SURVIVAL IN THE HIGHLANDS

At the end of the second term at Sandhurst during the Easter Break I went on a survival course in the Highlands . This was primarily for officer cadets from RAF Cranwell (RAF equivalent to Sandhurst ). About six of us from Sandhurst volunteered to do the course .After  all these years I am not sure of the exact location of the base camp but it was in the vicinity of Fort Augustus at the southern end of Loch Ness .

I had a few days leave in Glasgow before I had to head north . On the Fri before I left I went to a party with my chums from school who were now at Glasgow University. As I was getting on rather well with this girl from school it did cross my mind I had been an idiot to volunteer . This was to some degree confirmed when from the warmth of her arms I was transposed to being freezing at the bottom of some mountain in the Highlands .
In retrospect the instruction was not all that informative compared what I subsequently learned on the Jungle Warfare Course in Malaya and with the SAS . We spent most days tramping around the hills taking it in turn to navigate . All this in preparation for the final escape and evasion exercise when we were divided into three man patrols and had to make our way cross country hunted by the RAF Regiment .

I do remember General Wade's Roads criss crossing the area . Sometime after the rebellion in 1715 Gen Wade had been dispatched  north to inspect Scotland. Between 1725 &1737 he directed the construction  of some 250 miles of roads , plus about forty bridges linking the garrisons at Ruthven , Fort George , Fort Augustus and Fort William .
There is of course that verse of the National Anthem which was popular in London in 1745 :

                        Lord grant that Marshall Wade
                        May by thy mighty aid Victory bring .       
                        May sedition hush ,
                        And like a torrent rush ,
                        Rebellious Scots to crush .
                        God save the King !  

Not surprising the Scots adopted The Flower of Scotland . Just wish it would help them score more tries !

For the final exercise I was paired up with two would be pilots , one had been to Eton the other had gone to Marlborough. On our first night we were dropped off from a blacked out truck .Prior to that we had been searched to make sure we had no money . We had limited rations ,a map and a compass.

Our first problem was to find out where the hell we were . That did not prove to be too difficult as we found a public telephone box , dialed 0 and with my best Scottish accent asked the operator where we were having given her the number . Satisfied with our success we found a barn and kipped down . Here is where the training was wrong   : we should have moved at night and hid by day . That said crossing Cairngorms at night can be quite dangerous as the chance of a broken ankle are high.

We knew the Grid Ref of our first RV but as we navigated through this wood we bumped into other patrols who informed us that the RAF Regiment were guarding the bridge over the river at Fort Augustus . This posed a major problem as there was no way we were going to attempt to swim the river . Fortunately we bumped into a farmer and after I explained to him that we were on the run from the English he agreed to smuggle us over the bridge in the boot of his car. This he did in two trips . The great advantage of this is that we were now ahead of all the other patrols . After three days only three patrols escaped capture and we were one of them .

However in those days protective clothing was by today's standards pathetic. At night we made a bed in the heather and covered ourselves with groundsheets .Fortunately it did not snow but it was bitterly cold . Somehow I persuaded these two stalwart companions that as I was the smallest I should be in the middle of our heather bed. They say that if you are suffering from hypothermia the best thing is to get into a sleeping bag with a woman preferably well endowed. I had to suffice with two public school boys .They however twigged to this ploy and on subsequent nights positions were rotated. The only other time I can recall being so cold was up Mount Kenya at 15,000 ft.

Three months later I was to return to Scotland to the area of Ullapool . At the end of each year cadets went on a Summer Camp. We marched from Sandhurst through Camberly  headed by the Band and were crammed into this train like sardines for a twelve hour journey to Scotland. Join the Army to see the world , I had still to get out of UK .

Train journeys in the 1960s were not a pleasant affair . I can remember going on Christmas leave and having to sit on my suitcase in the corridor all the way from London to Glasgow. Surrounded by drunken Scots at there worst must compare with some of Angus's Indian train trips.