Page 66 - QDG Volume 9 No. 5

64 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Ex Paladin Strike
A Second World War veteran from my
hometown in Herefordshire once offered
a tidbit from his time in Europe: “When
the Germans fired, the British ducked.
When the British fired, the Germans
ducked. But when the Americans fired,
everybody ducked!”
This anecdote was firmly at the front
of my mind as we deployed to Latvia
alongside elements from the US 2-12
Cavalry Battlegroup. 2nd Troop, B
Squadron was chosen to be the tip of the
armoured spear with their jackals leading
a force comprised of US M1 Abrams,
M2 Bradleys and M109 howitzers. Our
enemy? A lethal cocktail of Canadian
armour and infantry, Spanish Leopards,
Italian Arietes, Polish Abrams, Montene-
grin recce and Albanian engineers from
the NATO battlegroup in Latvia.
The exercise started with a bemused
US BGHQ asking why the QDG insisted
on dismounting and walking across the
battlefield into their observation posts –
wouldn’t it be much easier to drive there?
As the battle raged, the US armour
had to beat a steady retreat southward
until all that was left of the FLOT were
four concealed British teams watching
enemy armour, enemy engineers and
eventually enemy command and control
systems slowly rolling through key junc-
tions. The Canadians, in their hubris,
felt that they were safe and began to let
their guard down. It was at this point that
the many hours training with the FST
came into their own – Corporal Donna-
chie and Corporal Whiteing called for so
much artillery that the US Battlegroup
Headquarters had to start rationing fire
missions. Even Sergeant Thomas in the
troop hide, surrounded for several hours
but thus far undetected, was able to
notch up a few arty kills.
As with all good things, this fortune
came to an end. An enemy vehicle broke
down ten metres in front of one of the
hides and the crew, utilising their newly
acquired free time, stretched their legs
in the direction of Corporal Donna-
chie’s position. With artillery offline, the
QDG OPs SA80s were no match for a
40mm cannon and for them the war
was over… (pending a reset by the OM).
Elsewhere on the battlefield Sergeant
Thomas’ coyote fell foul of a different
kind of enemy action – deceptively deep
mud. Thanks to a daring dash from the
attached fitter section, he was out within
no time and able to continue the battle.
At the end of this short but brutal
action, the QDG reigned supreme.
Despite their limited numbers they had
(as always) inflicted a disproportionate
effect on the enemy and enabled the US
to see the true utility of recce by stealth.
DF
Does this have Tinder?