4 (V) Btn RGJ, Germany '86 (Exercise Eternal Triangle) Part 2

So here's part 2 of our fortnight with BAOR in October 1986. The first photos are in black and white and were taken by the Bucks Free Press chief reporter Bob Perrin for his article about the Exercise and the impending 5th Battalion. Like other folk I bought the snaps from the BFP simply because I was in them. It's been over a year since I posted Slideshow Part 1 and thirty-two years since this Ex. I'm sure most of my recollection of it has been relegated to that part of the grey matter called Archived Files but I can recollect a few things clearly: water is lighter than custard (why no mess tin lids?!); the excellent occasional meal prepared in the field (preferable to Biscuits AB any day) was particularly welcome in that freezing late Autumn deluge; bouncing around North Rhine-Westphalia in Chinooks; spending two or three nights in a trench the width of which I had dug, inexplicably, slightly too narrow for my frame. Roots and sharp stones invading my organ space. Then there was the new type C-Ration cookers that we tested - no hexi blocks, instead a sort of exploding napalm. During the second week the Coy deployed with a view to taking on the Paras who were due to drop from a Herc or somesuch. It was an exciting prospect and made the long cold, that's VERY cold, over-night wait on an exposed piece of real estate worth it. Or would have if Crab Air hadn't pulled out due to fog. At that point in the fortnight the only thing lower than the temperature was my morale. No doubt the Paras were pretty vexed too but I guess the weather always has the final say. It did make me wonder if the Soviet Air Force would have done the same with an Antonov AN-12 full of airborne troops? For the benefit of the casual reader, our role if the balloon had ever gone up was to provide security around certain strategic or vital locations (electrical sub-stations was an unexotic example always mentioned in training) as the front line moved forward beyond the Inner German Border. The assumption was that the ground war would be heading East. I don't remember being advised of the plan in the event the Commies overwhelmed NATO forces and the whole shabang came back our way. I guess learning how to say "they went that way, comrade" in Russian might not have gone amiss. One last thing, I was only in for less than four years but I never experienced that kind of camaraderie at any full time job I've had. And respect to those guys who left to join the regs.

[@mikeainsworth4504]

Well there’s a blast from the past. I was on that exercise with Letter ‘D’ Coy.

[@badgerman4u]

Hey I was on that exercise with D coy RGJ, it pissed down for nearly 2 weeks and people were going down with hypothermia because they didn't have any waterproof clothing