If No. 9's gone already, I'll just say that it's the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge, which is on the road from Fort William to Inverness in North-West Scotland ( the area where the Commandos trained ). Great picture, by the way.
Back and defrosted. Actually it wasn’t a cold stay this year, far from it, but the journey back was. Wednesday to Saturday was exceptionally fine weather, warm and sunny. Sunday though was generally overcast with a few spots of rain around 11:00am during the Fort William ceremony. No rain at the Spean Bridge memorial in the afternoon, but very strong wind that blew continuously. It served to bump-up the chill factor and dissipate any sound. Martin is spot-on Otf, the Commando Memorial is on top of a hill 1 mile outside the village of Spean Bridge beside the A82, heading to Inverness. Pipes and Drums Marching Band, (very good considering age and experience), and brass band (static) provided by Lochaber High School, bugler provided by 45 Commando Royal Marines and 105mm howitzers by 29 Commando Royal Artillery. No.9 [ 11. November 2003, 01:32 AM: Message edited by: No.9 ]
Dropped by "the big show" on Whitehall, just as the guns fired and a minute of silence ensued. It was an insanely wierd moment! Right there in the middle of London, everything stopped and went dead quiet, nothing moved except the streetlights slowly blinking red-yellow-green. Pretty massive turnout of veterans along the road as well. One question popped up - what unit wears a bedouin style red-white chequered scarf over the head (ala Arafat)? Spotted three of these elderly gentlemen chatting happily with each other among the veteran crowd, sticking out very clearly among the regular caps and whatnot.
Very sorry I’ve only just seen your post Heartland. Re the head-dress, the short answer is I don’t know? Thinking about it, I have seen one or two men at various times dressed as you describe (assuming these are European men), But I’ve never spoken to any – must do so next time. First thing that comes to mind is Long Range Desert Group, but, would they still wear it instead of a sand coloured beret? Anyway, not knowing, I would question the colours? Many if not most LRDG were New Zealanders or Rhodesians. There was Army issue head-dress (and not only for the LRDG) which was khaki as in the photo below. Also there is some protocol for head-dress. The all white or red and white ( called a ‘ghuttra’ or ‘smagh’) tends to be worn in the Gulf region, while the black and white (kafiyeh) is worn west of there, Palestine, Jordan, Syria. (BTW there are various spellings for these Arabic terms.) An interesting puzzle? No.9
Thanks No.9! That pic describes what the head-dress looked like better than a thousand word. The LRDG was my first thought as well...but, as you say, an interesting puzzle to be solved on another day.
