1st Battalion
The Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders
Edinburgh 1985
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1st Battalion The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
Edinburgh 1985
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All photographs are the property of RHQ Argylls and may not be reproduced or copied without permission from RHQ Argylls.
1985
In January and February the battalion started the training year by sending companies to Barry Buddon for shooting up to Stage 3. A standard was set on which to build the Northern Ireland training, which culminated in two weeks at the Cinque Ports Training Area at Lydd-Hythe; this training package was an essential part of preparation for Spearhead, in case the battalion was called upon at short notice to reinforce Northern Ireland; in the event this was not necessary, but there is no doubt that in two weeks at CPTA, shooting and internal Security skills were sharpened and many lessons learnt and re-learnt. On 14th February the Annual inspection was conducted at Redford by Brig P.I.B. Stevenson, the Brigade Commander, for the Annual Report on the Unit. Brigadier Stevenson had got to know the Battalion well during our time under his command, so the inspection concentrated on seeing the battalion at work, with an element deployed to guard a Key Point, which is one of the battalion’s Home Defence roles in Scotland. Throughout this time, preparations for Spearhead continued apace. Days prior to 1 A and SH assuming the Spearhead commitment, Lieutenant Colonel David Thomson handed over as Commanding Officer to Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Neilson.
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Spearhead brought the familiar bustle as everything was prepared for a rapid air move anywhere in the world with all equipment, weapons and vehicles ready, freight packed, documentation and vaccinations completed, and so on, a real Unit Emplaning Officer's nightmare. On 18th March all was ready and the battalion assumed the Spearhead commitment. On 20th March in the middle of the night, Exercise 'Fast Ball' tested the call-out procedure and the processing required getting everyone onto aircraft. The battalion then settled down, to six weeks of Spearhead standby — and went nowhere! However, six weeks of waiting offered the ideal opportunity for our battalion cadres, which included JNCOs, First Aid, Assault Pioneers, Signals, GPMG (SF), HGV drivers, Shooting Coaches, Mortars, Anti-Tank, Recce Platoon selection, range authorisation for young officers, and swimming lessons for beginners; in all, time very well spent, and everyone usefully occupied. In May the battalion was busy with the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, providing the Guard of Honour and the Holyroodhouse Guard.
June was a fitting climax to the first half of 1985; Exercise Pond Jump West 1 in Canada. Exercise Pond Jump is an annual series of three exercises in midwest Canada for non-mechanised battle groups. The battle group consisted of 1 A and SH, 17 (Corunna) Battery Royal Artillery equipped with six light guns, an Army Air Corps detachment of two light helicopters, a section of 23 Field Ambulance, and other supporting attachments, all of whom were splendid. Each exercise last for just over one month, ours being the first of 1985. Normally the exercises take place on the large Canadian Forces training area at Wainwright, Alberta, but owing to a large Canadian exercise this year our exercise was at Dundurn, Saskatchewan. The training area had its limitations but in the event we managed to overcome most of these, and the training carried out was extremely worthwhile, field firing and tactical training right up to battalion level, with our mortars and artillery firing in support. The CO's exercise involved much digging (this included the use of mountains of defence stores for revetting in the sandy soil, and for the first time we achieved a battalion command post, complete with radio vehicles, underground!) The advance to contact over the dunes exacted considerable toil from the leading companies and the final morning attack was a Hollywood spectacular with demolitions, mortars, guns, pipers and Highland yells all going together. As a complete contrast from all this military activity, the battalion set up and ran an Adventurous Training Camp in the Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. Each company in turn travelled from Dundurn, an expensive twelve hour journey each way by hired coach, and spent five days in the Rockies doing mountain walking, canoeing, rockclimbing, pony trekking and a variety of other pursuits; a fuller account appears elsewhere in this issue. This is the first time for many years that the battalion had managed to organise a proper Adventurous Training Camp: the principle was not to cater for gladiators but to expose everyone down to the youngest Jock to the experience of adventurous pursuits in a stimulating and challenging environment, with bumps, bruises and racing adrenalin to go with it, and it was an unqualified success story. A visit to Canada would not have been complete without cementing the entente cordiale with our two affiliated Canadian regiments, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada and the Calgary Highlanders. Representative parties from both our brother regiments travelled long distances to be with us in Camp Dundurn where we were delighted to play host for a day or so to them, and our local Canadian friends, in the form of Highland Games and other competitive events, a drumhead service, Retreat, and memorable social gatherings in the respective messes. Such a meeting of so many representatives of our three allied regiments on Canadian soil is probably a historic first'.
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ADVENTURE TRAINING IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
While most of the 1st Battalion was being energetic and military in Camp Dundurn, Saskatoon, there was a small group whose task it was to provide energetic and non military training in the Jasper National Park, Alberta. Companies rotated through the adventure training camp, named Princess Louise Camp by popular agreement, in a five day cycle of which one day was put by for administration, shopping etc and four days for adventure training. The aim of the package was that the Jocks should carry out Adventure Training, enjoy themselves, and relax in a less military surrounding from the 7-days-a-week, 18- hours-a-day ranges and field training in Dundurn. The activities available were many and varied. Canoeing was done on the Athabasca river and on Pyramid lake behind Jasper. The Canoes were two man open Canadian canoes built of aluminium, which had the advantages of being extremely stable and quite robust. The canoeing instructors were Lt Charles Maitland-Makgill-Crighton, Black Watch, on loan from the Junior Leaders Battalion, Shorncliffe; Cpl Den Canavan of the Light Infantry, on loan from 10 CTT; and Cpl Craw of Sp Coy. Jocks could opt to do anything from one to three day canoeing expeditions and the more experienced paddlers were taken down a series of rapids which resulted in the complete destruction of one canoe and minor damage to several others.
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By far the most physically dangerous of the activities was pony trekking. This took place from a stable near Jasper and parties of up to twenty went on one or two day treks. The injuries sustained included a badly sprained foot when a pony rolled over, concussion when the rider was run into a tree by his horse, and a damaged knee when that was run into a tree by a different horse. High spots of a trek would be sitting on horseback at 7000 feet and seeing the Athabasca and its valleys spread out below, and a low spot would be riding in single file through a raging blizzard. Rock climbing was not an overpopular pastime but for those who did like it, there was a good if somewhat vertical limestone crag on the Maligne road from Jasper. A days climbing would be rounded off by a stroll up Maligne canyon, a limestone canyon 60 metres deep in places with the Maligne river raging in the abyss. The cafe at the top made a welcome refreshment and souvenir shop before the journey back to camp.
A very popular option with the Jocks was to hire cycles from Jasper and to set off towards Banff for a four day trip, or to some closer landmarks for a two day expedition. The bicycles were not all designed as tourers, which made sitting on a racing saddle with a heavy pack on your back a some what uncomfortable experience. Nevertheless most cyclists seemed to enjoy themselves, and more of the local scenery and people were seen by cyclists than by any other group.
Each group of soldiers were sent on a two day wilderness trek during their time in Jasper. Due to national park rules the groups had to be more than five and less than ten in number, so each week about twelve groups disappeared into the 'back country'. The results and achievements were varied; one group of officers got so hopelessly lost that they ended up back at their start point at the end of the first day and Sgt Brian Coyle's group from B coy had all their food eaten by a bear while they were asleep. Wildlife of all sorts was seen by the groups; among the animals seen were bear, elk, moose, Canada geese, weasel chipmunk, caribou, porcupine and many others. That is not to say that every soldier saw lots of animals, many of them are still shy despite being protected (Soldiers? Ed) and sightings were not that frequent. Fishing was a popular if somewhat fruitless pastime. The main areas fished were Pyramid lake with little success, the Athabasca river with only very small trout being taken, Moab lake which is overstocked with small trout, and most successful of all was Five Lakes from which a ten pound and a five pound trout were taken. Fishing permits cost the Jocks $10 each and rods were available for hire in Jasper.
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Princess Louise Camp, from which all these activities were organised, was a tented camp two hundred metres from the Athabasca river and next to the Wabasso (Cree indian word meaning rabbit) campsite. Accommodation was in 18' x 24' hospital tents which formed two rows, named Argyll Street and the Raploch Road by W02 Connell, the camp Sergeant Major. The camp was run and administered for the companies by a sometimes changing team of Captain Sandy Wade, W02 Rab Connell, Sgt Alec Brown, Sgt lan Pound ACC (who produced excellent food throughout), LCpl Chris Calder, LCpl Jules Hickinbotham, LCpl Shaun Cravett, LCpl Alex Storer MT, LCpl Ned Kelly MT, and Ptes Craig Nixon MT and William Parke MT. Others called in to instruct or assist included SSgt Jay Blake APTC, Cpl Alex Craw Sp Coy, SSgt Tony Wyartt (Earp) REME, ostensibly in camp to repair the No 1 burners but often to be seen riding the moutain trail, stetson on his head and doing a good impression of his namesake. Last but certainly not least amongst the helpers was Sgt Duncan Munro of the Assault Pioneers, whose expertise was tapped in the construction of cover to eat under, rustic tables for washing on, the camp sign in poker work, and not the least taxing of his tasks, rollers for the lavatory rolls made from virgin pine. The exercise was not without its crisis points, such as the stranding of a group of ten cyclists one hundred and fifty kilometres away, when their pickup vehicle ran out of fuel, followed by an almost identical incident a week later but this time caused by a failed turbo charger on the pickup vehicle. The camp went extremely well and most Jocks would agree that it was an opportunity of a lifetime. A fitting finale was the near arrest of W02 Connell on the last day, for smuggling! Throughout the Alberta beer strike (only US beer was available in Jasper) we had been bringing canteen stock, including thousands of bottles of Canadian Labatts Blue beer, into the camp from Saskatchewan. It was only brought to our attention that this was an illegal strike-breaking offence when the Sergeant Major tried to sell the last 600 bottles to his friend the chief of police at a knockdown price!
The second half of 1985 was as busy as the first half of the year. The battalion took part in the major Home Defence exercise 'Brave Defender', a KAPE tour, and the Royal Guard at Balmoral. It also launched into an intensive period of training to prepare for its new role in 1986 as a Type A Infantry Battalion equipped with the new Saxon wheeled APC, to be based at Colchester in 19 Infantry Brigade. The conversion training must include training 100 new drivers and quadrupling the Anti Tank platoon.
The Royal Guard Balmoral 1985
With memories of the 1984 Balmoral Guard fresh in people's minds, the Battalion had the good fortune and privilege to be asked to provide the 1985 Royal Guard at Balmoral. From the start it was apparent that the success of the 1984 Guard meant that particularly high standards were going to be expected from their successors. In this respect the advice given by members of that Guard assisted considerably in the preparations for the 1985 Guard and helped avoid some of the pitfalls in what could easily become a major disaster. Battalion training in Canada in June followed by leave in July meant that much of the planning for The Guard had to be done in April and May. Fortunately, the decision that most of those involved in the Guard of Honour for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May should be found from D Company, reduced the amount of last minute administration required to ensure that the turn out of The Guard was of a standard required for an inspection by The Queen. After a busy week of preparation in Redford Barracks The Guard moved to Ballater by coach and military vehicle on 31 July. 2Lt Gray and a party of twenty Jocks had earlier spent Sunday 28 July at Ballater helping to organise the Ballater Donkey Derby—a fun raising event for the benefit of the senior citizens of Ballater—and so had already begun the process of establishing what turned out to be an excellent relationship between The Guard and the local community.
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The absence of D Company as the Royal Guard lead to A (Grenadier) Company of 1st Battalion The Black Watch coming under command for Exercise BRAVE DEFENDER, the biggest Home Defence Exercise since World War 2. As with all big exercises, there were moments of intense activity, longer periods of boredom, moments of confusion and moments of farce. On the whole, it was a most useful exercise in which valuable lessons were learned and liaison between the Forces and the Police and civilian agencies were practised and found to work remarkably well. Anti-tank, Mortar, GPMG (SF), All Arms Air Defence and driving Cadres took place. D Company ran a range week at Barry Buddon to complete any outstanding shooting tests and after some private sessions at the Royal Commonwealth Pool the Battalion had about 5 days during which there were no non-swimmers until the arrival of the next recruits. Teams from the companies performed extremely well at the 52 Lowland Brigade Military Skills Competition held at Barry Buddon on 19 and 20 October. After a cliff hanging final count the A Company team, commanded by Sgt Morran, were proclaimed winners in spite of 2 umpires to every man at the Assault Course Section! Battle Group Headquarters was put through its paces at the Bovington Trainer in early November and emerged wiser and better prepared for our BAOR reinforcement role in 19 Infantry Brigade.
The battalion renewed its links with F93, HMS Beaver, when she was docked at Rosyth in November. A party from the crew came to Redford on 19th November where we spent a thoroughly good day in sporting and "It's a Knockout" competitions. Captain Lang and 5 Officers of his ship joined the 1st Battalion Officers at a Fathers' Guest Night in the evening. 100 Officers and men from the Battalion visited Beaver on the following day returning with a copy of the First Lieutenant's Orders for the Day the first of which was, "The ship is to be secured and made Jock-proof by 1000 hours". Brigadier Henry Magnusson, his wife and a party of officers from the Alvsborgs Regiment visited in late August to cement the excellent relations we enjoy with our affiliated Swedish regiment. In late October A Company went off to Otterburn to await rescue by 5th Airborne Brigade on Exercise PURPLE VICTORY and at the end of November B Company provided a platoon to act as enemy for a 45 Commando Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre exercise. B Company, who carried out an extremely successful KAPE tour in the second half of September, being gluttons for punishment, volunteered the Recce Platoon to act as enemy on a NATO Special Forces exercise on the Kintyre Peninsula in early December.
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If anyone can put names to faces with rank, company, date and location.
Please e-mail with page name, row number and picture letter to ayoung287@msn.com
In the midst of the military activities sport has maintained its place. The football team reached the final stages of the Army Six-a-Side Competition in Aldershot. The Rugby XV continued to do well although it behoves us to brush quickly over the result of the friendly against 1 BW; it could be described as "all the sixes"! Lcpl Barney McGuire continued to enhance his own and the Battalion's reputation with his wins in the Army Marathon and Two Breweries Fell Race; he will be running for the Army in the London Marathon in April. The boxers reached the Second Round in the Inter-Unit Grade III Novice Competition.
The Pipes and Drums carried out a highly successful North American tour with the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Deal from September to December.
The Battalion moved to Colchester during January 1986. During the move news came that caused the forecast of events for 1986 to be placed in the waste bin along with the cadre programmes for conversion to a Type A Infantry Battalion. In mid move with half the Battalion in Roman Barracks, Colchester and the other half still in Redford, the battalion received warning for an emergency 3 month tour in Northern Ireland starting in mid-April. The Commanding Officer summoned the Colchester half-Battalion and passed on the news; the Adjutant summoned the Redford half Battalion and did likewise and OC Support Company met his buses on arrival and carried out a test of his leadership and popularity by conveying the news which had broken whilst they were somewhere on the A1
Updated: 11 October 2014