H cav journal 1993 complete

Page 42

front together with The Queen‘s Own

Yeomanry.

At l2.00 on Thursday. just as

we were all ready to move on to the next objective. ENDEX was called. 11 had been

‘EXERCISE ALMOST BLUE — 16-21 NOVEMBER 1992 By Major] 5 P Swayne, The Blues and Royals

an enjoyable and busy exercise in which we had covered the full spectrum of war from

Snnmrlicrc in Southern Germany.

Just after midnight on the following Monday morning HCR deployed. together with The Queen‘s Own Yeomanry. on the Brigade Exercise. The first phase was a general war scenario in which the Regiment established a long screen. Over the next few days. as the tempo of the exercise changed rapidly. we found ourselves moving further west and then into the Black

Forest. This was arguably the most enjoyable and different phase as we were conducting a Bosnia type exercise. The highlight was Maj Scott being snatched by a local "war lord" — once he had consumed all their available rations. he was released back to his squadron. The final phase of the exercise was a long move in which we advanced on a broad

high intensity operations to low to high again — in just over three days. The major constraint on time had been the requirement to get The Queen‘s Own Yeomanry back home by the end of the week. The next stage for us. following the recovery to Munsingen. was R&R. By Saturday morning most members of the Regiment had managed to disappear in different directions. Some went to the Oktoberfest in Munich. others to the darker areas of Stuttgart. while others took to the shores of Lake Constance. By late Tuesday most of the Regiment were safely back in Windsor and we had hardly been away for two weeks. Exercise Grand Canyon was a short exercise » nine days in the field » but it had proved that the Regiment could deploy overseas both efficiently and quickly — and get back again. We also benefitted from some of the lessons that we had learned from Exercise Union Call in the summer. Our communications. particularly with rebroadcast and HF. had improved considerably. and we had also proved that we could keep the vehicles going despite the high mileage. It was a good exercise and a great opportunity to exercise over some of the most beautiful countryside in Europe.

xcrcise Almost Blue was a pie—Cyprus UN tour exercise planned to give the whole of D Squadron a good run out before we went to bring back Asil Nadir. In fact. "pre" in this instance stood for premature and not preliminary. as we had sadly discovered just before the exercise. So just before our departure to Thetford the theme of the exercise changed into a series of six set piece phases. with a strong flavour of lntcrnal Security. and a number of . extra events. Helicopter reconnaissance by the now SCpl Willacy and the second-in— command had allowed us to build a great deal into the exercise and so. an arrival. the troops were fairly thrown into it. Most troops had been formed according to a Cyprus Orbat and had. therefore. not worked together before. However. this . proved no obstacle. Deployed directly from Wretham Camp. each troop had to cross a river and retrieve a boat so that both kit and people could gain the other bank. One swimmer lost his boat in the crossing and was then lucky enough to see SCM Rogers almost hurl himself into " the water when returning the boat to its owner. As he flung it. the rope became entangled with him and for one second. caught in the lights of the safety vehicles. he tottered on the bank. I failed to mention that these crossings took place from 2300 hrs onwards.

(Actually. I now call 2300 hrs

time for bed in my new vocation. but that‘s another story).

('lmri'll parade in Manx/Hum Cum/2.

56

HOUSEHOLD CA\ ALRY .

Troops patrolled into the night and sought to have an OP in position by first light. Most patrols were followed and it was in this way. as I followed Lt Hughes and SCpl Vickers. that I ran into CoH Norris who was lurking with intent in some bushes. Patrols of Junior Guardsmen had been requested to cover the routes into OP areas and. inevitably. their reports contained almost every move Ct Orr—Ewing made. The following day. small patrols were sent to find out various things. not the least of which was to find a spot in the area surrounding Frog Hill. and lay an ambush against live patrols provided by Oxford UOTC and a TA Company led by Capt France. During the night 50 percent of the troops were successful and came into contact with at least one patrol. Apparently. long after the trip flares had run out. Tpr Newman and Tpr Stickland were still correcting fire on to the shrill screams of the Oxford female cadets. The next day the Commanding Officer flew in with the elegant Adjutant. Capt Lane—Fox. and saw the troops negotiating the excellent confidence course under the tutelage of SSgt O‘Reilly. Once the course was finished the troops were able to drop their Bergens and begin the march to the Assault Course. The run back to barracks was timed from before the Assault Course and included carrying a large plastic fascine with them. Tpr Reason proved very fit for the task and the overall placings were a very fair representation of the fitness of the troops.

LCoH Marriott.

At this stage. after a period of rest. the troops were again deployed but this time on fix and destroy operations against previously prepared targets. These were all successful and indicated that the troops were warming to their tasks and enthusiastically

Li'ti Io rig/ll: ('I Hug/1m: Tpr l'V/M/(l/I. (:fll Err/mu LCoH Brock/mixrt. Tpr Ben/Ivy.

HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY NEWS

57


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