Similarly, on the other side of the country, Major Garasov had accepted an invitation to join a team from the Mancunian Mountaineering Club to do some training in the Cairngorms in winter conditions. Garasov remembered his last visit there two years previously and the result of it. Apart from his forays into the Pennines, Garasov had done no serious mountaineering since he was posted to the United Kingdom. He was busy organising his equipment and cold weather clothing.
On the Friday (2nd December), Corporal Hill drove north to Alnwick to pick up his mountaineering equipment from his home. En route he would be able to spend an evening with Alice, a hasty arrangement made the night before by telephone. Alice was excited that Andy would have a week’s leave after this mountaineering training.
On the Saturday afternoon, Andy Hill caught the train to Edinburgh and then one to Leuchars where he was picked up and taken to the RAF Base. Some other members of the RAF’s internal intelligence unit also met there. For Corporal Hill there were some new faces in the group. Incidents to members and others leaving the RAF brought necessary change. The next morning the members met in a conference room in the base HQ building with a guard posted outside the door. Being a Sunday, there were mainly duty personnel around and less risk of disturbance or being overheard. The briefing was led by Wing Commander Harry Westbourne. He reviewed some of the threats to RAF security and discussed new equipment in development to help them with intelligence gathering. Westbourne reminded them that while the mountaineering was a cover for the organisation it also gave them excellent training in reaction to emergencies and general physical fitness. Before leaving for the Cairngorms they would all go to the gym for refresher training in unarmed combat and be assessed on their standard of fitness.
The team assembled at 13:00 hours and climbed into the back of a three-tonner with their gear. The camping equipment and supplies had already been loaded. They were being led by Flying Officer Crombie. He was new to Corporal Hill who had been used to Flying Officer McEwan. Crombie had gone through the refresher training in the gym and showed himself to be very competent. He was from a Bomber Command unit but that was all that the rest of the team were told by the wing commander. Sergeant Bradley was still part of the team but had been promoted to Flight Sergeant. He now had a scar on his left cheek but no-one asked him about it. Those sorts of questions were taboo in their team. A member of Mountain Rescue was also in the intelligence unit and would be the driver. His name was Evans and he was from North Wales and he was commonly known as ‘Taffy’. Fifteen minutes later, the truck pulled out of RAF Leuchars and headed for Dundee. It was a clear, crisp day, with a weak sun in the sky. They crossed the Firth of Tay and passed through Dundee, heading for Blairgowrie. From there the truck headed west to join the Perth — Pitlochry Road and thence north to Aviemore. En route the members talked mountaineering and RAF general talk but no-one mentioned their individual intelligence assignments. There was a firm rule of being on a ‘need to know’ basis. The road followed the River Garry and then climbed, turning north towards Aviemore. The truck made a ‘comfort’ stop at Dalwhinnie. By now the light was fading and there was little could be seen of their surroundings. Fifteen minutes later they started off again. Eventually the truck turned off the main road and followed the road to Loch Morlich. The night was crisp and the team was glad to arrive at their destination.
The camping ground was deserted and the truck rolled to the location pointed out by Flying Officer Crombie. Everyone piled out and quickly unloaded tents. Using the trucks headlights, they erected the main tent first and then split into their pairs to erect their alpine tents. Corporal Hill was paired with a Corporal Stan Stanier, nicknamed ‘Loco’ after the Stanier range of steam locomotives. In the team he was known as Stan. Once that was done, Flight Sergeant Bradley organised a roster for kitchen duty and a meal was prepared while others organised a fire to warm themselves up. Pressure lamps were lit to give plenty of light and these also started throwing heat into the tent. It was about 19.00 hours when they all sat down to a hot meal. After the meal, Flying Officer Crombie split the group of twelve into two teams, one led by him and the other by Flight Sergeant Bradley. There were two other sergeants in the group and one was paired with Flying Officer Crombie and the other with Flight Sergeant Bradley. The rest of the group were all corporals and they were paired off. Again, they would use Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radios for communication and they were briefed on which channels to use. The new machines were more compact and less cumbersome and there was one per team and one to be kept at base camp. After final briefing, hot cocoa was made and the pairs all headed for their tents and settled down for the night.
Across the road from the camp site stood the lodge, providing accommodation for those that did not want to camp out in tents. One of the groups that had arrived that weekend was the Mancunian Mountaineering Club. There was a group of sixteen members and they had split into teams of four. Major Garasov was in one of those teams. Two of his team were academics and the fourth a public servant. That evening they had met in the dining room and planned the daily targets, which would be rotated round the teams so that each team experienced each target.
It
