Page 76 - KRH Regimental Journal 2022

74 The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars
March 2022 saw Capt Heelas-Jorgenson, Lt Oldroyd, WO2 Coates and Sgt Bulbeck fly to Copenhagen to holiday with the First Jutland Dragoon Regiment. This meant them getting to grips/partying with the new Leopard 2A7 out on the local train- ing area/town, as well as learning about their gunnery and signals/ drinking procedures.
An inter-troop competition saw the Brits join in and get defeated in the simulators during the day and a Sqn social in town by night. This was followed with their traditional Thursday morn- ing run as a squadron. The Danes also maintain their own odd traditions much like British regiments, if a soldier is unmarried by their 25th birthday they are coated from head to toe in cinna- mon and we were reliably informed that at thirty then its pepper, not good news for any budding young bachelors...
However, it was not all fun and games the team was armed with a thorough question set of practical requirements for integrating Leopard into a British BG and the officers even got involved with some routine maintenance. The two weeks were rounded off with a cultural weekend in Copenhagen which was topped by meeting local legend Bente Schmeichel which meant more to some of the group than others.
The Officers’ Mess then returned the favour and hosted a group of 15 Danes over a two-week period in July. During which we bored them with some PDT lectures, as well as our awful chat at a Battlegroup dinner. We also managed to introduce them to one of our great traditions, the Rundle cup. Whilst suitably baffled by the odd sport of Polo they did discover a love of Pimm’s. The 2nd Sqn 1JDR is currently deployed with the KRH BG on Op CABRIT 11 and the relationships built on trips like these go a long way to enabling quick and effective integration between dif- ferent NATO nations.
“Gunnery is Funnery” - Sgt Bulbeck teaching the Danes all the technical lingo
Troop leader very closely overseen by the SNCOs
Danish Exchange
Leopards out and about
Cinnamon Tradition – probably not to everyone’s tastes
AQMS Jack Coates – This looked much easier from the side lines