Page 60 - QDG Volume 9 No. 5

Sgt Casey, man of the forests;
Tpr Mansbridge, never know
what he’ll say next Ex ARROW 24
Bemowo Piske, Poland, is sometimes
a desolate place, and those deployed
there are always looking for means
and ways of escaping. As such, only 3
weeks into their Op CABRIT rotation, a
Section from Support Troop, accompa-
nied by the Sqn’s JTAC, made the long
journey to Niinisalo, Finland to take part
in the Finnish Conscript test exercise, Ex
ARROW 24.
The first step in getting Jackal’s to
Finland was getting the vehicles to
Gdynia port, achieved through the NSE
Commander’s frugal negotiations with
the local fixer, ‘Polish Nick’, some ques-
tionable low loaders, and the diligence of
Cpl Gatfield towards the tiedown scheme.
Having driven through the night, the
Coyotes were unloaded in darkness and
driven to the port gate, or at least one of
the 36 gates in Poland’s largest industrial
port... slightly different to the P&O experi-
ence from Dover. The broad assumption
that everyone in Europe speaks a basic
level of English, sadly failed to be true
for Port Security, but with the sections
combined 145 minutes on DuoLingo
and some fairly wild hand gestures, we
eventually found our way to the correct
entrance and were loaded onto the Ferry.
With the Coyotes successfully parked
amongst hundreds of HGV Trailers,
the troops got to grips with being on a
Cargo Ferry for 24 hours. Without phone
signal, and entertained only by a TV
with 6 channels (all in Finnish), most of
the troops decided to think twice about
using their C licence in their post Army
career plans. Much to the relief of myself
and Sgt Casey customs when entering
Finland was all but non existent (praise
be the schengen zone), and with that the
Section pushed on to Niinisalo.
Ex ARROW was a Battlegroup on
Battlegroup exercise, used as the
final validation of the year’s intake of
Armoured conscripts. It involved over
2500 troops, an array of soviet era and
western armoured vehicles, and air
assets including fixed wing and UK
AH-64 Apache. The Section’s role in
the exercise was to act as a Joint Fires
Manoeuvre Cell AKA, the JTAC’s taxi
service. Although the opportunity for
reconnaissance taskings were limited,
the troops managed deploy dismounted
with the Finnish Joint Fires Observers
and caused havoc with the enemies
Armoured assets.
The Finnish Army is entirely conscript
based, with a regular force of only 5000
soldiers, but an active reserve of 300,000
that can be fully mobilised in just over a
month. At the age of 18, Finnish Men are
conscripted for a minimum of 12 months
service, in which they are trained for a
So which end is the business end?
The Ranger gets lost on his way to the beach
They call him Tank-Killer
specific role which they would adopt in
a time of war. You can therefore imagine
the surprise on LCpl Upton’s face, when
witnessing a Squadron of Leopard Main
Battle Tanks, crewed entirely by 18 and 19
year old boys, performing an extremely
well drilled advance to contact. This
surprise was cemented when our first set
of QBOs was delivered, not by radio (as
the thick pine forests all but made VHF
unworkable), but by 18 year old boys and
girls on dirt bikes. Even more surprising
was when on the Distinguished Visitors
day, a young man dressed in Finnish
uniform with an NLAW slung over his
shoulder approached Tpr Edwards and
addressed him in the thickest Yorkshire
accent any of us had ever heard. Despite
speaking only 5 words in Finnish, this
young Conscript had a Finnish mother
and had willingly taken up his mandated
service.
Many experiences on the Sections
deployment to Finland were novel, and
almost all were extremely enjoyable
(saunas on exercise are a great addition).
Our time in Finland left us with nothing
but respect for the Finnish people and
their attitude to Defense, and I know that
all the troops would happily return in a
heartbeat.
AW