Another "First Encounter" with Americans*

This is a different "first encounter" than the other one and it took place in 1980 during Exercise Crusader '80.  But don't worry!  I didn't talk to any of them!!!

Crusader '80 was (then) the largest peace-time manoeuvre since the end of WWII and involved nearly all the NATO allies to a greater or lesser extent.

Now this encounter didn't leave me thinking Americans were stupid or anything ... it just left me hating them.
But it wasn't just me that hated them. I think most of the people in my unit at the time hated them too.

Let me fill you in on the details.

Our company dealt with ammunition or, in this case boxes of ballast, and we were out in the field doing our thing on the outskirts of a little German village.  We had set up "dumps" in various locations around the village and would be visited daily by "fighting" units that needed more rocks to throw at the enemy. We had been there for nearly a week when word spread that the "yanks" were coming and that they would be playing "orange" forces (the enemy) for a few days.  Where we were, in the rear, we didn't expect to see any of them.

Then one day, just north of our position, it rained parachutes and men (82nd or 101st Airborne)!
One of our patrols disappeared only to reappear two hours later trouser- and weapon-less. All that day we were "stood to" (at the ready in trenches) almost every hour on the hour every hour.  Yanks were popping up everywhere!

On one occasion though, they dared too much and drove a jeep right into our positions, knowing full well that we couldn't stop them (it was only make believe after all).  They lobbed thunderflashes (flash-bangs) left and right and were laughing like hyenas as they did it.  Then they buggered off again just as quickly as they had arrived.

However, they left us with a problem which was far greater than finding a way of keeping them out ...  they put their thunderflashes through the attic windows of the nearby farm house and the blaze was really taking hold.   Along with the German fire brigade, we spent the night puting the fire out!  After that our American cousins were banned from attacks in built up areas and we began to plot our revenge!

The opportunity to get the b&st&rds back presented itself just days later when the airborne Americans changed sides and became "blue" forces.  We got wind that they would be coming though our location in a convoy of trucks early the next morning to take up new positions behind us.

So we got busy.

In the short time that we had we found as many dead rats, mice and birds, in varying stages of decay, as we could.  After tying a thunderflash to each of the decaying beasties we lay in wait at the road side.

When the sun came up (4am-ish) the first American trucks began to roll up the road and as each one passed, we lit the thunderflashes and threw them, along with the beasties, into the rear of the vehicles and amongst the smug looking American airborne warriors.


I would not like to have been in ANY of those trucks after the explosions!!! 


God!!! 


I wish I had photographs of their faces!!!


Now, is that revenge or what?


* I am most definitely not anti-American