Page 13 - Wish Stream 2023 CREST

We thought the weather couldn’t get much worse than Ex LONG REACH but then Ex FIRST ATTACK came along... on the only snow day of the year. Despite Barossa looking idyllic covered in a layer of snow, it was not so idyllic once we started leopard crawling through it at 0800hrs on our first section attack. I think the whole platoon can agree that this has put the meaning of cold into perspective.
Before we knew it, Juniors was moving away from learning basic military skills (even
estimate into orders on our next exercise to com- plete an actual deliberate platoon attack.
Ex MONTGOMERY’S MARK (known to OCdts as MONTY’s) quickly approached marking the end of Juniors. After brushing up on some forgotten skills, completing deployment orders on our mission for the exercise, we patrolled into Barossa. This exer- cise brought a new meaning of sleep deprivation with our first deliberate Platoon Attacks and Recce
patrols. The nights were spent deliv- ering full orders in a lightproof shelter made of ponchos around our model pit, with some heading into the dark, cutting about, observing the enemy. Although this exercise tested the pla- toon’s mental and physical resilience, with little sleep and added complexity of command appointment, it gave the platoon an opportunity to live indepen- dently in the field in a more realistic offensive operation.
The whole platoon is definitely looking forward to our Easter break to catch up on a lot of sleep. But before we reflect
on all we have learnt through Junior Term, we still have one more hurdle to overcome, involving a new experience of arm pain...Rifle Drill.
though we still need lots of prac-
tice on these) to classroom-based
learning. This started with our jour-
ney into military planning start-
ing with the Combat Estimate. At
first, it seemed daunting having to
decipher so much information but,
when you understand the process,
it becomes much more straightfor-
ward to understand. So, with that
we headed on to Barossa to put
into practice what we had been
learning on Ex SADDLEBACK
ATTACK to plan a deliberate attack
on our enemy. Using all the differ-
ent boxes with different coloured pens, definitely helped simplify the process but at the back of our minds was that some of us would be putting the
We thought the weather couldn’t get much worse than Ex LONG REACH but then Ex FIRST ATTACK came along... on the only snow day of the year
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