9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2003 - Page 0011
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2003 |
| Transcription |
REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) 9 A Squadron he Troop articles were written just before the Squadron deployed on Op TELIC 3, at a time when we were adjusting from being stood down from an anticipated Bosnia tour, to take over from B Squadron. A flurry of cascaded telephone calls across the globe had summoned us back from pre-deployment leave to enhance our training for a new and potentially more demanding theatre. At the start of leave the Squadron very sadly lost LCpl Paddy O’Brien killed in a road accident on the way home to London. He will be greatly missed. This intro- duction takes the Squadron’s story up from our return from summer leave. After the 20 Brigade Commander’s opening briefing day we were grouped with 26 Regiment Royal Artillery with a company of Royal Scots and two Gunner batteries. The relationship has been a very happy one and we have carved out a good reputation with a Regiment that has looked after us well. A month of spe- cial-to-theatre training followed, almost all of it conceived and run at Squadron level, but culminating in a week long Battlegroup validation period at Sennelager. The Squadron flew out to Iraq at the end of October and spent a miserable week of acclimatisation training at the infamous Shaibbah Logistics Base. The heat was the easy part: basic tented conditions, flies and vulnerability to sickness made this crowded encampment unpleasant, and the range work was demanding but limited in scope. That said, the period certainly was effective acclimatisa- tion, as we arrived at our base, Az Zubayr Port, south of Basra, hardened and appreciative of much better conditions. At the half way point the tour has been a success and we hope that it continues to be so. We live quite comfortably in modular tented accommodation, which is ideal for the desert heat, but copes less well with the winter rains. The ' Squadron has exerted a firm grip on our Area of Operations which is 200 km long, stretching from the Shatt Al’Basra to the Western Desert and Saudi Arabia and 40 km wide at its eastern edge taking in the Kuwaiti border and the towns of Umm Qasr, Safwan and Khor Zubayr. We have an urban population of 135,000, 130 km of strategically important routes and the only deep water port in Iraq. We have 122 sol- diers with a small collection of Landrovers and ten CVR(T) to have an effect. I do not think that it is immodest to claim that the Squadron has certainly had an effect, and judging from the amount of VIPs the Brigade Commander has pushed our way for briefing, he thinks so too. Many months of training, sound administration and fit- ness in body and mind has given even the youngest soldiers an excellent street confidence and decisiveness which has produced some outstanding results, including the seizure of over 100 weapons and quantities of explosives and ammunition, the arrest and internment of ten important suspects, the capture of 52 kg of drugs and 20 rounds returned. The command structure of the notorious Safwan Hijack Gang, that terrorised Safwan since the end of the war has been dismantled and to this day we conduct regular house raids to sweep up the minor players. Before 4 December 2003 there was at least one violent hijacking in the Safwan area per day. Since that date there have been none. The Squadron has also been involved in Brigade operations against anti-Coalition Former Regime Loyalists (FRL); indeed in our first week here we were given the mission of attacking a farmhouse in which nine heavily armed terrorists were holed up. As the target pack was vague, a troop Scimitars was to be first in, on a classic ‘Find’ task. In the event ‘other agencies’ took over at the last minute. Whether they made as good a job as we would have done is a moot point! These Brigade ops have I“been characterised by early , morning raids in the dark I rain, involving the ' hole Squadron for |
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