Page 104 - Wish Stream Year of 2018

The re-entrant steep and visibility still poor, we battled on until finally the bracken strewn slope gave way to open field and our final checkpoint lay tantalisingly close in the distance. After com- pleting our command task, we set off for the very last time, a surprisingly well held together rendition of ‘I Vow to Thee my Country’ accom- panied the final march along that most glorious of roads. We arrived, went through our usual routine of straightening smocks and replacing berets, before one final tap in, our moving time, 23hrs 15 mins. In the hours that followed I could reflect on other lessons I had learnt over the jour- ney. It struck me how not one of us could have achieved that time as an individual. Each one of
our number had at some point shown strength when everyone else’s had waned. I felt then, as I do now, immensely proud to be a part of that team. LONG REACH will not be the hard- est thing we do on the commissioning course, or in our future careers; nonetheless it has given us something that will doubtless help us to deal with all those future adversities. Occasionally exhausting, often monotonous, LONG REACH taught us the strength of will and indeed the sheer stubbornness to ignore all aches, pains, and internal voices that implored us to stop and instead, to strap on our Bergans, take a swig of water and then simply carry on; left foot right foot, left foot right foot.
Exercise ALLENBY’S ADVANCE
OCdt Haley Morgan
In the early hours of the morning on Saturday 6th October, the Officer Cadets of the Inter- mediate Division collected their rifles from
the armoury, conducted final kit checks and boarded the coaches for Sennybridge. The long coach journey was followed by a four-kilometre
tab in the drizzle into their respective Company harbour locations in dense woodblocks. This first afternoon was then spent digging in and establishing day and night sentry positions.
The wet weather held off throughout the night and the morning brought with it some sunshine and an advance to contact. We have had a lot of practice at this offensive action throughout the end of the Junior Term and into the start of the Intermediate Term and are now getting to grips with how to conduct one efficiently and quickly. Although my own platoon got off to a slow start, we managed to regain the initiative and success- fully defeat the enemy.
The following serial was a section level recon- naissance patrol of a suspected enemy loca- tion. Successful completion of these recces provided those in command appointments with the intelligence they required to plan a deliber- ate attack for the following day. Platoon Com- manders and Sergeants planned through the night and then delivered their orders in the early hours. In the pitch blackness of the woodblock, all platoons struggled to collect their kit and form up ready to depart, but this was worked on throughout the week and by the end could be achieved with some success. At H-Hr, the Falklands Company launched simultaneous pla- toon attacks on three known enemy locations, each with in-depth positions. These included,
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