Page 13 - Mercian Eagle 2016

B (Malta) Company
OC Foreword
Another year in which the men of
Malta Company have continued to
deliver consistently excellent results in support of both the 1 MERCIAN and RTR Battlegroups. Having recovered from BATUS, it was B Company’s turn to wave off the rest of the Battalion for Ex PRAIRIE STORM 3 while we held the fort in Bulford. Change of Command from Maj Grover
to Maj Thompson took place and the
Rear Ops Group was up and running to manage the rest of the vehicle fleet and those soldiers who were not able to deploy. With the company’s
focus quickly switching
to the Combined
Arms Manoeuvre
Demonstration (in old
parlance, the Firepower
Demo), a lot of time
was spent in the sheds
preparing the fleet and
getting the company
trained to perform in front of the rest of Defence. The CAMD was a huge success, and certainly provided a useful insight for an OC new to the murky world of Armoured Infantry.
B Company were tasked to parade through Birkenhead for Remembrance Sunday, and having polished our drill boots and conducted a few quick turns around the parade square, we were on parade outside the Town Hall. A sombre and fitting occasion marked by the opportunity to catch up with old colleagues and friends.
While B Company was on Ex PRAIRIE STORM 2, back in May, the rest of the battalion had taken part in the Battalion
Warriors on the Firing Point at Castlemartin ready for night shooting
Shooting Competition. A last minute opportunity for the company to conduct the same shoots, and thus compete for the Earl of Chester’s Competition arose, and a team of the finest shots was hastily assembled under Lt Jack England. With little practice and some fresh recruits from ITC, the
team finished a very respectable 2nd in the shooting competition.
Following some well-deserved Christmas leave, the company returned and prepared for Public Order training, going through a testing package in Copehill Down Village
Lt Berridge delivers the Range Safety Brief at Castlemartin
The CAMD was a huge
put together by Capt Peacock and WO2 (CSM) White. A visit from the Secretary
of State for Defence was well received, and gave an opportunity
for the Battalion to demonstrate its ability to handle threats typically ‘hot stabilisation.’
success, and certainly provided a useful insight...
experienced during
An opportunity to deploy out onto
Salisbury Plain at the end of February gave the company some time to brush off our soldiering skills, conducting a short exercise up to Platoon level in both dismounted and mounted roles. With A Company deployed on Op ORBITAL, B Company covered
the CSTTX in CATT for both the RTR and 1 MERCIAN BGs – a great opportunity to enhance our collective training experience and refine our drills and SOPs, but at four weeks, quite a long time to be sat in a simulator!
The highlight of the readiness year has been the two weeks that the company
Cpl Barnett issues QBOs before a live section attack range
OC Maj Adrian Thompson MBE 2IC Capt Rich Peacock
CSM WO2 Jon Werrett
WSM WO2 Lee Howdle CQMS(M) CSgt John Hough CQMS(T) CSgt Simon Buck
Tiffy SSgt Dave Devlin
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
11