The Ulster Defence Regiment Faces Biological Threat

The following is an eye witness account.
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In 1985, the part time companies of the 11th Battalion The Ulster Defence Regiment were attending the normal annual camp, which was at the Lydd and Hythe range complex that particular year.

As was the custom, a day off all military training was scheduled into the programme of events. The opportunity to visit war graves, near Calais, was taken by about 35 officers and soldiers of the Battalion. The scheme of manoeuvre was to advance on France in the style of the British Expeditionary Force of 1938, by an early morning ferry, take a hired coach to a number of the military cemeteries near Calais, and collect rations in Calais before a withdrawal back to the respective messes in Folkestone.

All went well, and the passengers left Calais for the first cemetery approximately 10 kilometres from the town. That was when we met our first problem; our way ahead was blocked by French farmers who were complaining about beef imports (or exports).

One of the training team (an attached Royal Welch Fusiliers captain) volunteered to speak to the French farmers as his level of understanding of the French language was at GCE A level standard. After a few minutes of discussion with the farmers he was able to persuade them to let us through; they warned though that the entire region was affected and that we should return to Calais.

How prophetic that warning was. After a few miles another roadblock was encountered and this time the farmers just shrugged their shoulders and said “non” to our plea to be let through.

At this point the Commanding Officer declared that he would order them to let us through and so he got off the coach with about 20 others (who were mainly just curious as to what he was going to do). The French farmers became a little alarmed at the sudden increase in numbers confronting them and the tall person shouting and waving his arms (the Commanding Officer). The farmers alarm was so great that they reacted in a thoroughly agricultural manner; a tractor engine was heard to start and in a field on our left flank a tractor and slurry tanker was reversed towards the coach. The inference was clear: get back on the coach or be sprayed with 15,000 litres of fermenting slurry (the technical points of tanker capacity came from some of the soldiers who owned similar equipment on their farms).

A surge of service personnel back onto the coach defused the situation and our lone French language speaker was able to negotiate a solution. We would wait 45 minutes and we would then be allowed through (this timing happened to coincide with lunch for the farmers). After the allotted time we were allowed through and headed for Calais and our own lunch.

This was the first and possibly only time that The Ulster Defence Regiment faced a biological threat.