Pull up a sandbag bag!

Well after working out how to use the scanner / copier that Santa brought me I finally decided to give it a go and post some pics.
These are some of the pics I took whilst working in Bosnia during the Balkans war, from 1992 -1994.They are in no particular order, this is my first attempt so bear with me and pull up a sandbag cos we`re off to war!! …

Dockside at Felixstowe, waiting for the off.

The DAF 3300 wagon and drag, a brilliant truck, hard as nails, hardly ever broke down and took some real pounding on some of the roads and tracks out there.The “A” frame drawbar trailers were only used as far as our operating base at Metkovic, in Southern Croatia on the Bosnian Croatian border,

A few months into the job, with out the drags, these trucks went through some real batterings on the roads and tracks but stood up really well, including the Eaton twin split gearbox!!

Off the hard standing and up into the mountains on the dirt tracks. Snow and ice in the winter, dust clouds in the summer and horrible mud any other time!!

What was know as the Mac-a-dam road, was in fact a dirt track running from Gorni Vakuf, through the forests and hills eventually bringing you out on the road to Travnik.What you can see is one of the few local trucks, he lost it in the ice and snow and ended up one its side just short of the river!!

Chaining up outside of a town called Konjic, notice they are brand new chains!! Also, plenty of ropes!! The loads were usually 15-18 tonne of flour in 50kg (about 8 stone) sacks. The sack were made plastic fibres and slid all over the place, especially over each other and were a nightmare, especially with the terrain we had to drive over!!

Sniper Alley, Sarajevo, running from the airport to the city, this was once the main TIR transit route!! Any of you old long distance hands recognise it?

Bullet hole in my drivers door courtesy (thankfully) of a sniper with dodgy eyesight!!

In the winter of 1993-94 I moved up to Zagreb where we were setting up a new convoy team running artics into Croatia and northern Bosnia. This one slipped of the road and into a ditch on route to a town called Tecan (teshan) in northern Bosnia which was surrounded by serbs!!

Note the UN number plate, the only way to get it out was to tip the load, bags of flour straight off the side`and into the field. The locals thought it was xmas!!

On the front line at Tecan, waiting to get through…no luck!!

Finally, eat your heart out Bruce Willis!!! …yours truly unloading at Sarajevo airport, assisted by the French Foriegn Legion

Well, I hope you enjoyed them, when i can I will try and put some sort of photo diary toghether to give some idea of a run to Sarajevo!!

Cheers, Bullitt.

bullitt:

Bullet hole in my drivers door courtesy (thankfully) of a sniper with dodgy eyesight!!

Cheers, Bullitt.

Nice pictures, so thats how you got your nickname

Lycanthrope:

bullitt:

Bullet hole in my drivers door courtesy (thankfully) of a sniper with dodgy eyesight!!

Cheers, Bullitt.

Nice pictures, so thats how you got your nickname

No mate, when most of my hair fell out I decided to shave off what was left and keep it bald, revealing that I had a “bullet shaped” head!!

A fact that caused great amusement to my current work mates …hence the nickname!!

Good photos and write up, cheers.

an excellent read and pics… got anymore■■?

Was the sniper using a air rifle?

Cant see a hole…only a dent!

Good photos certainly omething different

tc trans:
an excellent read and pics… got anymore■■?

i second this notion!!

Koop:
Was the sniper using a air rifle?

Cant see a hole…only a dent!

quality built Daf, virtually bullet-proof

Koop:
Was the sniper using a air rifle?

Cant see a hole…only a dent!

He might well have been koop!!

I know there was quite a bit of gun fire going off then then a bang that sounded like someone had wacked the door with a lump hammer!!..scared the (zb) out of me I know that!!

tc trans:
an excellent read and pics… got anymore■■?

Thanks TC, yep, got loads more knocking around somewhere, I will try and get some more posted sometime.

If I can I will try and put some sort of diary together, a run to Sarajevo, with pics.

A couple of my mates did exactly the same as yourself.
Do you remember, Steve “Caravan” Smith, Les Goodchild or Tim Winser (I think he was a fitter out there, about '93) ?

bullitt:
scared the (zb) out of me I know that!!

I bet it did mate!

Goaty:
A couple of my mates did exactly the same as yourself.
Do you remember, Steve “Caravan” Smith, Les Goodchild or Tim Winser (I think he was a fitter out there, about '93) ?

Hi goaty, the names ring a bell…

Steve Smith…did he have a bit of a pock marked / acne scared face, went out there early 1993?

Goodchild, im sure I remember a Roger Goodchild, ex Brains Haulage as were quite alot of the lads but not a Les Goodchild.

Tim Winser, is he a big guy, bald head, quite well spoken?? may have a pic of him somewhere!

it was 15 / 16 years ago now so the names tend to fade!!

Come on Rick, I am sure that there are a load of people on here waiting for you to update this thread. If you have got anymore extremely interesting photo’s and stories please share them with us .
What happened to all the truck’s in the end ? were they driven back to some big storage depot somewhere or did the U.N. donate them to the local authorities ?. Were you living on Compo Ration’s some of the time or were there messing facilities, how many trucks or loads were lost, if any.
I think that YOU must have enough material for a book Rick so please give us a bit of an update.
P.S. I am glad it only looks like a bullet hole in the door, that’s probably why nobody has got a username R.P.G. .
Best regards Steve.

Hi Steve, thanks for bringing this post back up again, I kept meaning to add a bit more but forgot!!

To answer some of your questions…I think that some of the drawbar outfits were brought back to the UK and some were left over there. ■■■■ good trucks they were as well, took one hell of a pounding especially when we went “off roading” up in the mountains!!

Im sure all the artics were brought back along with the “useless” curtain side trailers as they were leased from Ryder Truck Rentals on the Purley Way in Croydon. When they originally turned up out there we were a bit pee`d off with the fact that they were right hand drives with curtain siders and not left hookers with Tilts on the back which would have been far more practical!! Still, an ex army bod in “logistics” obviously knew better than us as to what was best for the job!!!

I don’t think we lost many loads to be honest, the one shown in the pics above was when the trailer slide into a ditch in the back end of beyond somewhere. Occasionally there was a bit of pilfering by the locals and the various militia`s, especially at their “checkpoints”!! We used to play a game with them after a while…one of their soldier /squaddie / gangster /thugs would climb up onto the load after we had pulled the sheets back and proceed to stomp along the top, AK47 in hand, and,with a long thin metal rod, stab down at random points into the sacks of flour looking for people, weapons, ammo boxes etc!!.

We would let him do a couple of jabs then on the third stab down someone would let out an almighty scream!!! …then as the guy got all excited and started stomping around and stabbing into the load there would be more screams and moans from some of the other lads hidden round the corner somewhere!! …oh how we laughed, especially when they woke up to the joke and started shouting abuse and pointing their AK`s at us

As for food,we were based in this hotel… hotelmb.com/narona/engl.asp?lang=eng in Metkovic in Southern Croatia which was really quite good and another (ZB) hole in Zagreb the name of which escapes me thankfully.
Usually we would get what we could from the town and take it with us. If we had to overnight at a UN compound then we could usually blag some food, and if it was a Brit Camp, Gorni Vakuf or Vitez, then we would always scrounge, barter or “acquire” some Brit compo rations!! At one point we got hold of some American MRE`s but they really were garbage…OK if you were living in fox hole for a couple of weeks or as an emergency food source but nothing compared to the Brit Compo packs.

As for a book…well, believe it or not I have written the first introductory page…and that’s about it!!!
I know I should do it, my wife tells me i should do it and when I see all the books coming out now about Iraq and Afghanistan I think “well why not”, but its like decorating…i just cant be arsed!!

I plan to go back there next year sometime, probably May / June ,for a few weeks, run the old routes etc and see how much things have changed.

And as for photos Steve, I will try and put some more on and also put together some sort of diary from memory with pics. Just watch this space!!

Cheers mate.

yes please post some more information,
as many would like know more about this side
of the aid transport,and to be honest think mercenary
ask about the book, as if it can be printed in more than
one language you may have a good seller ,now adays,
as the younger driveing generation wish to know what
happened before they became a driver,and us OAP;
as well,

brit pete:
…and to be honest think mercenary…

Thanks for the comments Pete, that word “mercenary”…reminded me of an occasion once when flying back home for some R and R via Rome. I got dragged off the plane and “interviewed” by the Italian authorities about some “souvenirs” that were in my suitcase!!!

The bags had been re-screened by the Italians before being loaded onto the plane and they “wanted a word” with me about who I was, where I was coming from, what I had been doing etc etc

Biggest Italians I had ever seen …maybe I should write that book after all!!

i would be interested in reading it bullitt interesting story so far!

Hi Rick thanks for the update, how did you get to hear about the job in the first place ? were you a firefighter then, did they send round a circular asking for volunteers or was it on the internet or something else. ( You weren’t in the S.A.S. were you Rick )
As you mentioned about a " z.b. ’ hotel in Zagreb it brought back memories of a hotel car park where Brit drivers used to park in Zagreb in the eighties. Some back loads were prepack furniture for Cradley Heath from little villages off the beaten track and we had to go back to InterEuropa in Zagreb to clear customs.
The hotel was on the banks of The Sava River and it was near a big supermarket called The Sava Centre, I did park there one night with Mrs Bullet’s Uncle Stan . Maybe Terry Smith or Rocky 7 can remember the name of it .
Regards Steve.