9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2013 - Page 0049
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2013 |
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REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES'S) 47 shop at the indoor mall for their family and deployed loved ones. The bus journey back was very quiet which may have been as- sisted by a few glasses of gluwhein. For the following day, Re- becca Kinsey, the Welfare Clerk, had arranged a Christmas craft day in the Lancers’ Retreat, with the help of Ruth Perks, the Strong Bonds coordinator. Even after a long day shopping in Braunschweig, the families were not put off by another day out and the high attendance figures meant the event was a roaring success. There were ginger bread houses and Christmas cards made by all the children and I am sure many of the cards made their way to Afghanistan. The Christmas theme continued with a children’s Christmas party and once again the decorations were fantastic along with both the entertainment and the food. December also saw a significant rise in the number of transport requests from dependants wishing to return to the UK over the festive period. The MT department did an excellent job of en- suring that families were able to make flights home on time and then return back to Hohne at the end of the holidays. Some days included up to four details on the same day to a variety of airports, at different times, through some quite awful weather. To lighten the load on MT, the Welfare Department also took on a number of these details during this very busy period. As the end of 2013 drew closer, one last event remained. This was the Families’ Christmas lunch at Glynn Hughes for all the families that remained in Hohne on Christmas day. The chefs did a fan- tastic job with the food whilst the wives were without the stress of having to cook and clean up. All in all, 2013 has been a very busy year for the Welfare Depart- ment. This has enabled all of the soldiers deployed on Op HER- RICK 19 to keep their minds on the job at hand — they can rest assured that their families are being well looked after in Hohne. AB Ex BLUE HUSSAR he 9th/ 12th Royal Lancers have long been regarded as be- ing at the forefront of reconnaissance throughout not just the British Army but indeed the whole world. It therefore made logi- cal sense that, when asked to provide soldiers and officers, they sent their best and brightest recce soldiers to participate in Ex BLUE HUSSAR, the three day combined Danish-UK survival/ recce exercise. The team of three included LCpl Saunders (given time away from the Provost office to get back into the field and remind himself why he ioined the Army) and LCpl Callaghan (keen to give himself a break from the Signals stores and an ex- cuse to smother his face in cam cream). The final team member was sourced from the “allyest” of departments, and knew less about recce then a brand new Lancer has already forgotten; the Det Comd was sorry to be leaving the comfort of his office but was looking forward to the exciting exercise that lay ahead. The exercise began in earnest on a mild Thursday morning with the two LCpls dragging the Det Comd from the comfort of his Bredebeck bed before starting the long journey to the Danish border. Even with a Sat Nav our navigational skills were given an early test as the only directions we had received from Capt Lars Bo were “Meet me on the other side of the border in the lay- by,” a description far less descriptive then we were expecting and possibly the beginning of an adult film. Two or three lay-bys later and we managed to track down the elusive Danish Capt and head towards Sogard Hovvei which would be our exercise area for the weekend. On our arrival we were greeted by two Danish Special Forces Officers who would be our Directing Staff for the duration of the exercise. Their laughter when asked by LCpl Saunders “Is this going to be a thrashing?” did very little to put us at ease. Our Danish hosts did a fantastic iob in easing us into the exercise intelligence picture by providing a full SITREP in English. In summary, we would be inserting into enemy-held territory in order to recce likely enemy positions. The main effort was for our small 10 man patrol, made up of Danish Reserve Officers and Warrant Officers, to avoid detection whilst gathering as much intelligence as possible prior to our extraction. Following a succession of briefs we were led through a series of ROC drills to ensure our success- ful integration into the patrol. We received an hour of battle prep time, which enabled us to eat a precious last hot meal and ensure all kit was packed away, before we climbed aboard the TCV which would deliver us to our insertion point. It was roughly at this stage that the Det Comd really started to question what he had signed up for, whilst LCpls Callaghan and Saunders both gleamed like the Cheshire Cat at the prospect of getting stuck into the exercise. The first phase of the insertion seemed straightforward. We were to patrol approx 10km through the Danish countryside to meet a “local agent” who would lead us to three concealed boats, which would enable us to cross the only major obstacle in our path, Lake Hostrup So. Whilst not maior obstacles we did encoun- ter several electric fences, designed to keep in cattle and other such large animals and more than capable of repelling wet and already-hungry soldiers. For the most part the patrol managed to arrive at the edge of the lake in relatively good order and with- out too many problems. Following a very swift and surprisingly un-detailed safety brief, we loaded our kit and ourselves into the black rubber dinghies and pushed out onto the lake. Rowing across the oily black water of the lake, in near pitch black dark- ness, surrounded by bearded Danes quickly made me forget all thoughts of tactical recce and replace them with visions of pi]- laging and burning. It took several minutes of day dreaming before I remembered that I was not in fact a Viking and we were definitely not rowing towards the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. After beaching our vessels on the other side of the lake we quickly established a recce harbour before setting off, in groups of three, to our designated targets. The woods we travelled through were haunted with the faint sound of barking dogs, later revealed to be tracking dogs whose sole purpose for the weekend was to track down recce soldiers. After a sufficient amount of time on target we made our way back to the boats by the longest and most scenic route possible, narrowly avoiding detection by the dogs on a number of occasions,. Apparently ‘crowing it’ in full GORTEX has its advantages, as it minimises ground scent for the dogs to track, which made us all question everything we had learnt in Phase 1 Training. |
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