A very cold war in Asia
QUESTION What is the highest altitude at which a major battle has been fought?
THE Siachen Glacier (maximum height 7,720 metres) is in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalayas in the disputed area of Kashmir to the north of India and Pakistan.
It is considered the ‘highest battlefield in the world’.
At the end of a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1949, India and Pakistan agreed on a ceasefire line (CFL) in undivided Kashmir as per the Karachi Agreement of 1949. However, the easternmost stretch of the CFL was not demarcated beyond a point called NJ9842, a glaciated Himalayan area, since it was considered inhospitable and uninhabited.
It simply said from NJ9842, the line would run ‘thence north to the glaciers’ – the Siachen, Rimo and Baltoro.
From the Sixties, Pakistan began to redraw the maps so that glaciated valleys came under its purview. Pakistan invited international climbers to conquer the peaks there to give the claim legitimacy.
In 1982, it was discovered the Pakistan army were on manoeuvres to secure the area.
India responded by launching Operation Meghdoot (named after the ‘divine cloud’ messenger in a Sanskrit play) on April 13, 1984, when the Indian Army and Air Force occupied the glacier.
Pakistan responded with troop deployments but were overwhelmed by Indian forces who secured more than 2,500 sq km of territory comprising most of the Siachen Glacier and all of its tributary glaciers, including the major passes of Saltoro Ridge.
Hostilities continued until 1999 and have not officially ended. More than 1,300 Pakistani soldiers died on Siachen between 1983 and 1999. According to Indian estimates, the operation has cost 50billion rupees (€600million) with more than 2,000 casualties.
Almost all of the casualties on both sides have been due to extreme weather conditions.
Both countries maintain a military presence in the region at a height of more than 20,000ft. L. Reddy, Luton.
QUESTION What is the easiest way to sharpen scissors? THE classic method is to take a piece of aluminium kitchen foil
about 25cm long, and fold it several times so you have a thick, folded strip of foil.
Then simply cut through the foil five or ten times.
The alternative method to sharpen scissors is to cut through a piece of sandpaper with a fine grit (150-200) that has been folded so the rough edges face outwards, several times. Eileen Wallace, by email.
QUESTION Is it true that the white webbing belt worn by Ursula Andress in Dr No once belonged to a Royal Marine? What happened to it?
THAT webbing belt did not belong to a Royal Marine. I was the leading seaman in charge of the gunner’s party on board the destroyer HMS Troubridge in 1962.
I was responsible to the gunnery officer for the maintenance and issue of all webbing equipment including khaki kit, used for landing parties, and other nonceremonial duties, small arms weapons and ammunition, etc.
White webbing was only issued to ratings for specific ceremonial duties and is not part of their personal kit.
During the filming of Dr No, the gunnery officer, whom I understood to be liaising with the film crew, instructed me to issue a number of ratings with white webbing belts and gaiters/anklets for use in the filming. One of these belts was later used by Ursula Andress. I consequently had to write off one white webbing belt.
Bruce (Ned) Kelly, Weston-super-Mare. THE belt belonged to Gordon Joslin, then a 28-year-old petty officer aboard HMS Troubridge.
Ursula Andress felt the ivory cotton bikini she had helped design was missing something and one of the film crew was despatched to ask sailors from the Troubridge, who were also on Jamaica’s Ochos Rios beach, to help.
The belt and bikini set were sold in the Christie’s James Bond auction of 2001.
The bikini outfit was sold by Andress herself, who said she found the outfit in her attic.
It was bought for £41,125 by Robert Earl, owner of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, to display at his outlet in Times Square, New York.
Ned Dawson, by email.
QUESTION Did Cliff Richard once accuse The Beatles of playing out-of-tune guitars?
WAS it, as the previous answer suggested, sour grapes that led Cliff Richard to accuse The Beatles of playing out of tune? If so, it was with good reason, because one John Lennon comment almost destroyed Cliff’s career.
Between 1958 and 1960, Cliff Richard and The Shadows produced some of the best British rock’n’roll: Move It, Dynamite, Apron Strings, D In Love, Chopping And Changing, She’s Gone and I’m Gonna Get You – all equal to American rock.
In 1960, they were the first UK band to tour the US, and Cliff appeared on Ed Sullivan’s TV show several times, long before the Fab Four. By 1963, Cliff and the boys were on top of the world with the film Summer Holiday and two No.1 hits in the UK.
By now, though, The Beatles had broken through and they saw Cliff and The Shadows as rivals.
At first it was friendly rivalry, and the bands met at a party at Bruce Welch’s house, where they all sang each other’s songs, well into the night.
Cliff regularly praised The Beatles in the press and sent them a good-luck telegram before they left for America.
Then it turned sour. In December 1964, in Michael Braun’s book about The Beatles, Lennon was quoted as saying: ‘We hate Cliff Richard records.’
From that moment, Cliff became a symbol of an establishment that Britain was turning its back on and ridiculing.
If Cliff did think The Beatles played out of tune, I’m sure he would have told them to their faces as he regularly ran into Harrison and McCartney at Abbey Road recording studios. Anthony Petrie, by email.
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