In late July 2006, the WDs deployed to Sennybridge in Wales for a weekend practising a traditional Yeomanry warfighting role - providing a recce screen. For those not in the know: this means using reconnaissance vehicles protect the front or flanks of a large formation by scouting for the enemy. In this case, the formation was a battlegroup formed of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry and the National Guard of the State of Texas. The National Guardsmen were on their annual training camp in the United Kingdom, to exercise in joint operations with NATO forces and to further Anglo-American relations.

In our stripped-down Land Rovers, our task was to advance stealthily,then find and fix the enemy so that the supporting infantry could engageand destroy them. The infantry were deployed in AFV432s (a type of armoured personnel carrier). By midnight on Saturday we had cleared the area up to the river Senni. Later the WDs were tasked to select and secure a crossing point to enable the battlegroup to cross to the east. It's fairly likely that the enemy spotted the move as for safety reasons (crossing a public road) the 432s had to have bright spinning orange
AA-style lights mounted.

The night convoy move brought the only casualty of the exercise, with Tpr Baring bravely engaging the deadly 'red post' (a red metal post cunningly disguised as a red metal post, which uses surprise and deception to attack vehicles). Sadly the vehicle was M-killed (too damaged to move), leaving 2Lt Ewing and his vehicle to wait to be recovered by the REME in the morning.

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Finally we secured the line of departure for the final attack on the enemy stronghold. It was particularly interesting the witness the
different tactics employed by the US and UK troops - the Americans with the type of tight spacing that would get an infantry NCO very irate indeed.

A quick wash down of the vehicles (using highly entertaining power hoses) and it was a short trip back to Putney for post-exercise analysis over a few pints. In all it was a great weekend and a chance to see close up the difficulties inherent in planning and controlling a battlegroup-size formation.

There are a number of events coming up in the next few months that the Sqn is preparing for: deployment to Germany for the annual two-week exercise, with live firing (including practising live firing while moving around on foot rather than static on a range), getting acquainted with the Spartan, and a chance for exercises using TESEX (a smart laser-operated system that lets you know when you have made a kill or have become a casualty yourself), the Christmas Party, the Jerusalem dinner, the Old Comrades' dinner, the Royal Yeomanry Officers' Ball and adventure training (skiing) in Verbiers next January.

The training focus for the remainder of the year is on individual-level stuff. Junior officers have two weekends of recce tactics to look forward to, while the other ranks will be focusing on trade training.