Page 12 - RSDG Year of 2022 CREST

10 EAGLE AND CARBINE
In 2022, B Squadron were forged opportunity which others can only dream about. The forecast of events was brutal, and unforgiving, but it has provided experiences in Oman and Mali which will stay with our people for the remainder of their careers.
It’s April. Bearing in mind that our deployment was to the hottest country in the world, it was deeply unhelpful when the snow just wouldn’t stop falling. It accumulated bit by bit, softening the neat tyre ruts criss-crossing the ground, freezing tarpaulins solid, and dulling the task group leaguer to a hushed murmur. Occasionally, solitary figures would venture out from beneath their shelter – slowly and clumsily, incumbered by multiple layers of warm and waterproof clothing – and trudge steadfastly into the biting wind on some venture that necessitated their braving the torrid conditions. In a small, damp field in the heart of Norfolk, before April had really brought about the warmth of spring, B Squadron patiently waited out the cold, wondering to one another how they were supposed to prepare for the Sahel in sub-zero temperatures.
This was a far cry from the scorching deserts of Oman, which by now was a long-distant memory. A rigorous, two-month deployment amidst the sand and the rocks had primed the squadron for what had been mooted as the most arduous tour since those of Afghanistan and Iraq. Operation NEWCOMBE, and Mali awaited in just two months’ time. Once again, The Mutants were to be attached to 1st Battalion The Royal Irish
Regiment to form the fourth iteration of the Long Range Reconnaissance Group. Although their time in Oman had not been specifically designated as preparation for the deployment, as it transpired, it was the only experience that would give them a sense of the inferno into which they would soon step.
Ahead lay a very different challenge to the one behind. The United Nations mission in Mali, MINUSMA, had been in place since the country descended into civil war in 2013. Seeking to contribute to the mission, the UK government spotted a capability gap, and an opportunity. The UN’s understanding of the security situation outside urban centres was limited at best. What was needed was a self-sustaining force capable of deploying at reach, for long periods, in one of the harshest environments in the world.
No good ideas are original, so it was unsurprising that inspiration for the mission came from a not-too- distant relative. The Long Range Desert Group was formed in the Northern Africa theatre during WW2 by an inauspicious Royal Signals officer, Major Ralph Bagnold. Whilst their objectives – notably, ambushing Italian forces and blowing up German airfields – were a bit wide of the mark for a modern peacekeeping mission, the precedent of projecting columns of lightly-armoured vehicles into the desert to conduct reconnaissance captured the imagination. The Long Range Reconnaissance Group was formed, and the Light Dragoons became the first rotation to deploy in December 2020.
B SQUADRON
Maj NJ Taylor
B Sqn promotion time!
Lt Hallatt, Sgt Alexander and Tpr Keen took the flag everywhere