did. In one case a certain well
known WO 1 ASM Flyn, currently resisting a posting to Sharjah from his
quarter at RAF Wildenwrath, drew back his curtains to see a Sharjah
registered Landrover parked outside. For one mad, mad moment he thought
‘they’ had come for him. The
most difficult country to get into was our own of course. We nearly had to
pay tax on the Queen’s Landrover and there was no mercy when it came to the
trinkets we had brought back from the Gulf for our families. The exercise,
planned to take a whole month had come to a premature end in less than 3
weeks. Poor weather conditions on route had dampened our resolve to explore,
but the experience was great, a sense of achievement that it ‘could’ be done
– and, in any case, we were home one week less than the standard nine months
tour. On the appointed day (and not before) we signalled HQLFG – ENDEX. The
Landrover was handed in to CVD Ashchurch for disposal. What’s this they said?
Where are the proper number plates? Why is it this colour? Back to normal. LAS,
SGL & MJE 1st
April 1969 ________________________________________________________________________________ An ‘up to date’ C.V. for Len Symonds 54A can be viewed on
the ‘Probus
Club’ web site. ________________________________________________________________________________ First Published: 1st January 2007. Latest Update: 1st March 2013.
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