Later in the Mess the problem of the challenge and response was explained to us by one of the junior officers in the regiment that had provided the guards: the RSM had a broad Scots dialect which caused the response to come out as “ADAN” - the soldiers were only doing as they were told! The sadness of it all was that this regiment, when next on guard duty, shot and wounded one of their own officers for the same reason.
The second incident
This occurred a few days later during a period when the local tribesmen under cover of darkness were firing into the camp. Previously, we had been told that our BASO tent was insufficiently blacked out during the dark hours. Our response was that we needed access to our equipment if an emergency call came in overnight – these had come in frequently during the early days of the operation.
One night we heard firing earlier on this particular evening and then two shots were fired and two strange “double-phuts” were heard almost immediately – inspection revealed two entry and two exit holes in the tent roof. Our tent, thereafter, was the best blacked out on the camp! We moved around and operated by torchlight after dark.