Page 20 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

Ex ORYX ENDEAVOUR 19
OCdt Douglas Beard
Thursday 5th December to Friday 13th Decem- ber 2019
We left a cold, dreary and wet Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and within 12 hours were hit by the hot, arid, sunny paradise that was Qatar – a paradise initially, but after deploying on the exercise, it turned out to be one of the more challenging aspects of working in that kind of environment. After a short acclimatisation period, Oryx Platoon embarked on their insertion TAB on the eastern peninsula of the training area in the north west of Qatar. It was only a few kilo- metres, but carrying fully packed Bergans and in all our uniform with the heat of the desert, it certainly felt like we were moving for far longer.
After occupying a harbour in the bowl of an oyster-shaped area of high land offering good secure arcs over the surrounding area and in particular towards the direction of enemy threat, we started to turn our minds to the offensive operations to follow. We cycled through the command positions much like a standard exer- cise carried out at RMAS, giving as many OCdts the opportunities to lead and put their command skills to the test in this new environment. The first
evening saw three simultaneous reconnaissance patrols carried out by each section, the security of the harbour location being provided by our attached gun group armed with two GPMGs and a handful of SA80s from 4 RIFLES. These soldiers would prove to be an invaluable asset as the exercise progressed, sharing with us their training and experience. Of the three recce patrols, two of them identified suitable options for ambush sites on potential enemy routes, and the third got eyes on with a section minus strength of enemy located to the north of our harbour location in an area of high ground. The report from this patrol was to be the basis of the deliberate dawn attack on that enemy position. After orders in the midst of the night, the Platoon moved back to that enemy location and suc- cessfully destroyed the three enemy positions. The saying ‘no plan survives first contact’ rang true here as the original plan had to be altered during the attack, as the lead assaulting section ended up attacking the first two positions, all the while with fire support being rained down on all three enemy positions by the gun group.
That evening the other two recce patrol com- manders helped the Platoon Commander spring
18 SANDHURST