Army and RAF Night Exercise
20 cadets from Y11-13 headed out at lunchtime on Friday 21 March to Longmoor Training Area for what would be for many of them their final night exercise with us before leaving school. They were all excellent cadets who met every challenge with enthusiasm, competence, and excellent teamwork and leadership skills.
The first activity after arrival was to carry all their kit to the harbour area where they strategically set out their sleeping spots for the night. Despite the rain that came later in the evening, all of the sheet shelters were well built and stood up to the weather. We then patrolled off to attempt to locate the enemy.
We found him darting about on top of a hill and each section completed an excellent withdrawal from contact as trained, giving each other covering fire to supress the enemy whilst everyone made it back to safety.
With the enemy suppressed for the time being, we made our way back to the harbour to cook up our rations for the evening. Despite a couple of the stoves looking a bit wobbly, and an NCO cheating by using a gas stove, everyone enjoyed a good meal, including some surprises in the recently updated ration packs. We then set up a sentry rotation for the evening and headed out section by section on patrol to try and find the enemy in the dark. There was a dubious light hanging from a tree, which after investigation appeared to be the enemy camp – we know this because they jumped out screaming war cries and caused us to execute a speedy retreat. Different sections tried sneaking around from other directions as we narrowed down the likely final location.
Once back in camp there was an excellent field map made from sticks in the centre of the harbour. After an in-depth discussion of what we’d found, led by our sixth form NCOs, we came up with a plan for how to attack the enemy in the morning, then headed to bed, ready to rise at 6.00am.
After a chilly night’s sleep we breakfasted, then patrolled back out to execute our planned section attacks. All three sections made excellent attacks with each fire team led very well. We forced the enemy to retreat further and further from their camp, executing some impressive flanking manoeuvres and very consistent suppressive fire until they eventually ran off into the distance.
The exercise ended, as always, with cleaning our weapons and then napping on the coach home. This was an excellent exercise led by our very experienced Y13 NCOs handing the baton over to the Y12s who will lead next year. Everyone who participated demonstrated admirable teamwork and their learned military skills.
