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BAOR Parade & British Army on Exercise Videos


Marmite!!

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BAOR Parade 24th April 1993. Any forum members in this?? when replying to posts please trim the vid out.

 

Click "Watch on YouTube" as embedding disabled on these 2 video, the rest will play direct from the forum..

 

Part 1

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Part 2 Double

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Edited by Marmite!!
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I was on crusader 80, we were communication centre defence, connected to 7 signals. We had a great time, we had a couple of Para (spetznatz troops) regiments after our com centers, we got hit 3 or four times in the night but never lost a man.

 

We relocated to a hill on the Bielefeld cant remember exactly where, we had the call that the hill had been taken and we were clear to move, i took half my platoon and the 84mm. When we arrived we found umpires everywhere and a german troop of 6wheeled armoured vehicles, we hit them with the 84mm and took them all out. As we debugged to the entrance of the hill 8 marders came down the track all line astern and we hit each one with the 84 and took them out. All monitored by the umpires.

 

As we retreated to collect our comcen, a troop of tanks were on their way in to re take the hill, the umpires made it clear we had done the job for them...was a good time.

 

But nothing like the real thing the boys have to do and put up with in todays scenarios...

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I was on Spearpoint 80 during my time in BAOR. Brilliant times! The MOD couldnt afford to hold an major FTX of that magnitude today! The cost would be HUGE! & anyway, 'apparantly'. We are ALL Friends now, so another War couldnt happen,.... could it?...........

Seem to remember something like that being said during the 1930's................:angel:

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I have been back to the Crusader Gallery at http://m136.de/spearpoint-80-gallerie

 

If you look at picture 33 of 37 on this page you'll see an umpire Scimitar (white cross on the side, white flag on the antenna). 3 Armd Div provided all umpire assets for this exercise. 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars were 3 Armd Div Recce Regt. This is therefore most definitely a 15/19H Scimitar. Note the A Sqn tac sign under the driver's side headlight and under the smoke dischargers. A Sqn was 15/19H's Close Recce Sqn with Scimitars, whereas the two Medium Recce Sqns had Scorpion.

 

I have the name of the commander (in the commander's seat) on the tip of my tongue. He was a subaltern in B Sqn before we went to Paderborn, where he was promoted Captain and troop leader in A Sqn (the divisional Close Recce Sqn). Close Recce Troops comprised eight Scimitars, making them half the size of a Medium Recce Sqn and therefore a big command for a lieutenant, hence A Sqn troop leaders were captains or lieutenants due for promotion.

 

The driver (sat on the mantlet) looks remarkably like one of my drinking buddies and a fellow member of the Uncle Tom's Cabin pub football team. I still keep in touch with his sister (she and I support Sunderland AFC: he went to the Dark side during the Keegan era).

 

I could give you his name but as an ex-member of the Armed Forces I am conscious of his PerSec. Besides it is possible I am wrong. I always associated him with C Sqn (even though apparently he joined the regiment during B Sqn's UNFICYP tour in 76-77, but our paths never crossed). That doesn't mean he didn't get transferred to A Sqn: it comprised 5/9ths of the regiment's recce vehicles. Come to think of it, an appropriate ratio, since the regiment was occasionally referred to as The Five and Nines.

 

Bazz, do you recognise the officer?

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I have been back to the Crusader Gallery at http://m136.de/spearpoint-80-gallerie

 

I have just been at looked at a map of the exercise (see image 36 of 37). I'd never realised before how close to Braunschweig (Brunswick) and the Inner German border the exercise took place. I had been aware that it covered the main 1 (Br) Corps area, but on the day I wasn't bothered. 3 Armd Div's GDP area was further south and we were isolated from the rest of the corps.

 

In our day 16/5 Lancers were based at Wolfenbüttel, just south of Braunschweig. If you look at a modern map, you'll see a line which I believe denote the Land boundary between Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony in the former West Germany) and Sachsen (Saxony in the former East Germany). I'd put Wolfenbüttel maybe15 miles from the IGB. Within the RAC, 16/5L, like the Berlin Garrison, were seen as much as a tripwire as a credible defensive force, famously described as The First Speed Bump on 3 Shock Army's Road to the Channel. I remember the combat life span of 16/5L being predicted at 20 minutes after the Commies crossed the IGB.

 

Looking at the map we see Orange Forces' start line on the FTX running through Braunschweig. This would constitute Blue Forces' FLOT (Forward Leading-edge of Own Troops). The area between the FLOT and the FEBA (Forward Edge of the Battle area) would be occupied by the 1 and 2 Armd Div recce screens, comprising four squadrons of Scorpions along with engineers blowing primary demolitions as soon as hostilites became inevitable and preparing reserve demolitions ready to be blown as the recce screen withdrew in contact, encouraging Orange Forces along our choice of axis. Phase 1, the aggressive delaying battle, will have taken place as the Orange Forces reached the FEBA and the main defensive positions manned by the armoured and mechanised battlegroups of 1 and 2 Divs' four task forces, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta.

 

During Phase 2, Blue Forces fought a fighting withdrawl in contact, drawing Orange into the killing zone at Goodwood. I'd be prepared to bet that most of 1 Corps' artillery had fire missions ready to fire on Goodwood. The road west out of Hannover, marking the northern boundary of the killing zone was along a ridge. Orange Forces were sucked up the hill and effectively destroyed ready for the 4 Armd Div (Task Force Golf and Hotel) counterattack.

 

That's how I remember it. Anyone from 1, 2 or 4 Div care to correct me, I'll not cry.

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I have been back to the Crusader Gallery at http://m136.de/spearpoint-80-gallerie

 

Image 6 of 37 shows an umpire Scorpion (second in the section in background) of C Sqn 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars. Note the C Sqn tac sign (circle) partly visible under the near vehicle's mudguard and on the side of the second vehicle's turret on the edge of the photo.

 

Had I not seen the tac signs, I'd have said that sat on the turret browsing map (a dangerous thing for an officer) could be the officer who was my troop leader and vehicle commander the following year, but that was B Sqn, so obviously it wasn't. ISTR that "H" (younger brother of OC C Sqn) didn't finish Sandhurst and his Troop Leader's course until 1981 anyway.

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  • 2 years later...

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