The Company was complete in Kuwait by the
10th March 2003.
After a short period of acclimatisation
it was time to start the training again. At first this was
done from Camp Centurion in the local areas while we waited
for the vehicles to turn up from the port. As soon as they
arrived it was a race to get the kit packed and to move off
to the concentration area and await further orders. Being
the last Battle Group out and the only one that had yet to
go through the live-firing no-safety package put together
by the Small Arms School Corps, we were worried that we were
going to be left behind. This was due to the mounting pressure
from America to get on with things. We were called forward
to the range package which involved an 8 hour cross-country
move. This was an experience to say the least, it was the
first time I had been in the back of a Warrior for any length
of time as I had always been in Recce Platoon in Germany,
and therefore moved around the Battlefield in a Scimitar.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of long moves in the back
of the Warrior let alone in the sweltering heat of the desert
will tell you that by the time you reach your destination
fighting a battle is the last thing on your mind but that
is exactly
what we did.
The zeroing ranges for all weapon systems were
the first thing we had to do. These involved moving to an
allocated piece of desert and setting up your own range.
On one hill top were the Warriors firing in the 30mm Rarden
cannons and 7.62mm coax chain guns, then you had the small
arms next to it followed by the 7.62mm GPMG range,
the 51mm light mortar, the 94mm anti-tank LAW and finally
the Milan wire-guided anti-tank system. All these were within
600m of each other and when the ranges were firing gave you
your first taste of what the battlefield was going to sound
like. After we had all zeroed we moved to take part in some
of the best ranges that I have experienced in my whole
Army career. With no safety running behind you we launched
into a series of day and night company attacks on pre-dug
Iraqi style positions. We used every weapon system available
to us with the minimum of safety angles. On the night attack
I was less than 10 meters from a bunker position prepping
a grenade ready to post while the bunker was being suppressed
with 30mm rounds from the Warrior. Excellent!!
After all
the firing was done it was back into the Warrior for a 6
hour night drive back to a concentration area for the St
Patrick’s Day parade the next day. The parade was a revised
shortened version for which we were glad as we only
got back at 0500hrs and the practice was at 0700hrs. Not
a lot of sleep time. It was a great parade with loads of
the world's Press in attendance. All of “the Micks” in theatre
were there and it was good to see them. After the parade
and photographs there was a short time to see the people
that were serving with other Battle Groups and swap stories
about how the training had gone so far.
Following this
all training ceased and the wait for the possible border
crossing started. During this wait there were numerous Scud
alerts and the ritual masking-up and unmasking 5 minutes
later started. This was to last until the day after we crossed
the border. The news was full of the Americans crossing
and having a harder time than they had anticipated. The feeling
of frustration at still being in Kuwait was weighing on everyone’s
mind until the call for us to move up to the border was
announced. This was the start of what we thought would be
the large scale meeting engagement tank battle that we had
trained for. Little did we know that our skills from Northern
Ireland and Kosovo would be coming in very useful in the
near future.
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