Page 72 - KRH Year of 2021 CREST

70 The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars
Affiliations, Bonds of Friendship and Associations
Bonds of Friendship Exchange with 5eRD
In late November, Cpl Kerry and I travelled to the Champagne region of France, where one would naturally expect rolling hills littered with vineyards and a modest climate that would be ideal for some dismounted training away from the warmth of the turret and boiling vessel. However, upon arrival to our sister regiment, the 5th Regiment of Dragoons (5eRD), we were greeted by freez- ing winds and a dusting of icy snow.
The Operations Officer from the Regiment, Capt. Dansien, instantly brought us under his wing and plied us with numerous cups of cof- fee whilst delivering an insight to the Regiment. Since its regen- eration in 2016, the 5eRD’s sole purpose
has been to trial and pioneer a new concept
known as the Scorpion Transformation.
The idea is to confirm whether a Regiment
is capable to organically produce every
element of a Battlegroup. To this end, the
Commanding Officer of 5eRD can call on
vast resources and a staggering 1,500 per-
sonnel divided over 8 Companies. This
homegrown Battlegroup theoretically has
the potentially for greater cooperation and
increased awareness of the unifying purpose
between both echelons and sub-units, all of
which are resourced centrally. The 5eRD rotate constantly between different exercises, each time focusing on trialling this concept and integrating it within the wider French Army.
From deploying in the dark on our first night we were fully imbed- ded in the Recce Company, acting as the enemy for a Divisional level exercise. Pulling on rather oversized and heavy black French uniform and looking like a mafia assassin I climbed into a VBCI (an eight wheeled infantry personnel carrier) whilst Cpl Kerry jumped in the next vehicle, a VBL (a light recce vehicle), and we made our way to onto the French equivalent of Salisbury Plain. To begin with, I spent a couple of days in their HQ, getting an understanding of how the French like to run things and becoming rather disappointed by discovering that, despite many rumours, French rations do not contain any wine. However, a rather watery instant coffee later, my dampened spirits were lifted when we suc- cessfully helped the Recce Company OC, Capt. Nicolardot, to vic- tory over the exercising troops. Whilst I had been in the HQ, Cpl Kerry was able to get his hands on various parts of French kit and witnessed how the events of were unfolding on the ground.
Cpl Kerry overcoming language barriers
VBL
He had managed to become a rocket gun- ner in the VBL, and I am in no doubt that Cpl Kerry’s enthusiasm and skill were the deciding factors in the victory. Throughout the exercise, and partly due to the entire reg-
iment being the same Battlegroup, we were easily able to switch between roles and experience the exercise from multiple aspects. Personally, I found working with Leclerc tanks fascinating; I would be lying if I said that the acceleration, quiet engine and some modern features didn’t make me a little jealous, however, I was relieved to discover that the French encounter all the same problems with armour as we do, and their engineers are well prac- ticed at pulling vehicles out of muddy puddles.
Whenever we were given time off, we took the opportunity to explore some of the local area. We visited the beautiful historic towns of Troyes, Reimes and Châlons-en-Champagne; walked a section of the Western Front Way through the vast vineyards in the North of the Region and visited the eerie battlefields of Verdun. The trip was demanding but rewarding and almost as soon as we arrived, it was time to be leaving again. We returned on the day of the All-Ranks Christmas Party with enough dits to provide a couple of minutes of conversation, and now we eagerly await the return visit by 5eRD in 2022.
SMW
Presentations Cpl Kerry’s time spent in Recce not being wasted Verdun