1st Battalion

The Argyll and Sutherland

Highlanders

 

Combat 90

 

All photographs are the property of RHQ Argylls and may not be reproduced or copied without permission from RHQ Argylls.

 

           The success of the television series COMBAT in 1989 prompted Central Television to invite the Army to restage the competition in 1990. COMBAT 90 was to be run as a competition between four infantry battalions each representing one of the Home Nations, a Military Triple Crown. 1 A&SH were selected to represent Scotland against 1 IG, 2 RRF and 1 RWF representing Ireland, England and Wales respectively. The KOSB's unlucky third place in 1989 stiffened the battalion’s resolve to win the trophy for Scotland.

As an experiment this competition was to involve women soldiers. Two WRAC JNCOs, Cpl Jackie Gilchrist and LCpl Sharon McCormick both settled in superbly, both were excellent athletes and could more than hold their own in the fitness and repartee stakes. Cpl Gilchrist's RMP beret drew more than its fair share of comment from those members of the Battalion with 'fond' memories of that particular corps.  They joined the squad in June for a crash course in driving, navigation, infantry fitness, weapon handling and shooting, military skills and fieldcraft. The former had a brother in the Gordons, who represented Scotland in the Heptathalon and was an Army Combined Services athletics champion while the latter had completed the Nijmegen Marches three times, was a member of the winning team at the UKLF Team Orienteering Championships and had been selected for the Army Badminton Team.

            The training was long, hard and varied and took as its theme the final paragraph of the competition rules: 'any infantry skill may be tested'. A squad of 17 all ranks assembled in April 1990 and trained together under W02 John Mclntosh until the final selection of two four man teams in July. The training in Germany concentrated on improving individual skills such as shooting, fieldcraft, driving, watermanship, abseiling, obstacle crossing, assault pioneer skills, navigation, command tasks and weapon handling. This period of training was a Battalion-wide effort drawing on the expertise and imagination of all the specialist platoons and of the Training Wing in particular. Once the final squad, consisting of two subalterns, two SNCOs, two JNCOs, two Jocks, and two WRAC JNCOs had been selected in early July, training continued in Scotland and Northern England, making use of facilities at both Scottish Divisional Depots and at Otterburn, Garelochhead and Pentland Training Areas. Thanks to the Commanding Officers and Training Staffs at JIB (Ouston) and Glencorse, to Major Bob Andrew, last year's KOSB team captain, to CETC Hameln and to the Commandant at Garelochhead, the teams arrived at Otterburn well prepared for the competition. Final selection for the first and second teams was made at Otterburn and competition had been so close at all levels that the choice of who should compete in what team was not made until the last minute.

              

             

Competition and Filming

            The competition was filmed at the beginning of September and was in three phases, with the winners of each phase earning four match points and the last team one point. Fitness, stamina, map reading, shooting, fieldcraft, driving skills, obstacle crossing, casevac, swimming, initiative, the use of SAWES kit, abseiling and the handling of all weapons were tested. The Battalion team came first equal with the RWF in the first phase (endurance run and river crossing), speed run and swim (2nd), vehicle navigation and driving skills (1st). In the second phase, an endurance march with five stands, we came in a convincing last as old age and old injuries took their toll. To the team's enormous credit they picked themselves up from this disappointing result and won the final phase, a 6km assault course and approach run leading into a timed four phase battle exercise firing SA80, LSW, GPMG (SF), 51mm Mortar, 94mm Outdoor Trainer and pintle-mounted GPMGs with time bonuses for accuracy and fire effect. The shooting event was nominated as the tie break event and the battalion were the only team to collect time bonuses for our shooting. As we had lost the assault course race by only three seconds we won the final phase and thus took t he trophy. For the losers the competition and the filming ended there, although one or two lucky men were asked to re-enact the ecstasy of the assault course for the benefit of the cameras. As winners the team had a day filming the finale to the programme with house-clearing, hostage release, helicopter extraction and Close Air Support. This was a day to relax, to pose and to watch the camera and sound crews in action —reconnaissance, preparation and planning and command and control are obviously not key qualities for a job in the media!

 

 The Teams

Team A

2Lt J Dewar

CSgt A Morran

Cpl T Allan

Pte R Fellows

Cpl J (Legs) Gilchrist WRAC

Team B

2Lt C McCuaig

Sgt S McGuire

Cpl B Drummond

Pte D Armstrong

LCpl S McCormick WRAC

Reserves

Cpl R Downie

LCpl A Breingan

 

 This prestigious event was shown on television in December 1990 to an estimated audience of seven million viewers.

I have split it into 9 parts to make it easier to watch and download, sorry about the quality it is the best I can manage at the moment.

Combat 90 Part 1      Combat 90 Part 2        Combat 90 Part 3        Combat 90 Part 4       Combat 90 Part 5

                Combat 90 Part 6          Combat 90 Part 7            Combat 90 Part 8        Combat 90 Part 9

You can click on the link to show part of video or you can right click on link and select save target as... to save the file to your own computer. These are large files and will take a while to download so be patient.

Minden

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Updated: 11 October 2014