We Attack At Dawn

The exercise was coming to a close. We'd watched the dastardly enemy do all sorts of unspeakable things (and can I tell you none of them will ever make a living on the stage), we'd tracked them to their hideout and now we were going to attack.

For some perverse reason, maybe just tradition, we were going to attack at dawn. This is something that almost always only happens on exercise these days. In 'real wars' it's become fashionable to make it an all night affair.

What followed was, and still is, one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

It was a cold Scottish morning and the fog was down. The enemy had retreated to an old coastal fortification. We'd assembled in the night and had our orders. The platoons had moved out and as dawn was about to break we were ready to move in. My platoon had been given a couple of concrete bunkers to clear of enemy.

At the given moment we moved forward out of cover. One of the platoons was giving covering fire. I had the radio and was trying to keep up with the boss. As we emerged through the fog and the enemy opened fire the strangest noise began.

One of the Scottish lads who was playing the enemy had brought his bagpipes with him. And so as we assaulted the enemy positions we had good Scottish bagpipe music to accompany us.

With the mist and the music and the smoke and the gunfire it was almost like a scene from Apocalypse Now - only Scottish.