St Crispin’s Day

Bless their little colonial cotton sox!

Apparently every year since 1967 the US military academy at west point has been running a competition named “The Sandhurst MIlitary Skills competition“.  I can only presume  it’s named after the worlds best military academy!

Well this year a couple of teams from Royal Military Academy Sandhurst went over, and……………………….

Any guesses about the final team standings??   No I though not!

Answers on the link to the competition if you needed to check.. Shame on you!

New Stryker Faring Poorly in Field

 So it’s not just us then!!

BBC NEWS | England | Beds/Bucks/Herts | Coroner attacks MoD over failure
The inquest heard how, before the incident on 11 June, 7 Para soldiers had complained repeatedly about a lack of proper equipment - chiefly standard night vision kits and weaponry.
Mr Walker, assistant coroner for Oxfordshire, said: “They (the soldiers) were defeated not by the terrorists but by the lack of basic equipment.”
He said sending troops into a combat zone without basic kit was “unforgivable and inexcusable” and “a breach of trust between the soldiers and those who govern them”.

He recorded a narrative verdict in which he said Capt Philippson was unlawfully killed.

Yes, bu his own government!  This has got to stop right now.  It’s criminal to have any sort of budget cuts in defence whilst we are going out on these operations.  If there is a squeeze on any budget, then eventually someone at the bottom of the chain says “let’s only take half the night vision goggles we need!”

‘Half-trained’ British troops being rushed to fight the Taliban | the Daily Mail

I’ll just pick out some of the quotes that should set MASSIVE ALARM BELLS ringing.

The Ministry of Defence would not comment in detail last night, although it admitted training had been “adapted“.

And here is another little gem

An MoD spokesman said: “There is no question of training being compromised. “

Finally,

“We have adapted our training in terms of our operational requirement and we are taking action in terms of the manning challenges.”

 (all bold my own).

We should ALL be VERY worried, how can we justify sending people out on operations (war) without absolutely every bit of training they need (and some extra just in case).  But hold on! Is’nt this the governement who sent soldiers out with out all the kit they needed…. and still do?

BBC NEWS | Politics | Pressures ‘driving UK troops out’
Defence minister Bob Ainsworth said the forces were achieving “our highest priority - success on operations”.

Wrong Mr Ainsworth! 

The highest priority is to have a Balanced, Capable & Deployable military.  Sadly, we have become fixated with fighting in just two regions of the world (not hugely dissimilar) and fighting one sort of adversary (the asymmetric threat).  The upshot of this is that training for all the other types of conceivable conflict is going by the wayside.  Training in Jungle, Arctic, High Intensity, & OBUA environments have all taken hits as there is less time between deployments to keep up these important skills.  So what happens if the next threat is from a country with a more conventional force structure? Or is in the defence of a Dependency that is based in a jungle region?  Not going to happen?  Let’s hope so, because the military we have now got won’t be trained to deal with it!

I’ve just found this piece by Mr. Mercer (ex infantry CO, but don’t hold that against him).

His article is a perfect summing up of the current situation.

The figures he quotes are all true, I can vouch for that.

The casualties suffered by the units out here are appaling.

The cancelling of the arms plot is too complicated to explain here but I think it will benefit the infantry soldier.  It will also free up more battalions to be able to be deployed at any given time.  This in turn should decrease the gaps between 7 month (not 6 anymore) deployments

The amalgamation of the cap badges makes it easier for the politicians to lie to us about over stretch.  Before it, would be obvious that one of the companies from 1 Worcestershire & Sherwood Foresters was from the 1 Devon & Dorsets as they wear different cap badges. Now, it will be difficult to see that that 4th company is in fact from  the 4th Battalion not the second, and that, in fact, they were on operations only 9 months ago, and have’nt had the promised 18 months off to see thier families & get promoted & trained in new skills etc.

Today is the last day of a Worcester & Sherwood Foresters Regiment.  The taliban did not wipe them out, the politicians did.

They’ve done incredible work out here in LASHKAR GAH, GARMSIR ADIN ZAI, and many other little villages engaged in hard and relentless fighting.  They have sadly lost Sandy Sandford, Tom Wright, Sean Dolan and Darryl Hickey.  High prices to pay.  The’ve killed a taliban leader as well as many hundreds of taliban fighters.

At least they still have Private Derby (thier Regimental mascot, a Ram from the Duke of Devonshires flock)

Thier TRF

Hard-pressed TA faces £5m cut in its budget | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Oh dear lord! When will they stop?

The TA has bailed the UK out of a hole since they over committed to Iraq & afghanistan.  Now, to thank them for the effort the useless government has decided to make cuts.  Hhhmm, I wonder how much is spent on MP’s pensions, and if that will cover it?

-

It was the Guardsmen of the crown,
Who fought and died on Tumbledown.
I can never pass a guardsman in the Mall or in fact anywhere I meet them without thinking of these words that I first read outside the Sergeants mess in Mount Pleasant Airport in the Falklands. It always brings a lump to my throat. Today is 25 years since the battle of tumbledown which ended the Falklands campaign, and I wanted to bring it to your attention.

If you ever want to know whether the cost was worth it, then go & ask an islander. I have met several, and they are wonderful, calm people who will never let their children forget the sacrifice of the soldiers, sailors, marines & airmen who liberated them. They are under no illusion that they are British first & foremost.

The words of the poem say just about all that is needed to be said about the Guards (Scots Guards in this case). They guard our monarchy, or traditions, and our values, and the latter they display all the time be it in the heat of battle (Tumbledown was not their last battle honour!) Or whilst on ceremonial duties.

The story according to Wikipedia.

The story from the Argentinian side.

Nemo me impune lacessit