Page 87 - Demo

85For the rehearsal, I positioned a crewmember on the ground with a radio, to act as a safety officer. The rehearsal went completely according to plan, apart from one slight problem. On the final departure, the small charges were remotely detonated but, very shortly thereafter, the frantic voice of our safety officer came over the radio, \ airfield is on fire, the airfield is on fire\I made a turn back to the field and, sure enough, we could see fires burning brightly. Noone had thought that the small charges would do any harm, but the dry grass on the edge of the runway had ignited. Fortunately, this airfield was close to a couple of villages, and their occupants, who had been watching the evening's show with interest, helped in putting out the bonfires.The following evening, we were given the green light to proceed with the assault and, having loaded the vehicles and troops, we departed for our target. Nearing our destination, we made contact with the advance party, who informed us they were having problems getting to the runway, due to the local troops and the terrain. The assault was therefore delayed. We then had to position ourselves far enough away from the airfield, so that the noise of our engines was not heard on the ground, but close enough that we still had contact with the ground party. A suitable downwind holding point was quickly established. We all know that time can almost stand still when you are waiting for something to occur, and this is what happened to us that night. One hour passed, and we still had no clearance. Another 30 minutes ticked by, and the moon slipped away, leaving a very dark picture. Our NVG%u2019s suddenly did not work so well, leaving the copilot and me a little uncomfortable. With good moon conditions, wires on electrical pylons and animals in the fields can be seen; however, in zero moon conditions, and especially when cloudy, it is not easy to even see such major items as roads, houses, and bridges.Sometimes cultural lighting can help the situation but, in this event, there was none at all.Finally, clearance was given and we set off to make our approach.Normally the co-pilot would map-read to the target but, on this occasion, all we had were 1:500,000 maps, several years old, and a few