Page 63 - Journal Compilation

would demand less of a maintenance burden, or so we thought! Like any soldier contemplating the weather however, the lack of roof or in fact any protection from the elements began to get conversations and many an idea for a GEM were discussed. Like most things German the bad weather also proved to be extremely reliable experiencing frequent snow and rain, although this did not dishearten our spirits as we came to grips with our new
vehicles and began the Annual Crew Tests. Without the bene t of a crew served Inter Comm as many were accustomed to from CVR(T) there were some teething problems but as the ring progressed were soon as deadly with .50 and 40mm as they had once been with a 30mm Rarden cannon.
Germany 1980
clear advantage being that it is markedly easier to lean over the side to chat up the hordes of admiring ladies attracted to the dashing good looks of the soldiers occupying these frightfully warry looking vehicles. Sgt Dodd in his usual cheerful way guided the OC and SSM through a four day package with the style and panache with which we have become accustomed whilst he has been Provo Sgt. The rest of the mere mortals in the Sqn were thrashed by the JACKAL Instructors.
Attention now turned to the Regimental move back to the UK. A clear obstacle which we had all played the Ostrich game over was the 8 years of clutter and random pieces of furniture that had
This would stand us in good stead as we progressed
throughtheremainderof the period...
1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
13
toy. The obvious
positive being
that after the rst
few road moves
and off road
driving sessions
B Sqn soldiers
have been able
to suitably adapt their wet weather wardrobe to include everything from full face lycra masks, double GORETEX and several sets of gloves. HQ Sqn Ldr was simply rubbing his hands together as the boys in their droves emptied the shelves of the PRI. We found our feet fairly quickly, and despite a couple of close calls, quickly became accustomed to the capability of our new vehicle. This would stand us in good stead as we progressed through the remainder of the period of IOC and into 2016/17.
Alongside the driver training the Sqn had two new weapon systems to get to grips with. Most of us had used the Browning .50 calibre Machine Gun before but for the rst time we were learning to apply it as our primary weapon system. That alongside the Heckler and Koch 40mm Grenade Machine Gun offers the sabre troops an undeniably potent weight of re and the range packages proved to be a real highlight of the spring. We were blessed with unseasonably good weather and a seemingly endless supply of Practice 40mm Grenades. Once the mandated static shoots were complete we mounted our hardware onto our
The nal aspect of the conversion to Light Cav involved the commanders amongst us adapting to the ne art of map reading at 60mph. This was no mean feat without a windscreen and with two sets of gloves on. The only
That’s what higher band pay looks like