Page 60 - Mercian Eagle 2012

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Coy leaguer in Mid-October
with the words “Bxxxxy Hxxl, what have you done to them – they’re all proper fxxxxd” – not especially ladylike, but very heartfelt and illustrative! In fact, the package was both physically and tactically hard and rewarding, with the attack on D+7 winning the accolade of hardest thing they’d done from a number of senior NCOs. We were joined throughout by 4 SCOTS Snipers, of whom more later, and the WMIK mounted FSG who integrated thoroughly into the Company and provided an added dimension of realism with some first class Fire Support.
Combined Arms Integration at D+9
saw us continue our gypsy existence and re-re-subordinate to the 9/12 Lancers.
By this stage, CSgt Scott was becoming somewhat frustrated with G4 systems
and had resorted to waylaying OSHKOSH tankers and forcing them to fill up the SVs, as well as marching into A2 echelon and commandeering the stores he needed without actually asking anyone. He swears blind it was our A2 echelon, but we remain unconvinced...there were a lot of REME and the sign definitely said CSS...
CAI was a mixed bag – a day in Defence conducting routine did not quite live up to the “ranges” billing – but we completed our live fire with a comprehensive attack
on TARMEK village supported by A Sqn 9/12th which drew plaudits from Safety and CO 9/12L and SCOTS DG who had turned up to see us off. Perhaps the finest complement came from OC A Sqn, Maj James Bishop, a refined and charming Cavalryman who, as he left, expressed
OC cunningly disguised as the CQMS’ landrover
SCOTS DG and B Coy 3 MERCIAN. CO 4 SCOTS had set us a success criterion of holding the river line until 0600 on D+18, so it was with some surprise that we watched sunrise on the river without having been decisively engaged. It turned out that a number of factors – the Recce
the view that he found
the rigours of Infantry
soldiering in the Urban
Environment, rather
harder than perhaps
he would wish and that
in the future he would
leave it to those who
had been misguided enough to choose infanteering as their military specialism. Actually, he said “You can shove this infantry bxxxxxxs you maniacs, that was ridiculously fxxxxxg hard”. We had thought it quite easy by comparison to what had gone before...
36 hours in camp complete, Tiger Stripe donned, and the then LCpls King, Pickin and Bradley having led a private night raid on Medicine Hat, we rejoined the COEFOR. We threw ourselves into battle prep, conducted extensive recces of the SUFFIDZ and FAIRZUT rivers (the BATUS landscape in no way based on Afghanistan) and set ourselves for the impending onslaught from
screen deployed by
4 SCOTS extremely capable Sniper platoon, the arrest of a NATO engineer team by Capt Fulford (CO 4 SCOTS – I want pictures of them in Guantanamo suits;
Capt F – Sorry, they seemed annoyed so we let them go) and the fog of war – had delayed the attack until that night. In the meantime, the Tank Coy, ably led by Capt Fulford, had destroyed A1 Echelon and attacked BG Main. Finally, however, the inevitable happened and NATO broke through despite the piecemeal destruction of the alternate crossing site by C Coy. The Chemical plant at ORDEK fell and COEFOR withdrew across the international border to lick its wounds.
Mission 2 saw a desperate attack by NDF forces to gain a foothold against NATO, by re-taking the bridges over the SUFFIDZ.
All scrubbed up for the OPFOR Battle Group photo
it turned out that a number of factors
THE MERCIAN EAGLE