Page 14 - 2003 AMA Summer

TAKING THE FIGHT BACK INTO THE HILLS
52 INFANTRY BRIGADE MOUNTAIN WARFARE TRAINING
bySB2S3¡rainingIMountain152InfantryBriga,daelaAMRViceChairman, Mountaineering.
My current appointment is S02 G3 Training (Mountain), a unique appointment in the British Army. The reason I hold this appointment is because on 1 April 2002, 52 (Lowland) Brigade, the Regional Brigade in which I served, reroled to become one of two Infantry Brigades designed to provide a training focus for Light Battalions. In addition, 52 Infantry Brigade was directed to become the LAND proponent for Mountain Warfare.
The British Army is no stranger to mountain warfare. Campaigns in Afghanistan, well before the current OP JACANA, come to mind.
One of the battalions in 52 Infantry Brigade, 1st
Battalion The Highlanders, has a battle honour, Kandahar 1880, to prove
they were there, all those years ago. But mountain warfare has, for some time, been the preserve of the Royal Marines and some specialist Army personnel serving with 3 Commando Brigade. The last time the
British Army carried out mountain warfare training was in the latter years of the Second World War, when ironically, the predecessor formation to 52 Infantry Brigade, 52 (Lowland) Division, trained in mountain warfare in the Highlands of Scotland. This mountain capability was aimed at operations to recapture Norway. The fact that 52 (Lowland) Division was then committed to combat in the Low Countries below sea level is another story........
But back to 52 Infantry Brigade, the LAND
proponent for Mountain Warfare. Being given direction is one thing, imple­ menting it is quite another. The Army had no system of military mountain training and no means of qualifying instructors. Whilst general equipment, such as tents stoves, hats, gloves and flasks were held to support
the cold weather warfare training carried out by Army personnel in the Allied Command Europe Mobile Force (Land) in Norway, no technical climbing kit suitable for military operations existed within the system.
Working on the age old principle of trying not to reinvent the wheel, I approached the Royal
Marines to find out where
they got their kit from and then bought what I thought we would need. This one sentence scarcely does justice to the hoops I had to jump through, but suffice to say, the task was achieved. A RM officer in the appointment of S02 Mountain and Cold Weather Warfare, established at the Land Warfare Centre, became our entrée to the new training regime FLEET were developing, using their existent Mountain Leaders (MLs) to deliver lower level packages. RM candidates undergo a seven month training package to become a ML 2, then move into an established ML post, of which there are about 70, to gain experience before qualifying as a ML1. This type of spe­ cialisation would not work in
Infantry battalions, with frequent arms plots and role changes, and indeed, we are not trying to create a speciali­ sation but produce a capabili­ ty that will compliment that of the Marines.
Thus were the Mountain Warfare Instructor (MWI) course and Mountain Warfare Training (M W T) module created. MLs would train MWIs from 52 Infantry
Brigade units, who in turn would run M W T packages for their companies, supervised by MLs. We are now half way through the inaugural MWI package, being run from
Kinlochleven Hostel, well positioned between the mountains of Glencoe and the Mamores. Using those who qualify from this course, we will run a M W T package for a company group in June, then two more later in the year.
Point to Point navigation training.
The MWI package covers a lot of ground, especially for those with no previous expe­ rience of climbing. The aim is to produce an instructor who can recce, secure with fixed lines and then lead troops over routes in a mountainous environment.
To do this safely, the MWI must be trained to climb,
with another MWI, on ground graded well above that which we expect troops to be able to cross. This works on the assumption that the MWIs must be able to get them­ selves out of trouble if their route recce turns out to take in harder ground than they had imagined! The troops will only move over ungraded ground (below moderate) but the instructors will lead over
ground graded difficult. This might seem modest to the human flies reading this, but time on the course is spent ensuring the candidates can set up safe belays, place good protection and operate safe rope systems. Further climbing skills can be developed in time by those who are keen.
The MWIs will also cover abseiling (descending a fixed line) and some of the haulage techniques the Marines use for vertical cliff assault. In the 52 Infantry Brigade context, these haulage tech­ niques will be used to move heavy equipment, such as support weapons and ammu­ nition, over steep ground or obstacles.
12 AHMY MOUHTfllHttR
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On a fixed line in bad weather