9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2004 - Page 0062
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
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60 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) Congo Noddy It has been a remarkable year. For the majority ofit, the author was still the Commanding Officer of the Armoured Trials and Development Unit, and assiduous readers of this illustrious journal will recall reading about it last year. Highlights of 2004 included a highly successful Open Day, as well as visits to Sweden to see demonstration of Defensive Aid Suites and to Israel to fire turret mounted 60mm mortars in the Negev Desert. There was also a magnificent visit to an American company to drive a hybrid- electric drive vehicle which was lower than a VW Golf, yet had more internal space than a Warrior and a 7 30 mph time of 5.3 seconds. It also had the ability to switch off its engine and to move around for up to 20 miles using battery power, in total silence. There are some very clever designers out there and it bodes well for the replace- ment for Scimitar. Command of ATDU was handed over 2‘2" to the safe custody of the Queen’s Royal Lancers in October. In November I flew to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to take over as the Chief G3 Plans officer in the United Nations Observer Mission there, known by the French mnemonic of MONUC. There are five British officers in the mission, which is the largest in the world. It has 12,000 troops at present, but will be almost 17,000 strong by March 2005. The country itself is huge 7 it is over six times the size of Iraq, for example, and if laid on a map of Europe, would reach from Portugal to Poland, and Hadrian’s Wall to Sicily. Much of it is dense rainforest, and the road structure is virtually non existent after years of kleptocracy and neglect. To say that it is a challenging area would be an understatement. The situation is distinctly volatile. After the genocides in Rwanda in 1994, many rebels fled to the jungles of eastern Congo and have remained there since. There are other tribal groups, all with influence in their own, often overlapping areas. Riots in the east earlier in the year were handled less than robustly by the UN mission and, since 1 October 2004, the mis- sion has operated under an altogether more purposeful Chapter VII mandate which authorises the use of ‘deadly force’. My predecessor had the job of asking the United Nations in New York for reinforcements; my most pressing job is to get them on the ground as they arrive. The reinforcements have been arriving thick and fast. The key components are two full infantry brigades. The twist in the tale is that one is from India, and the other from Pakistan. Having literally been facing one another in Kashmir, they are now to operate side by side in adjacent Areas of Operation. Indian hel- icopters will deploy the Pakistani patrols, and Indian surgeons will patch them up. It is a truly bizarre situation. I accompa- nied the Indian Brigadier and his staff on his recce. We were flown from place to place by helicopter, and at one point had a thoroughly good curry in mid-air as we clattered towards the next location. Air power is not lacking 7 indeed, given the lack of roads, it is essential. MONUC will shortly have 63 aircraft, which will make it the largest ‘airline’ in Africa. The passenger-carrying aircraft range from a (very smart) Boeing 727 to little Beechcraft WEE. _'4 5MP 2 dep/Oy/flg from a Ha/O he/wopter business jets. The troops are carried aroundby a diverse fleet of white-painted Russian Antonov, Ilyushin and Hip aircraft, and the teeth are provided by eight Hind gunships, four ofwhich are night capable. In an operation last week, over forty 57mm rock- ets were fired as ‘warning shots’ at a rebel group. They decided to beat a hasty retreat quite soon thereafter. A recent journey in a Ukrainian Hip helicopter was ‘interest- ing’. The journey should have taken about 45 minutes, but there was a range of quite serious hills in the way. As we approached them, we could see that their tops were buried in thick clouds. The pilot swung left, to try to get round, but was unable to. We suddenly began climbing in a huge spiral. We disappeared into the cloud, and it started getting quite dark. Heavy rain started pouring onto the windows. We kept on climbing - knowing that steep hills were still out there some- where, to one side - but which side? Then there were several flashes of lightning. At this point, the world was not beginning to look a particularly safe place. We kept on climbing, and the rain was replaced by heavy hail. Ice started to form on the out- side of the aircraft. At this moment, the little curtain over the round window in the cockpit door was pushed aside, and the Engineer’s face appeared. He held both his hands up in front of his face as if to say ‘the pilot can’t see a thing either’ and then rocked his hand with the palm down from side to side as if to say ‘iffy or what’. Meanwhile, there are still big mountains out there somewhere which we’re trying to climb over.... We finally emerged into some open sky to find that we had, indeed, cleared them. We landed 20 minutes later, and the pilot emerged, grin- ning from ear to ear, with his hand across his chest indicating a rapidly beating heart. ‘I need a drrrrrink!’ he said. Then ‘No - I need SEEEEveral drrrrinks...’ Food is eclectic. There are very few animals remaining in the country, all having been eaten by desperate people who were driven to live off the land. Manioc is a staple food, and spinach is inexplicably popular. Imported bushmeat still features fairly prominently on the menu and in the last six weeks I have eaten Antelope, Water Buffalo, Crocodile, Ostrich and 7 not one to repeat 7 Python. The latter was truly revolting, being a cross between chicken, eel and mackerel. Don’t go there. |
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