Page 22 - MERCIAN Eagle 2015

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1 MERCIAN A COMPANY 1 PLATOON Lt Tom Skelding
It has has turned out to be a rather busy and varied year for 1 Platoon, A (Grenadier) Company. Since the new Platoon
formed in September 2014 with all three MERCIAN battalions being reorganised
and myself coming in as a new Platoon Commander the first challenge was to go from several distinct groups to a cohesive unit. 1 Platoon is lucky to contain a lot of big characters who are too numerous to mention, and it is partly due to them, as well as the open attitude displayed by all to get to know and get on with each other that the Platoon has become as tight as it is now, one year on.
In the midst of the moves from Germany, Northern Ireland and Catterick all down
to Bulford came the real main effort, the epic that was the Battalion’s conversion
to Armoured Infantry. We were lucky to have retained a good deal of corporate knowledge with experienced instructors and a few warrior commanders from the old 3 MERCIAN, but the majority of the drivers, gunners and some commanders started completely from scratch.
October and November saw the Platoon conduct low level exercises focusing on light role basics on Salisbury Plain and urban skills in Caerwent. These provided a short run out for the Platoon, but again were really good opportunities for the Platoon to bond. Concurrently to this back in Bulford the quiet country lanes of Wiltshire were being terrorised by new Warrior drivers under instruction and the shouts of new gunners ‘ON, LASING’ rang out throughout the training wing.
December saw the inaugural Warrior Turret Commander’s Course being run by the Land Warfare Centre and supported by 1 MERCIAN. This gave us a really good opportunity both to start training
the dismounts on Warrior and getting some vital experience for our new Warrior Commanders. Two weeks of fighting up and down Salisbury Plain culminating in the classic attack on ‘two finger wood’ nailed those objectives. This was quickly followed by a week of dismounted LFTT
in Castlemartin, where the Welsh weather proudly attempted to demolish our morale, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.
The new year saw us ramping up to
our Platoon and Company level exercises on Salisbury Plain, and by then we were familiar enough with the terrain that the various fictional enemy arrayed before us never stood a chance. April, generally the wettest month of the year, saw us returning to our favourite location in Castlemartin, this time to conduct mounted live firing on the Warriors. Particular credit goes to Pte Chance and LCpl Asprey for achieving the top shoots in the Company, later in the year they will be representing the Battalion in
the Army’s annual mounted close combat gunnery competition.
Throughout all this the goal was to get ourselves in the best state possible to conduct Ex PRAIRIE STORM 3 in BATUS, and in July the first wave of troops started to fly out. The Battlegroup’s time in BATUS will no doubt be covered in more detail elsewhere, but despite the times when there were long days working on the vehicles,
endless moves sat in the back like sardines broken up only by frantic periods in the attack, the Platoon grafted and prospered. And it was in BATUS that we realised our efforts as a Platoon were part of a much larger machine, with the Engineers of 5AES, the gunners of 1RHA, and countless other attachments who no doubt all had similar experiences coming together and training towards the beginning of the 1 MERCIAN BG’s and 1 AI Brigade’s year of high readiness.
From Peak to Pub. Mercian’s Mountaineering Scotland Style.
Sgt Gooch, A Company, 1 MERCIAN
“Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.”
Winston Churchill.
Well, I can only presume he was talking about the whisky. However we were not there to sample the local scotch, we were there to sample what is said to be the best and the most beautiful mountainous regions in the UK (frequenting a few establishments on the way though.)
Meall Fuar-mhonaidh, sitting at 696m, may not be well known by name, but it is the most prominent summit around Loch Ness. The weather was cold, wet and windy, a typical Scottish summer’s day! Our climb wasn’t too strenuous although it did seem to go on for ages; the last section was very steep and boggy, and there was a false summit, but eventually we scrambled up to the top and wow, what a view! You could see Ben Nevis to the west on the one side and Loch Ness to the east on the other.
THE MERCIAN EAGLE