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9th-12th-Lancers - Year 1986 - Page 0022

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Regiment 9th/12th Lancers
Year 1986
Transcription THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL l ANCERS RFGIMENTAL JOURNAL
PubOF
. warm“ vwv.
Major Burgess and Cpl Warren with their victim — a Tpr of4/7 no
,,,, luckily he failedl On the other side
of the ferry crossing ii Brigade‘s efforts
were being thwarted by “A/RMPS"
from B Squadron who were busy “re-
routing”the traffic.
During the main FFX itself, B
Squadron remained, by request. under
command of ii Armoured Brigade.
We operated for the main part against
30 Armoured Brigade which consisted
of The Blues and Royals. 4/7DG, a
mechanised battalion and iS/lEH act-
ing as their recce forcei To chronicle all
the amusing incidents on this exercise
would take the full magazine. Suffice
to say that B Squadron proved efficient
and dangerous. Particular highlights
WCYCI
at The collection of a bottle of
whisky from the Commanding
Officer for spotting all the enemy
bridgelayers.
b, Our stay-behind 0? Line and our
subsequent successful extraction
across an undetected fordt
c. The re-routing of 20 Armoured
Brigade complete. by LCpl Noone
”RMP”.
d. The capture of a Squadron of
RHQ/D in their night ieaguer.
e. The ambush of Close Reece Troop
4/7 DG by SHQ outside our
Gasthaus “hide".
We were rewarded by a visit from
Brigadier Wheeler in the field at the
end of the exercise and by Commander
Armour. Brigadier Hayman Joyce. on
our return to Barracks
December Gunnery Camp
On return from Exercise QUARTER
FINAL, we threw ourselves immediately
into preparations for Regimental Gun-
nery Camp in the beginning of Decem—
ber. Once again SSgt Palfreyman co-
ordinated Squadron training with great
efficiency. The high turnover of crews.
due to promotions and postings how-
ever. meant that it was a very different
Squadron that was firing at Hohne to
the last time. At least half the Com-
manders were new and virtually three
quarters of the gunners had not fired
before. It was an uphill struggle for the
few Gunnery instructors we had in the
Squadron. At the end of the month we
were as well prepared as we could bel
The FMR Competition on 25 Novem
ber produced some disappointing resins.
however. the results of the CO’s Turret
Competition the next day raised morale
considerably when it was announced
that Is: Troop under Sgt Davies had
won and that the other troops had all
done well. On Thursday 28 November
we loaded our CVR(T) at Wolfenbuttei
Station once more and departed for
OEREKE Camp. The firing programme
proper commenced on Monday with
the Squadron completing static engage-
ments on Range 7A. There followed
Urgent Target engagements the next
day on Range 1C and then a series of
Battle Runs each day thereafter on dif-
ferent ranges. Because of the inexper-
ience of the crews the shooting was dis-
appointing and it was not surprising
therefore that the Squadron received a
C Grading, We could only hope that
this experience would prove valuable
when the Regiment fired again in the
following April. ‘
Christmas Celebrations and more Farewqr
With Gunnery Camp behind us our
attentions focussed very firmly on the
hectic forthcoming Christmas Ceiebra»
tions, The B Squadron party itself took
place on Friday 20 December and will
be remembered mainly for an attempted
”Blues Brothers“ style rendition of
“RAWHIDE” by the Squadron Leader.
“Mr.T." and LCpi Noon: accompanied
by the Regimental Band. all well pro-
tected from ”incomers" behind a wire
mesh screen specially erected for the
occasion! The party also marked the
farewell of the Squadron Leader and .
Mrs Burgess; they were presented with l
a pair of decanters by the Squadron
They leave us for a posting to the UK; in
their place we welcome Major and Mrs
Short from Bielefeld, '
The first activity that B Squadron
were involved with this year was Exer-
cise HARD FIST which was designed
to be a Corps wide ammunition out
loading exercise. However, due to circ-
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