I can still hear you!
Between 1969 and 1974, I lived in Cyprus when my father was posted over there to listen to all of the naughty enemy military and diplomatic signals traffic, and try to decode it. We lived in Famagusta (more correctly, Varosha, I believe - where we lived is no longer accessible to humans, as it's full of unexploded munitions from the Turk's 1974 invasion. More of which perhaps anon.) I was about 11 when this incident occurred, a year or so before the 74 invasion.

We were keen members of the ex-pat sailing community, and a couple of times a year would commandeer a Z craft (a bit like www.ww2talk.com/forum/war-sea/28085-z-lighter.html but shorter in length and with taller structure above deck) and we'd convoy a little north to a deserted beach, drop anchor, bbq and have a great fun day out. Paradise for kids, let me say.

I was in the water, having leapt off the top of the Z craft into the clear, blue, still Med, when a Turkish military boat sped into the cove in a "brave show of farce[sic]". British adults were pulling kids out of the water as the Turks started lobbing grenades into the sea. I was swimming at warp factor 10 for the Z craft while this was going on, proper front crawl, leaving a tsunami-sized wake (rapidly filling with excreta) behind me.

I heard the bangs, of course, and felt the percussion, so I can't have been too far away from the grenades. My dad and his mate leapt into the water to get my head into the air. They were shit-scared, and it was only when safely on deck as they calmly explained what could have happened that I realized how dangerous it was. It was unlikely I'd have been hit by shrapnel they said (inverse square law, and all), but the chances of ear damage were significant. I think much of the blast was deflected by the rocky bottom (not mine! the sea), but I was always pretty careful whenever the "enormously professional and highly-trained" Turkish military were about.
(IHaveComeAmongThee__Twice Tissues on the left. Self-esteem on the right., Sat 21 Aug 2010, 23:33, Reply)