Royal Armoured Corps News

TA exercise sees infantry declare war on armoured corps!

3rd August 2007

Hundreds of Territorial Army (TA) soldiers from all over the south west of England have been taking part in a major exercise on Salisbury Plain aimed at honing their skills and preparing them for potential future military operations.

Exercise Wyvern Rifle, a Brigade-level exercise, went ahead despite many of the command and control elements being deployed for real – not overseas, but to provide the military input as part of the major multi-agency effort to combat the floods in Gloucestershire.

With the TA being asked to take on roles abroad it is important that they are well trained; Exercise Wyvern Rifle was used to train and practice TA units from 43 (Wessex) Brigade in combined arms conventional war manoeuvres to better prepare for operations overseas.

The main units involved were 6 Battalion The Rifles, The Royal Wessex Yeomanry and 39 Signal Regiment (Volunteers). They were supported by Netheravon-based 7 Regiment Army Air Corps (Volunteers), 155 Transport Regiment and, from outside the region The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry, the Royal Yeomanry and 100 (Yeomanry) Regiment, Royal Artillery. In addition, a number of Ministry of Defence civilian employees played the role of civilians in a fictitious 'war zone' scenario.

The role the TA plays has changed in recent years according to Deputy Brigade Commander, Colonel Charles Ackroyd:

"Fifteen years ago we trained at weekends for an assault from the east - from Russia and East Germany," Colonel Ackroyd explained. "Now the TA is here to support the Army and TA soldiers deploy, including many of ours, on operations. In this Brigade we have sent sub units to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Our soldiers come from all walks of life and from such diverse professions as builders to lawyers and architects."

The final assault of the weekend-long exercise centred on Imber village with 6 Rifles attacking the entrenched forces of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry, an attack involving house-to-house fighting.

Lt Col Richard Frampton-Hobbs, Commanding Officer 43 Brigade, said:

"Wyvern Rifle is the 43 Brigade Exercise. 43 Brigade looks after Wessex, so everywhere from Gloucester, Wiltshire, Dorset and down to the south west, so down to Cornwall; and there are a lot of TA units spread about there; most of them come under either 6 Rifles for the infrantry, or the Royal Wessex Yeomanry, for the armoured corps, and once a year we get together on Salisbury Plain and join our training up. I give them some of my armour, they give me some of their infantry and we go to war.

"The Rifles are friendly forces or blue forces and they've got a fair chunk of armour, they've got recce, they've got a medium armour squadron based in land rover and infantry and they're advancing against us. This year the exercise is more for their benefit so that they get to practise their procedures and we're here to make sure their procedures are tested.

"Due to the floods this exercise may well have seen us diverted to go and deal with the floods. Our Brigade Commander, who would normally be commanding, is also responsible for coordinating emergency response for the south west, so he's been up in Gloucester for the last week."

Sergeant Darren Iles, said of the TA life:

"It's a good social life, a way of relieving stress at weekends and a way of doing things that you wouldn't normally do in your life."

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