Army game that could turn a Prince into tea boy for the day

He may be third-in-line to the throne, an Army captain and responsible for attack helicopters worth £45m, but Prince Harry was not exempt from making the tea in Afghanistan, pictures just released show.

Losing the daily round of Uckers, a traditional military board-game, would consign the 28-year-old to a shift of servitude, at the beck 
and call of his bell-ringing comrades.

“Whoever loses that becomes the Brew Bitch, and then you have to make brews for everybody all day,” Harry said.

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The relaxed setting of the Uckers board outside the airmen’s VHR (very high readiness) tent belied both the fierce competitive edge to the game and the ever-present threat of a call to scramble to the Apaches.

Harry and the three other pilots on his flight of two aircraft relaxed, ate chocolate, tuned in to the radio and ted flies. They were surrounded by reminders of war – their benches propped up on empty ammunition boxes and the wire frames of Hesco defence barriers overhead is a camouflage net giving some much-needed shade. Empty shell cases made perfect ash-trays.

At arm’s reach was the “Shout” telephone, which triggered a dash to their primed attack helicopters.

Captain Simon Beattie, Harry’s flight commander, explained the Uckers routine: “It’s always the thing we do first in the morning, with my flight.

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“And the loser ends up being on call. We ring the bell and they make the brews, and for anyone that comes by.”

Similar to Ludo, Uckers is traditionally a Royal Navy game, but it is also very popular in the Army Air Corps.

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