Regimental Histories - Year 1960-1985 - Brockbank - Page 0115
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Hohne they found that the Regiment had moved to Campbell Barracks, Hohne: a decision that it had taken knowing that it could have remained at Munster with tanks if it had wished to. HOHNE Long before Mr Gorbachov went for “restructuring” in Russia the British Army had developed a plan ofits own This afiected all arms but it is only necessary to note here that Armoured Reconnaissance lost its helicopters and guided missiles and in BAOR it was re‘equipped to provide close as well as medium reconnaissance for the armoured divisions The move to Hohne, therefore, placed the Regiment under command of 1 Armoured Division with A and C Squadrons equipped with Scorpions for the divisional medium reconnaissance task and one, B Squadron (shortly to be commanded by Major Lord Morpeth), equipped with 40 Scimitars for the close reconnais— sance task for five of the divisional battle groups in two different brigades As the Commanding Ofliccr said “It was an untidy solution but it worked’K It meant in fact that B Squadron manned more than half the AFVs in the Regiment with a strength that almost equalled the combined strengths of the other two sabre squadrons. For administration in barracks Lhis must have been rather more than untidy: for training and operations there were even worse defectsi Cuts in the defence Vote and the need to deploy greater numbers of tanks in Germany were two reasons which underlay restructuring but it was the loss of training ammunition and track mileage which really affected squadrons, Campbell Barracks, when the Regiment arrived) were in the process of modernisation to bring them up [0 the standard enjoyed in Munsteri This caused a good deal of turmoil for several months as troops moved from temporary accom- modation to permanent, It was worth waiting for as Hohne garrison was not a comfortable location. There were changes in key appointments early in the New Year when Major Gundry took command of HQ Squadron, Captain Bennett relieved Captain Lindsay as Adjutant; and SSM Jones became RSM lll |
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