An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir November 2015 www.dfmagazine.ie 20 | by FRANK REID T he Turkish invasion of Cyprus occurred on 20th July 1974. barely 4½ months later (with less than two years service in the military) I arrived on the island as a UN peacekeeper. For my part in this show the UN was paying me an allowance of $104.17 to risk life and limb. Not bad considering my basic pay was only $285.00 per month. On 6th December when I boarded a military plane at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Trenton as part of a peacekeeping contingent from 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, it was a chilly -10ºC; it was around 17C when we arrived in Cyprus some hours later. On our arrival in Cyprus the burnt-out wreckage of a plane strewn across the runway greeted us. It had been on the tarmac at Nicosia airport when the invasion started and that was where it met its fate. This brought home really quickly the situation we had been thrown into and for some it was a bit unsettling. My duties were to man one the OPs along the Green Line that divided the parties to the conflict. There were 28 critical OPs to be manned 24/7 and five non-critical OPs, which were unmanned but could be occupied should an emergency situation arise. Our weeks were long due to a shortage of manpower and we worked 12-hour shifts for nine days before getting a day off. During the daytime you could often find yourself on duty alone, even though it was stated in orders that "Members of UNFICyP engaged on operational duties when armed, will never be on duty alone." Maybe they considered that we weren't alone since we were dropped off and picked up but if so that's what I call stretch- ing the rules! At night, however, we always had two people on patrol and in the OPs. The main OPs I manned in Nicosia were Maple 1 and Hermes. Despite the alleged ceasefire, the shooting was still continuing and there was an average of three or four major ceasefire viola- tions for every day of our six-month tour. Standing in plain view, at the top of a building in a conflict zone, was a risky business; even at night, as the lights from the city and the shining stars transformed you into a perfect target. I remember standing maybe a foot away from my buddy, our heads close so we could hear each other. The night had been calm so we felt quite relaxed. Suddenly, around three o'clock in the morning, we heard a shot go off, and a strange whistling sound, like air being displaced between us. Whoosh! We looked at each other and realised we had just been shot at and the bul- let had passed in the space between our heads. For the first time in my life I truly understood vulnerability. The difference of a few inches either way and one of us could have been on his way home in a pine overcoat. One evening when the Greeks and Turks started shooting at each other our soldiers were safe in their bunkers but one guy had left his helmet on the parapet of the trench. When the firing stopped, his helmet had a nice clean hole in it. It is difficult to remain on alert without a break for a period of Cyprus 1974 Two M47 tanks and a M113 APC during the aggressive drive to take Kyrenia. © Turkish Armed Forces

• Cover