9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2007 - Page 0018
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2007 |
| Transcription |
16 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) 0C B Squadron his year has presented a fantastic opportunity for the Squadron to be thoroughly tested and trained. We have trained through the clogging mud and mists of Hohne, to the pine scented Bavarian forests in green kit, with ESPIRE equipped SCIMITAR. We fought strangely cubic enemy soldiers in the synthetic environment of CATT in the spring. In the summer, thumbing our noses at carbon emissions, we flew to Canada and on to the nostril clogging, sweat soaked dust of the prairies, in desert kit with BGTI Scimitar. The Squadron has battled both our training enemies and many equipment changeovers and come out of the end of the training tunnel tired, but with a noticeable growth in professional capability. CT 1-4 training has its own demands that are different from operational ones, while the specifics of operational and BOW- MAN training over the previous couple of years meant some cobwebs needed to be cleared out. The Squadron has completed local, Squadron exercises where new crew commanders and Troop leaders learned the real bite of recce soldiers’ sleep depri- vation; conducting CTR, 01’s and route recces around Hohne training area. The drivers were soon reminded of the demands of conducting repair and maintenance on aged equipment in a wet, muddy field. This training became pertinent over the rest of the year as the Squadron trained to fight in woods and on prairie. In the early part of the year the Squadron took on CATT and CAST with members of the Squadron enjoying both com- puter simulation and outside entertainment activities on offer in Sennelager. In the spring the Squadron deployed to Bavaria to conduct Exercise SWABIAN LANCE in the beautiful woodlands of southern Germany. This provided some tough training oppor- tunities working with the French and Germans and attempting not to get jealous over their state of the art equipment. There was time for minimal leave before we swapped the mists, moun- tains and pine needles in the socks for the dust of the prairie. After a period of OPFOR training where the core of the Squadron learned GENFOR tactics in the 40°C heat of the Tank Company Ready __ : :j. prairie, the Squadron - along with A Squadron - began a com- prehensive range package with large-scale, integrated live firing. Whilst BATUS staff were used to armour and in recent times IMA, it was the first time an FR Squadron had fired through the range packages and B Squadron received the plaudits of the staff, frequently achieving the highest scores and fastest times seen on the ranges, beating even Challenger Squadrons with their stabilised gun systems. Exercise WOLVERINE at the end of the package saw the support Troops practicing dismounted Panzer Grenadier tactics assaulting right up to enemy positions using live firing CVR(T) for cover. The OPFOR phase of the exercise was conducted in the furnace- like heat of an Albertan summer and the Squadron enjoyed some hugely enjoyable, if somewhat irrelevant, training; roaring around the prairie pretending to be Russian tank commanders. Notable in this period was an armoured thrust through the enemy’s screen and around into his rear by some careful use of ground. The half Squadron group led by the Sqn Leader man- aged to destroy 4 SCOTS Main and Tac HQs as well as their Al and A2 echelons and were busy rolling them up from the rear before attrition by handheld weapons and a minefield took their toll. Cpl Casey remained alive and, undaunted, continued to attack the enemy from the rear, in the rolling ground of the prairie his little ‘tank’ could bravely be seen miles ahead, creep- ing up on the enemy and destroying him one by one. The rapid turn around from OPFOR to FR Battlegroup was not without pain and the Squadron reformed with its headquarters, Sabre troops and Admin Troop. In the BLUEFOR phases 9/12L fought hard battles and the Squadron performed well, conduct- ing an advance, a peace enforcement phase which ended with some aggressive house clearing by a dismounted B Squadron, and then an extremely long, cold and tiring screen then guard operation against an aggressive enemy. There was a little frus- tration that the BATUS training template did not allow suffi- cient ‘recce gap’ and the Squadron found itself at tim s being used almost as close recce with neither fhe time nor sp e to do |
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