MILBABE

FALKLANDS WAR AIR DEFENCE TATTOO

This is a Tattoo on the back of former Sergeant Steve Brookes, it is in dedication to the men of T battery 12 Regt Royal Artillery that defended the skies from Argentine air attack with Rapier missiles.

Tribute to Ian Benner Royal Artillery.

STAND DOWN GUNNER UBIQUE R.I.P.

Where was I the most terrified in my Army career?

Somebody asked me the other day “When were you the most terrified during your military service?” I thought for a second and then it came to me it was during my basic training as a sixteen year old Junior Gunner with the Royal Artillery. Most would obviously think it was during the Falklands War or Northern Ireland, but no it was during those informative years straight from a school classroom to the harsh discipline of the British Army. When we finally did mange to get to bed I would lay awake feeling tearful and wanting to go home, like the dozens of other sixteen year old hopefuls that couldn’t take it any more. From a troop of over fifty recruits only twenty made it to the end and the passing out parade. Even during much needed sleep we would be woken up by our drunken training sergeants, who would throw us out of bed, throw our clothing and equipment freshly bulled boots out for the window into the mud. One of the sergeants used to take great delight in biting our ears until he drew blood, believe me this was terrifying. Those that were brave enough to actually ask to leave the army, had to do a thing called `running the gauntlet`, where they had to run between two ranks of their comrades who would batter them will pillow cases full of bars of soap and other objects that would cause the most pain, they were lucky to get to the other end without a bust nose our cuts to their heads and face. If the sergeants deemed that we were not hitting them hard enough then we would have to run the gauntlet. I like most children had had a couple of scraps at school but this violence was on another level. I will say that the worst violence meted out to us was at the beginning of training and it did get better the longer we stayed in, the training staff would just say that they were just removing the chaff from the wheat. I’m glad I became wheat and not chaff.  The other terrifying experience was doing drill with a DSM (Drill sergeant Major) from the Scots guards. DSM Hardy was his name, a name burnt into my brain forever. If we did anything wrong which in his mind was nearly everything he would punish us, this consisted of us being made to stand on one leg for as long as we could, if your foot touched the ground, you would be hit with his pace stick over the head, screamed at in your face with such ferocity that you would be covered in his mucus. I witnessed him attack one young boy for a drill mistake. The victim was smashed over the head with a pace stick and he collapsed on the ground sobbing and screaming, which only made the DSM more angry and he continued to lay into him on the ground. Can you imagine how terrifying that is for a young boy? I’m not sure if that particular victim left the army, but I would not blame him if he did.  In my opinion the army lost some really good young soldiers due to the unnecessary brutality. I’m glad that things are a lot better these days. Don’t get me wrong I don’t go for the mamby pamby approach, there needs to be a happy medium hard but fair. Did this brutal training make me a better soldier? I don’t think so. I was an army cadet from the age of twelve, I knew how to march, shoot, bull my boots, already. I suppose it did get me ready for the drink-fuelled violence that took place on the block most weekends in West Germany, the only difference was you could at least hit back. I mean it was not the French Foreign Legion where brutal treatment of Legionnaires is legendry. We were not Para’s or Marines; we were Gunners, who would go on to learn their respective trades on Field Guns and missile systems. So there you have it, the place where I was the most terrified in my military career, Gamecock Barracks, JLRRA, (Junior Leaders Regiment Royal Artillery)  After that twelve months of hell the rest was easy…..UBIQUE….

The above photo is me sat on a 25 Pounder field gun in basic training. When doing direct laying dial sight, you had to lay the gun on a wooden tank, if the sight was not laid perfect you were told to look again in the sight, where your sergeant would then punch you in the back of the head causing you to have a black eye.

A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR FROM THE ROYAL ARTILLERY

12 REGIMENT ROYAL ARTILLERY POLO SHIRT.

I am delighted with my new 12 Regt RA polo shirt, but I'm still shit at polo.

MILBABE

Tony Brought down two enemy panes

I was looking through some of my old photographs the other day when I came across this copy from my local newspaper covering my time in the Falklands War. During our time at San Carlos with my call sign 32 Alpha I shot down an A4 Skyhawk and a Mirage with Rapier missiles. T battery went on to shoot down 14 emery aircraft during the brief but bloody War. You can read about the Air Defence War in my book Watching Men Burn 

MIL INK

UBIQUE.

ROYAL ARTILLERY

I FOUND A PHOTO OF MY BROTHER IN ARMS ON THE NET.

Whilst surfing the internet yesterday looking for photos of Rapier missiles, I found a photograph of two brother soldiers that I served with in the 1982 Falklands War. Sergeant Bob Pearson (Right)  and Gunner  Mickey Quinn    (Left) R.I.P. When I went back to the Islands in 2007 I made a 2007 Pilgrimage to Bluff cove where I was to witness the biggest loss of life to British service since World War two when the RFA Galahad was hit by Argentine aircraft. Anyone who is not familiar with what happened on that terrible day can read about it in my book Watching Men Burn  about the Air Defence War in the Falklands.

I JUST BOUGHT MYSELF A NEW YEAR PRESENT

E bay

£19.00

World's largest surviving military gun arrives at Royal Armouries Fort Nelson

The mighty British 18-inch Railway Howitzer is the world’s largest surviving military gun and weighs about the same as 17 double-decker buses. It is so large that during its transit and delivery it had to be split into two sections, gun and carriage. After weeks of careful planning and a journey that included negotiating the M25 Dartford Crossing, the gun is now sitting on a specially-installed railway track in preparation for it being loaded into the museum’s artillery hall. Here it will take centre stage for the centenary commemorations of the First World War between 2014 and 2018. Developed during the First World War, the Howitzer was produced as part of the trend to build bigger calibre guns capable of firing heavier, more destructive shells in the battle to break the stalemate on the Western Front. Each 18-inch shell weighed about a ton. The First World War ended before any 18-inch Howitzers were ready, but five were completed soon afterwards. Some of them were used for testing purposes on artillery ranges and one had a new lease of life in the Second World War – serving on a railway line in Kent, in readiness to blast the beaches if a German invasion force landed. Luckily the Howitzer was never fired in anger as the feared invasion never occurred. The Howitzer is on loan from the Royal Artillery Historical Trust and joins “historical heavyweights” at the Royal Armouries Museum, near Fareham – home to the big guns. It has previously formed the centrepiece of an exhibition at the Het Spoorwegmuseum (Dutch Railway Museum) in Utrecht. Read more HERE

UBIQUE

RAPIER MISSILE FIRING

MERRY CHRISTMAS GUNNERS

Royal Artillery Create Thunder in Kenya 24.06.13

UBIQUE

REMEMBERING FALLEN GUNNERS

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM UBIQUE

The Workshop, 12 Air Defence Regiment, Napier Barracks, Dortmund

1989: 12 Air Defence Regiment was equipped with the Rapier missile system. It consisted of both Towed Rapier and Tracked Rapier (on a launcher vehicle). The equipment was maintained by a Workshop manned by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Between the Mechanical and Technical buildings of the Main Repair Group, a Foden lifts a power pack into a launcher vehicle, steadied by two men standing on a support vehicle. Staff Sergeant ‘Spud’ Edwards is pointing (in the central group). WO2 (Workshop Sergeant-Major) Paul Danks, wearing his peaked cap, can be seen near the doorway of the Tech building (on the right). Nearby, two electricians are working on a launcher. At left, a Craftsman works at a run-up test stand in the Mech building. For a short time, 12 Regiment RA adopted a square patch of red cloth behind the cap badge worn on the beret. Shortly afterwards the Army Dress Committee ordered its removal. Read More HERE

I remember the red patch, I think it was the RSM at the time who wanted to make sure he could distinguish Regt when they were in town eating `brattties` in a Artillery Garrison , stupid idea who the hell gave him the right to change a Regimental cap badge? well obviously nobody.

MILITARY PIC OF THE DAY

UBIQUE

HT/ Mil Vets 

GUNNERS

HT/ PAPVNRITP