"Энди Макнаб. Немедленная операция (engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

to help.
I was made a patrol commander because I was an infantry sergeant.
In the patrol we had a bloke, Raymond, a Falklands veteran, who'd done
a six-month tour in Belize as a lance corporal with 2 Para. He was very
thick-set with jet black hair; if he had a shave at six o'clock, by eight
o'clock he'd need another one. Raymond knew all about pole beds and the
routine of living in the jungle; the closest I'd been was a school trip to
Kew Gardens when I was seven years old, and my only memory of that was of
the other kids having ice creams afterward and me not having enough money to
buy one.
Another member of the patrol was Mala corporal in the Royal Anglians.
He came from London and was about the same size and height as I was, but
with the world's biggest teeth. A couple of them were missing, and he always
had a smile on his face and a fag in his mouth.
He reminded me of the Tommy Atkins character from the First World War.
He didn't seem to give a stuff about anything but was very confident in
what he did. If he hadn't been in the army, he would have been a market
trader down Portobello Road. He was the scruffiest prson I'd ever seen. He
looked as if he'd been dipped in glue and thrown through the window of an
Oxfam shop. He was a good soldier, without a doubt, but he was so laid back
he was almost lying down. Because he found things very easy, it looked as if
he had no commitment.
Tom was a corporal from 29 Commando, part of the Royal Artillery
attached to the Royal Marines, and he was completely the opposite, hyped up
about everything. He was the funniest bloke I'd met since Dave left.
He had a sag eye: If he was looking at his shoelaces, one eye would be
looking at the moon. He was also the tallest of us, just on six feet, and
athletically built. He was very loud; I suspected he was deaf after a
lifetime of artillery pieces banging off in his ear.
I was still phoning up Debbie, writing her letters and telling her how
exciting it was. When she wrote or spoke, I didn't listen or read between
the lines. It didn't occur to me that she might be bored shitless. I was in
the ,UK doing something I wanted to do, and she was in Germany just plodding
on, not really doing that much. I couldn't have cared less; me, I was off to
Brunei.
n March we flew to Hong Kong, en route to Brunei.
We came into Kaitak Airport at night, and I couldn't believe what I
saw. The aircraft did a steep turn, then flew in really low. I could see
people walking in the street and pottering around in their apartments.
We stayed at a camp near the airport. It was the first experience I'd
had of somebody in authority in the army giving me money, a ration allowance
because they wouldn't be feeding us. It was supposed to be money for food,
but of course it paid for a night on the town, with just enough left over to
buy a bag of chips on the way home. I thought, Hell, yes, I need to keep in
here, they give you money!
Hong Kong was one of the places I'd always heard about but never
thought I'd see. Now I just wanted to take as much of it in as I could in
case I never came back. The city was packed and never seemed to stop. it was
full of neon, food shops open everywhere, dense traffic, and this was at ten
o'clock at night. We could sleep on the plane to Brunei in the morning;