In 1967 I was working as a civil engineer at Misurata in Libya. As part of my team I had four chainmen (these are the chaps who hold the staff while the engineer fiddles about with his theodolite). Being Arabia they were all called Mohammed so I named them wahed, thnene, telleta and arraba which is as near as I ever got to one to four in Arabic. Anyway one day "Number 3", who was a tall well-built chap, came to the site hut and asked for four days leave to go to Benghazi, so i signed his chit and off he went. He duly reappeared four days later looking rather dishevelled and considerably paler than when he left. When i asked him what had happened his reply was "They still daft bastards,they still drink too much !". "They" turned out to be the SAS who were passing through Libya,possibly via El Adem (?) and had decided to have a get-together with some of the Arab desert scouts of the LRDG of whom "Number 3" was one. Apparently his speciality was inserting explosive devices in Rommel's kit,, lighting the blue touch paper and melting away in to the desert..I must confess I viewed him a different light thereafter (and he was a good chainman!).