Ayia Napa Metal Factory
Before the conflict Banja Luka Metal Factory had been just that - a metal factory in the town of Banja Luka. As a large site with big buildings it had been taken over by peacekeepers when they moved in and had ended up being one of the Multi-National Division HQs.
By the time we arrived in Bosnia, BLMF had become REMF heaven. We'd go up there from our own camp on various admin taskings and see what we were missing out on.
Every nation had its own store. Every nation had its own bar. The Dutch ran a particularly good cafe with outstanding coffee and a good take on a British fryup.
When they weren't at work people wore 'normal' clothes. On Friday evenings you'd think people were going out for a night out in the UK - blokes with trendy shirts, lasses dolled up to the nines.
And were we jealous.
Course we were but we just muttered "REMF b*****ds" and drove back to our camp with its portakabin bar and two cans a night.
By the time we arrived in Bosnia, BLMF had become REMF heaven. We'd go up there from our own camp on various admin taskings and see what we were missing out on.
Every nation had its own store. Every nation had its own bar. The Dutch ran a particularly good cafe with outstanding coffee and a good take on a British fryup.
When they weren't at work people wore 'normal' clothes. On Friday evenings you'd think people were going out for a night out in the UK - blokes with trendy shirts, lasses dolled up to the nines.
And were we jealous.
Course we were but we just muttered "REMF b*****ds" and drove back to our camp with its portakabin bar and two cans a night.
fired down the range by DC at 6:09 am
5 Comments:
Hey mate,
been reading your notes for a while now. Great stuff. Loved your bit about BLMF. When I was there last year, there was a nice little international orgy on the helipad, I am sure you heard about it. Good fun, but no alcohol for two weeks afterwards. Served us right I supose. Take care.
From what I remember, there was a lot of that going on, too, in the absolute RE base in Zagreb. From what I saw of it between '93 and '96, a posting there for the international peacekeeping nabobs (military and civilian) was looked on as a free stay in an extremely good holiday resort. The citizenry of Zagreb, not surprisingly, quickly became rather cynical about these 'peacekeepers'.
Did the Dutch have their own version of the DDU, or did the cafe serve more than coffee and a fry up?
Anon - cheers - hadn't heard about the orgy - must go and have a look on ARRSE.
Nick - I'll be getting onto the camps at Split shortly!
TheBoy - they are a liberated army but not that liberated. Although they do outfit their female soldiers in lovely camouflage hotpants during the summer.
Eggbanjo - I think it depended on who the GOC was. It seemed to vary throughout the tour.
Seen Arrse before. A Shift Manager at work was an Officer at Deepcut. He was all over the Mail on Sunday several weeks ago. He gave me the web address for Arrse. Only decent thing the gits ever done in his life is give me a good web address.
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