As the academic year starts to draw to a close, Ellesmere College put classroom lessons on hold for three days to allow the pupils to take part in ‘Expeditions’. These take a wide range of formats for pupils with different interests. Some use the time to do a Duke of Edinburgh expedition while others go on trips of a music or artistic nature. My involvement is to assist in the running of a 3 day tactical exercise on a military training area for the cadets in the Army section of the Ellesmere College CCF.
With many of the Year 11 and 13 pupils on study leave due to their GCSE and A Level exams, and most of the Year 10s doing their assessed Bronze DofE expedition, we were able to focus the programme around the training needs of the Year 9 cadets. Over recent weeks, they have been trained in the safe use and handling of the Cadet GP A2 Rifle. Consequently, once deployed onto the Swynerton Training Area, the afternoon saw a concerted effort to revise their weapon drills and give them a crack at passing their WHTs (Weapon Handling Tests).
For many of these junior cadets, it was their first time on a tactical exercise and their first experience of army ration packs. So a bit of revision on how to prepare food ‘in the field’ was quite useful before they they got cooking. It was at this point that we discovered, to our dismay, that all the ration packs were vegetarian – I guess they can’t give them away to regular soldiers!
The evening (up to about 11pm) was used encouraging the cadets to use the failing light, their camouflage and concealment skills and their navigation skills to get themselves across the training area undetected. Some managed this better than others, but all were tested by the torrential downpour that arrived immediately after the exercise had started. The mixture of heat and humidity made it very hard work, and all the cadets returned to base ready for a good nights sleep!
Tuesday was spent concentrating on the processes and skills involved with Section Attacks. The Section Commanders from the older year groups ran through the theory and practice whilst the Officers set about planning a number of Section Attacks for the cadets to practice on, also giving the Year9s their first opportunity to fire the weapons, having just passed their Weapon Handling Tests. It was a busy afternoon of running between different locations to supervise the various Section Attacks, but it was a really valuable exercise for both the Year9s and the Sections Commanders that were new to the role.
Darkness makes supervision of blank firing exercises that bit more difficult and, given the inexperience of the Year 9s, we decided to conduct a couple of Ambushes. This has the advantage of all the firing being done in the same location, making it easier to control. Against an ambushing force of about 40, the ‘enemy’ of half a dozen didn’t stand a chance.
Wednesday morning provided another chance to practice the Section Attack skills learnt the previous day. Although it was the same venues as far as the Officers were concerned, each section was using attacking a new venue. It was good to see each section operating that bit more efficiently and keeping their formations under pressure – a great way to finish 3 day’s training.
