Page 24 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2019

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At 5:00 on a late July morning, those departing on the 2019 battlefield study to Italy laboured their way onto the parade square, burdened by bags (no doubt) full of carefully written notes prepared well in advance, and headed off to Manchester Airport, bacon rolls in hand. Mainly crew commanders and troop leaders from across the Regiment, the group was joined by the Commanding Officer, RSM, Majs Kierstead, Duffield and Hood, with academic support from Maj (Retd) Watson and Capt (Retd) Holtby – in all, forty deployed on the exercise.
Each one had memorised every NATO map symbol, tactics handbooks, and doctrine, and images of perfectly executed com- bined arms operations danced in their heads. At no point had the wine, food and scenery of Central Italy factored into their excitement as they boarded the plane for Rome, and any enjoy- ment they derived from these delights was purely incidental.
The 75th anniversary of the Allied Italian Campaign of 1944 meant that Italy was a natural choice for the 2019 study. Follow- ing in the footsteps of our forebears from the Liri valley to Arez- zo, we could draw out lesson of relevance for today’s operations from the actions they conducted during World War II. Maj Duf- field was the overall planner of the Exercise with the historical insights and details provided by the inimitable duo from Home Headquarters, Maj (Retd) Watson and Capt (Retd) Holtby. Support to planning came from across the Lancer community and particular thanks must be paid to Col (Retd) Radford and Col (Retd) Stafford who provided vast amounts of information which proved invaluable in ensuring that Exercise CASSINO LANCER was a success.
Moving to the first stand at Point 593 near Cassino , Maj Duffield gave an overview of the Exercise with the stunning backdrop of the Liri Valley behind him. He explained the strategic situation the German and Allied forces found themselves in by early 1944. Since the Allied landings at Salerno in September 1943, German forces had been compelled to execute a fighting withdrawal up the beautiful – but at times unforgivingly mountainous – Italian peninsular northwards, before settling on the defensive Gustav line. The granite monolith of Monte Cassino – crowned at its summit by the monastery that bears its name – was used to pro-
vide dominating fields of observation and fire, which stalled the Allied progress over the winter of 1943-44. The human cost of this was brought home on the first evening when the study group vis- ited the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Cassino. A short commemoration service was held and we paid our respects at the graves of fallen Lancers amongst those buried there.
After some forays into Cassino town, or use of the well-stocked hotel facilities, the bright and early starts on the following mornings were a shock to some. On Tuesday we followed the ar- moured movement of the 17/21L and the 16/5L as they advanced
REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN)
Exercise CASSINO LANCER