Regimental Histories - Year 1960-1985 - Brockbank - Page 0074
Image details
| Transcription |
Delmold polo team consisting of the CO, Captains Readhead and Clapton and Lt Searby defeated the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars in the first round of the Inter—Regimental Competition but lost to the 5th Royal Inniskill'mg Dragoon Guards in the second. The team won the Ali Baba Cup at the Hohne Tour- nament and members played in other ones at Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin. The sailors had an outstandingly suc- cessful time in the Baltic. Crews under Lts Dickens and Thorold won both the RAC and 4 Division Passage races and thirty members of the Regiment were trained at Kiel. Very many others began their skiing careers in Bavaria and novice teams competed in the Service Championships led by Captain Readhead. A remarkable adventure training party under Lt Lord Morpeth succeeded in nearly climbing Mount Demavend (18,605 feet) in Iran: at least they got 55 feet from the top, It had not been too difficult a year but what loomed ahead was intimidating to say the least. Since the Regiment had left Osnabruck in 1969 the BAOR training cycle had become much more complicated by the necessity to reinforce the troops in Northern Ireland from Corps other than infantry. This com~ mitment now faced the Regiment in 1972 by which time it had completed a full training season in the new Chieftain tanks mostly with experienced squadron leaders for the whole season. It was not until midsummer that Major Wilkinson handed over A Squadron to Major Coghlan but at the end of 1971 there were major changes which brought Major Firestone of the US Armoured Branch to B Squadron, Major Endcrby to C Squadron, Major Thornton to Command Squadron, Major Lindsay to HQ Squadron and Major Barrington, on second~ ment from the l7,‘215t Lancers, to Sccond-in-Command. The 1972 programme, planned in outline by Lt-Col Swin- dells before he handed over to Lt-Col Maitland-Titterton in February 1972, was therefore a good deal more complicated than its predecessor. It was not made easier by a change of Adjutant, Captain Hutchins relieving Captain Lou-Phillips. A four month operational tour for C Squadron in Northern Ireland, codenamed Operation Banner, to begin in September overshadowed all else as it involved massive reinforcement 71 |
|---|