Page 107 - MERCIAN Eagle 2011

Exercise Polar Huntsman 2011 – East Midlands Officers Training Corps
Sennelager, Germany 26 June – 11 July 2011
On the evening of 25th June 2011, the Staff and OCdts of EMUOTC crossed over the border into Germany, and following a journey that seemed to take forever, finally arrived in Sennelager later that night. Not only had the journey taken a long time, it had also been
Tan’s drill which to this day Brigadier Andrew Williams, (Commander 49 Bde) cannot quite believe! This was followed by the first prize giving of the week and that evening cadets were given the opportunity to visit some of the surrounding units’ Officers Messes, to get a taste of what life is like in an operational brigade. Thanks must go to the QRH, QDG, 1 PWRR, 5 Rifles, 26 Regt RA, 35 Engr Regt and 3 Bn REME for allowing us into their messes, and for paying for most (if not all)
a long time since EMU had been abroad
on exercise, 1985 to be precise. None of
our current Cadets had even been born
then! After frantically identifying personal kit,
everyone hastily made for their beds, knowing
full well that pre-exercise admin was going to
dominate the next day. In a surprise for many of the Officer Cadets late on the Sunday evening, we began deployment into the field in the form of a challenging 12km insertion march in pairs; this included a series of checkpoints to be reached some of which had specific tasks, such as moving silently through one of the NATO Night Movement Centres which is akin to an obstacle course.
Once in the field the two training companies, Alma and Badajoz, separated and began their exercises, with combinations of raids, recces, deliberate attacks, advance to contacts and all the other activities associated with living in an allegedly hostile area. The area was not only hostile because of the enemies though. Temperatures hit 36 degrees and above some days, forcing us to work almost exclusively at night. We were also lent a Warrior and CVRT for part of the exercise and all the Cadets enjoyed a cabby in a Warrior, with some being in the turret, while a few selected Cadets were able to recce enemy positions in the CVRT. All of this
At the end of the CFT, the relief!
of our drinks! Each mess had some different activities organised, ranging from dinners and barbeques to Giant
Jenga, fifteen minute fancy dress challenges and mini flare cricket, which seemed to challenge some health and safety rules!
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent learning and using the Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (CATT), an experience rarely, if
ever granted to the OTC. It is effectively a series of simulators designed to feel like you are sitting in an armoured vehicle fighting a battle, whether Scimitar, Warrior or Challenger. You and your crew commanded, drove and fired your vehicle whilst receiving a constant stream of information through your headset from around the digital battlefield. Think of a souped up ‘Call of Duty’ in which hundreds
of people play all at once in vehicles. Admittedly, much of the initial communication was trying to figure out where you and your section were located along the lines of, “I’m the tank with its turret pointing in the air spinning clockwise!” and most of the initial movement was
led up to the final attack in which Alma company took command of a reorganised Badajoz company for the blistering assault against dozens of enemy positions in the early hours of Friday morning. After a much-needed breakfast in the field the return to camp was not made
via the enticing trucks parked around the area, but by foot in the form of a Combat Fitness Test (CFT).
Once back in camp we began the arduous process of scraping layers of cam-cream off faces
mainly falling into river beds and crashing into each other.
On the second day of the CATT, with a bit more experience and fewer collisions we fought two pitched battles of Blue Force verses Red Army. In the first battle the Blues were almost firing on the Reds before they began moving and stormed to a swift victory. The second battle was much closer, but Red managed to snatch
a victory in the last few moments of the battle. As a leadership experience it was invaluable, as
Once back in camp we began the arduous
process of scraping layers of cam-cream off faces, sorting out
our exercise kit and desperately hunting for missing radios. Once complete (sort of!) it was time to suit up and get to the NATO Officers’ Mess, to re-live the more difficult and hilarious moments
of the exercise. With no real rest for (some) Officer Cadets the
next morning two thirds of the unit departed for the Adventurous Training phase of the camp. The locations of the AT centres were the Möhnesee (of Dam Busters fame) and the Dümmersee Sailing Centres, where sailing, volley ball, kayaking, cycling and rafting were available. For those that were left behind, we were treated to a weekend of R&R with one group at Bad Lippspringe swimming pool with its saunas, chutes and wet rooms, as well as a series of pools, whilst the other group was taken Waterskiing with Capt Hale who only just managed to survive the day without dying from laughter from watching OCdt Ashley Jackson and others in their attempts
of ‘waterskiing on a wire’. Sunday had the swimmers and skiers reunited to go on a cultural trip to Wegelsburg, the spiritual home
of the Nazi SS and then to the town of Paderborn for the afternoon learning about the history of the region. In all the excitement a
few of us got ‘lost’ and missed our buses. That evening the whole unit reunited for the Leavers Dinner with several prominent guests from around Paderborn Garrison in our second home of the NATO Officers’ Mess. A great time was had by all and many ever more elaborate stories swapped.
The next morning after an RSM led PT session, it was into the inter-section sports and drill competition, which 6 Platoon 3 Section managed to convincingly win, the highlight being OCdt Emma
commanders had to deal with information coming from the crews, their section and from more senior commanders. Whilst drivers and gunners were trying to second-guess what the commanders wanted, without pre-empting them.
The following day, after some enforced sleep, we were out on
the ranges for grouping & zeroing followed by an Annual Combat Marksmanship Test (ACMT). As always on a range day the weather is only ever extreme, and the scorching sunshine led to some outstanding tan lines. The next day was an inter-section shooting competition (with a victory for 4 Sec 2 Plt). After the victory dance
it was back to camp for rifle cleaning and camp debrief, followed closely by cleaning out billets and packing trucks for the long journey home. The second phase of prize giving was held in the evening and in the morning the group that had already done AT departed back to England, whilst the rest headed out to the two sailing centres, to be returned safely back to England a few days later.
The opportunities offered by having Annual Camp abroad are
not to be underestimated. The chance for people to travel and see another part of the world, the very different weather conditions that we faced and some of the activities we did would have simply not been possible in the UK, due to operational demands on facilities such as large exercise areas and CATT trainers or location. The officer cadets learned a lot from these experiences, and had to work hard in order for it to happen as well as it did, and whilst for some the bright lights of Sandhurst beckon, the rest of us are off to enjoy our summer and look forward to another action packed OTC year. Bring it on!
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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