these last few weeks have been utterly crazy to be honest. The first and most major activity we had was Exercise Druids Ridge, or Druids Fridge as it has been come to known. It was an 8 day exercise focusing on a number of areas. Firstly we were given our first instruction on OBUA (Operations in built up areas), which is affectionately known as FISCH (Fighting in some other C**nts house) which is where we are taught how to conduct a variety of operations involving buildings and urban environments. We spent the first couple of days setting up defensive protection in the buildings we were occupying, trying to make them as difficult to attack as possible. This was inter-twined with recce patrols, night attacks and ambushes. After this the inevitable happened and the village we occupied was attacked very early in the morning and we were 'forced' to conduct a fighting withdrawal and occupied a forest near by, which meant we had to do some more digging, yay! On the way to the copse we completed 'back term hill' which is a ridiculously steep hill which we climbed with all of our kit, it was a little cheeky to say the least. We spent the next few nights conducting recce patrols and ambushes ready for two separate attacks, one a night attack taking a base to mount an attack on our lovely village, the second the attack on the village itself. The night attacks was utterly dismal, the rain was coming down in bucket loads, not to mention the position I was appointed, being the platoon radio operator, which was a treat to carry I can tell you. After a successful attack we took a barn complex where we set out planning our attack on the village. It was at this point I was made the company 2IC which meant running around frantically organising the guys as well as doing my part in the planning of the morning attack. At 0230 we set out for the attack with a little 8km insertion tab and began putting the OBUA training we had learnt into practice. After about 4 hours of fighting the brigade attack was complete and we set about taking down all of the defenses we had set up. The buses waiting to take us home the whole time. We returned home thoroughly knackered and ready for some sleep.
The next week was pretty full getting ready for Normandy Scholar as well as a full PT program keeping us on our toes.
Exercise Normandy Scholar is a 3 day exercise which involves taking us to France to visit a variety of the British objectives during Operation Overlord. Here we conducting a variety of drinking activities as well as number tactical exercises without troops trying to determine how we would carry out the missions if we were in command. Overall it was a fantastic trip, if a little tiring, where we got a bit of sun and got away from the camp fence.
We arrived from the exercise this morning at about 0800 after a long night of travelling to be told our progress boards were to be carried out this morning. I went for mine about ten minutes ago and are pleased to tell you that I am still in the top third and am very happy with what was said, I am apparently a company character who is ready and quick to use my whit. I was also described as confident to the point where I haven't been fully tested yet, I think that means there is more in store for me next term. This is the final report I have before going for my regimental interviews where are Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, so my next post will hopefully be telling you my successful placing in my top choice regiment, the Army Air Corps.
Wish me luck!
Rob x
P.S. I just wanted to tell Sergeant Major Smart that I conducted my Annual Combat Marksmanship Test and achieved Marksman, I'm sure he'll be immensely proud.
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