Page 95 - Bugle Autumn 2014

Shooting
With A Coy having fallen off the orbat for OP HERRICK 20, the Rfn sought to vent their collective frustration on falling plates, and Figure 11 targets. Having entered teams
for both the Army Operational Shooting Competition (AOSC) at Bisley, and the 20th Armoured Brigade Skill at Arms Meet, the fierce environment of Alma Six became the new focus of the ‘2014 fighting season’.
From beginning to end, competition at Sennelager Training Centre was fierce – with units from across the Brigade looking to take home the silverware. Such was the level of competition, that within a mere hour of beginning of the shoot, Sjt Hinks was already accusing rival unit range staff of ‘cooking the books’. Unprepared to have his commitment to fair play questioned, he nobly decided to stay out of the rain, and
in the console – ensuring that scores were scrutinised as they came off the press.
By the end of the week, the two A
Coy teams had performed well. With no preparation, and with no prior knowledge of the details of the shoots, we were able to achieve 2nd and 3rd out thirteen teams entered. Victory eluded Sjt Hinks’ team by only the slightest of
performed as well as they could have done under the circumstances placing in the middle third. Considering that the majority of the units at the AOSC had been on the ranges training for at least two weeks, this
margins, despite having
won nearly every shoot
– a quirk of the scoring
system, saw victory go
elsewhere. This bodes
well for next year given
that there was only one company able to compete.
Bisley was more of an education. No team member had competed at Bisley before and our ability to revise the shoots had been limited by the fact the team had been in theatre conducting RSOI until a day before the start of the competition. Despite the lack of preparation (Camp Bastion’s 25m range does not count), the team
was no mean feat. Shooting at 5 RIFLES
is therefore in a very good place. With the whole Bn available for next year, and with a less punishing
forecast-of-events in 2015, I am confident, with training, we can bring home some silverware. 1 RGR trained for six weeks in Bisley to emerge victorious, and, and with quality training even the cock-eyed LCpl Lynch and his LSW should be able to get in the Bisley 100. Honourable mentions go to LCpl Jenkins who consistently placed highest, and Rfn Gibbs aka ‘The Milky Bar Kid’ for his performance throughout.
I am confident, with training, we can bring home some silverware
JWIC
There are few environments left on the planet where a fully fit British soldier can cover seven kilometres in a day, and look back in exhausted awe at the sheer physical effort required to get from ‘A-B’. Such is
the case in the Labi jungle of Brunei, where the deep valleys, dense vegetation and staggering humidity combine to produce one of the most challenging soldiering environments in the world.
It is in this unforgiving climate that Training Team Brunei (TTB) teaches students of
the Jungle Warfare Instructors’ Course (JWIC) how to soldier
in the Close Country Tropical Environment (CCTE). The eight week package the majority
Ultimately, the challenges of the course were equalled only by its rewards
‘Whispering Leaf Whiskerd’ leads a section attack
reach a line of departure or ambush site undetected. Trust is essential.
Ultimately, the challenges of the course were equalled only by its rewards; although designed to teach troops the specifics of fighting in the jungles of Borneo, its utility
is widespread. From learning how to live
off the land, to learning tactical procedures which could equally apply to dense forest
or scrubland, the course leaves you fully conversant not only in your own ability
to soldier in the jungle, but to teach its intricacies to soldiers back at your unit.
Yet perhaps most importantly of all, is the confidence that comes with knowing that the ‘nice to have’s ‘ of modern soldiering, are precisely that, and that in taking them away one becomes a better soldier than you previously thought was possible. It is a course Lt Ian Whiskerd who completed the course and was awarded top student would thoroughly recommend to anyone.
of which is spent under
the canopy, is open
to the ranks of Cpl to
Capt. It consists of an initial skills phase comprising of basic survival skills, patrolling and navigation, a platoon phase which builds on these skills and finally a two week final exercise operating in the company context.
rations, ammunition, section weapons, spare batteries, radios and
The emphasis throughout the course
is on basic skills performed to the highest of standards. From the beginning of the course to its culmination with a company deliberate attack via a helicopter, boat and swamp insertion, the course is a rigorous examination of one’s ability as an infantryman. The niceties of a FOB, of a fully functioning supply chain and of any kind of helpful gadgetry are stripped away. All that one can carry is all one has, and with resupply occurring every five to six days the combination of medical supplies,
personal kit consort to produce weight the likes of which even the most experienced student had never previously witnessed.
At every level the course is a return
to a more traditional type of soldiering. With the only aide to navigation a pace counter taped to the end of the rifle, and communications consisting of no more than a twice daily comms check via a bulky HF set, tactics have changed little since the Second World War and subsequent campaigns in Borneo and Malaysia. There is no ops room monitoring progress, ready to deliver assets and situational awareness at the end of a handset. With visibility typically no more than ten metres, a higher commander’s intent can only be achieved through the meticulous application of
battle discipline, with everyone working to
THE RIFLES
FIFTH BATTALION 93