10. Chapter – Training at the farm again and combat against the instructors

After Formiguères it was quite hard to retake the daily routine in Castel, especially the collective punishments for each little banane. The lessons got harder, French became most important than before.

We had a first aid course and I didn’t understand a word during the 3 days.

My only chance was that I have already done one in my country for my driving license and luckily it was pretty much the same. I got set back in French learning because there have always been a bunch of English speakers in my surroundings. Therefore I didn’t feel necessary to learn French if I can make myself understood in English.

I got punished at least 50 times during the four months when a corporal caught me speaking English or German. But I didn’t really care until I found myself in a very bad situation 8 months later.

We had a 3 days long tactical training back in the farm.

During the day we were practicing the movements and the communications between us. The night we were observing the landscape with a night vision device which allowed us to see in levels of light approaching total darkness.

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If we saw a civil thing moving (a car on the road, for example), we had to take a note and announce on the radio. During the night, we couldn’t use any lights. If somebody detected us, the Romanian sergeant promised that we are going to clean each toilets in the company with our toothbrushes. One legionnaire of each trinome (a team of three soldiers) had to be awake for the observation.

AT 3 AM a corporal attacked our right wing

Those who covered the sector from where he was coming fired back. The others didn’t make visible their positions with useless gunfire. Probably after or during this attack, another corporal stole the Chinese guy’s FAMAS, so the morning we had to pay for his banane.

We were running around the hill for a half an hour with our full backpack, FAMAS and helmet. The Chinese had to watch us sitting on a camp chair. Some of the Russians wanted to beat him, but the biggest part of the section kept his mouth. We knew that maybe the next banane is going to be ours.

The Chinese spent the rest of the exercise with a billet replacing his FAMAS. He even had to put it in his sleeping bag like everybody else did with his rifle.

The afternoon we had theory combat lessons

and during the night we were practicing how to patrol with a combat group. We were drilling, until everybody could stop, keep the distance, keep the contact between the teammates and report correctly. At 3AM, after 300 push-ups and a half an hour of running the instructors went to sleep and we had to continue the observation. This time 2 of 3 had to be awake and only one could sleep.

It was 6AM when we had another attack, but this time all of our instructors participated and easily beat us. At the end of the exercise when everybody thought that it’s finished, the Italian accidently fired his rifle and everyone got punished again.

This time, nobody had enough force to complain during the 30 minutes of running, rolling on the floor and squatting. Once finished, we take our way back to the regiment by trucks, in total silence. At the afternoon things didn’t become easier, the ramassage continued with cleaning.

The corporals spilt 6 buckets of water out on the corridor and we had to clean it up with our whole gear. That means helmet on the head, camouflage on the face, a full backpack on the back and a sponge in the hand. Fortunately, the platoon’s chief deputy passed by and ordered the corporal to stop breaking balls and saved us.

At the end of the week everyone was tired. Even the swimming on Saturday became hard and we couldn’t enjoy it. We spent the whole Sunday in the classroom and we were preparing ourselves for the week after when we went to Caylus to shoot.