Land rovers

Driving
There weren't many vehicles on the road at the start of the war in Bosnia, mainly U.N APC's, a few Bosnian police cars and the odd Ambulance which became odder as the war went on, and of course, us lot, the foreign press. We hired a translator and his car in one hit, an old clunker VW Golf diesel that had seen better days even before the war got to it but over the next five months it was sniped at with anything from AK47s ( the standard machine gun) to anti aircraft artillery. It was hit by shrapnel from two tank rounds or mortar bombs, whatever they were they were loud and didn't do the paint work any good. It had slipped off the icy road countless times and bounced off all sorts of objects all the time running on anything that remotely smelled like diesel. Sarajevo was lawless as far as driving went at that time and the faster you drove the safer you felt. We drove with helmets and bullet proof jackets on and in some parts of the town we went into what we called turtle mode - (that's when you crunch down so the bullet proof jacket and the helmet touch each other to protect the neck). If it was dark the lights would only attract the snipers so off they went, then drive like a bat out of hell hoping you didn't meet someone in turtle mode coming the other way .

After about 5 months of digging all sorts all sorts of bullets and other nasty projectiles out of our Golf it was starting to look like Swiss cheese, not only was it full of holes it was soft so it was time to change, it was time to go hard or go home.

The Pig
The television company I was working for sent us in an armored Land Rover or rather a Land Rover that was armour plated. As far as stopping bullets went it worked a treat, for this I am eternally grateful but as far as driving went, it didn't work a treat. It was overloaded even before we put anything in it and it was top heavy so cornering was a serious handful. Being so heavy it took a while to get up to speed and when it got there stopping it again took almost as long. There was no AC so in the summer months we had to drive with the doors slightly open which had a considerable affect on its bullet-proof ability but we learnt to love it and we even gave it a name - The Pig. The Pig served us faithfully . On several occasions after heavy fighting we came across wounded civilians in the street and The Pig became an ambulance and a recovery vehicle pushing broken- down cars to safety in places where no one was silly enough to get out and attach tow ropes. (David can verify this one). It was used as a shield to protect pedestrians from the ever present snipers. People would walk alongside it as we drove slowly across exposed parts of the town.

Every week we had to drive to the airport to pick up our supplies that were sent in to us on an aid flight from Split in Croatia. This meant a quick dash across the front line through about 1km of No Mans Land, then to the Serb front line. The Serbs had put huge mounds of dirt across the road that you had to zig zag through like a chicane to get to their check point and then to the U.N held airport to get our stuff and head back again. We did this trip so many times that the soldiers on all the check points knew us and the crossing was made easy - most of the time. On one occasion I was going to the airport on a routine run when I was stopped by another TV crew in another bullet proof Land Rover who also wanted to go to the airport but hadn't spent much time in Sarajevo and wanted me to show them the way. Not a problem, follow me. We checked with the Bosnian Government soldiers at their Marlboro point and got permission to cross No Mans Land to get to the Serb side. The soldiers told us that there had been fighting about half an hour ago but that it was quiet now, so off we went at the usual million miles an hour across no mans land. Most of this 1/2 mile dash was spent looking down the barrel of a Serb 50 caliber anti aircraft gun located at the end of the road in a bunker. Is there anyone home? Has he seen me? Is he angry? Is he drunk? All these thing are going threw my head as we drive past dead tanks and rumble over mortar craters. We got about 30 meters into No Mans Land when a tank round exploded about 20 meters to the right. I put my foot to the floor and the pig slowly gained speed.
Well I thought it did, we were going flat out as it was. I had a quick glance in the mirror and the other Land Rover was right on my tail. Two more explosions rocked the Land Rover. Another check on my followers, but there was no longer a mirror on the driver's side. I went through the chicane at almost top speed. I had got to know The Pig quite well by now and was able to time the body roll and the chicane perfectly. We went through almost tipping over at every zig zag. I looked into the passenger side mirror just in time to see the other Land Rover get around the first pile of dirt but plough into the second and continue on its way balancing on two wheels before slamming into the third. It came to rest on its wheels with the left wing sticking straight up and the grill full of bunker. The driver hit his head on the windscreen and his passenger had whiplash. The Serb soldiers patched them up as best they could and referred them to the French hospital at the airport.

Pig 2
The office in London told us we were going to get a new Land Rover and I was to take The Pig to Kasiljack to meet the Land Rover and the driver that had tagged onto an aid convoy and escort them back to our office at the television station. Kasiljack was only 10 minutes up the road but that was in peace time. We had to cross the Bosnian Government line to the Serb line to get to the airport and then cross the airport and then into territory held by HOS or the Croatian Bosnian troops where I was to meet the Land Rover. It was art on wheels built for TV crews working in Bosnia .It was armored, not armour plated and had turbo. It was built from the ground up with heavy duty everything. It had speed, it had handling, it had AC and on top of all that it looked cool, too - it was great. We thought long and hard to come up with a name for it. Yes, you guessed it... Pig 2. After several months of working out of Pig 2 it took on the usual " been there done that" look that all of the cars working in Sarajevo.

Now that the war is over in Sarajevo, the Land Rovers have been taken back to London or put up on blocks somewhere. Some have found their ways into Museums. There are still one or two driving around Bosnia, but that just don't have the same look as the real workers that were there during the worst of the fighting. They are clean and bullet hole free. They look like tourists. But they still are Land Rovers.

Copyright Robbie Wright

Armoured Cars in Bosnia Photos

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