These exercises were huge back in the 70s and 80s. They even calculated in expected casualties and losses on them. My cousin, was one of them. RIP Gary, I will always miss and remember you.
As a former US Army soldier, it was always interesting operating in joint training events like these with our Allie’s. Brits and Aussies always had an outstanding sense of humor.
@@calipto4605 No it wasn't, the combats were alright but the other kit was pretty poor. Also just for your info, my life expectancy was 12mins, we weren't expected to stop the Warsaw Pact forces but only slow it down so the Yanks could do "Reforger" which was them getting reinforcements from the US to Europe before the Soviet Shock armies got to the channel. We all knew that and weren't going to make it easy for them, don't forget the areas we trained over were the areas they would've had to fight through and they also knew it too.
Americans created the modern uniform pattern, I prefer the old look.. it's why the change. Also, both countries have now restricted different things like in the US, you can no longer roll up your sleeves.. it was literally a trade mark for them yet for some stupid reason they decided it wasn't professional looking.. the part of their sleeves rolled up had to be perfect in the thickness, how high, etc.. but stupid politicians got in the way. When you look at uniforms, always blame the politicians. It's very rarely the top brass that want these changes.. they don't care as long as it works and their soldiers look professional enough for combat. Afterall, they're there to kill and occupy, they're not their to taste the local tea.
@@Glorious_Kim_Jong_Un well the MTP looks proffesional, and works well in a wide range of enviroments.Most modern camofluages are made using scientific reaserch, and it shows because you see the camofluage working well in from afghaninstan to estonia and catterick, i guess it saves money to create a universal camoflauge and is much more convienient for the troops. so unless we are blaming poloticians for creating life a hellava lot easier for our troops and saving money in the process, i think we can agree this is something they got right.
@@sticks5614 really intresting insight, was some years before i was born but you must have been on your job if you were a soldier in that period massive respect man.
When i was a kid in Glasgow my older brother joined the army, it would have been 1982 he joined, when i saw him again 3-4 years later he had a weird mix of English and Glaswegian accent.
@almightyinferno they're...there is as in ''over there'' ...you mean they're as in they are...back in the 80s people could still write basic English...since GCSEs came in the standard dropped
Considering the lacklustre performance of Soviet T class armour in Ukraine, has one wondering how they would have faired against the Challenger, Abrams, Leopard and indeed even the Chieftain, do have a soft spot for these
@@justinboyan573 indeed, the Challenger 2 should be an incredibly tough nut to crack, the Abrams had some loss in Kuwait, the Leopard in Syria, I don’t think a single Challenger has been lost to enemy action
@@steveneastland4128 Well you have to factor in the fact that i doubt any tank would do any better in Ukraine. The main losses seem to be from ATGMs and close range Anti-Tank, which historically speaking there IS a reason why in Afghanistan you didnt see Challengers and Abrams zooming around suppressing the Taliban, it was mostly done by lightly armored mine resistant vehicles. Conventional warfare like we are seeing in Ukraine is very taxing on Troops and Equipment, thats why general estimates during the cold war were that the immediate supply of conventional munitions would be used up within a few weeks. In Iraq we saw very few Coalition losses because the Iraqis were armed primarily with sub-par export models that lacked even hydraulic turret drives aka they needed manual turning. In Ukraine we have two opponents that technologically speaking are relatively en paar hence you are seeing lots of losses on either side.
I remember it , I was a kid at the time living in Germany, my dad was British army; he was away for weeks,my overriding memory is my mum “ you wait until your father gets home “
I was a reservist called out for the exercise. I finished a night shift then reported for my deployment . With in six hours of leaving my front door I was on the FEBA fully armed and ready to fight, which I thought was pretty impressive.
In those days there were different levels of reserve , I was an ex regular. Then there was the Territorial Army who would have trained at week ends and a two weeks a year commitment. Since then the UK has had a restructure and the reserve has become a much broader commitment. I like to think we can still do the business if asked.
One thing the British military is very impressive at is rapid mobilisation, which is no mean feat when you consider all the details and logistics required. The Falklands War is a good example of rapid mobilisation over 8000 miles of communication and fighting an enemy that outnumbered our fighting forces roughly five to one. I heard that the Russians were so impressed at the rapid mobilisation and deployment of our troops that they admitted they would not be able to replicate it. Although I do not know if that is in fact true.
@@wasp6594 It is correct, even more, Russian defence planners were so surprised by the effectiveness of British forces in the South Atlantic they had to revise their plans against the BAOR in Germany.
@@zipz8423 *100% CORRECT* The Sov's were staggered by the ability of the British to assemble and deploy the task force in 48 hours. So much so, the Russian Defence Attache in the UK contacted his liaison officer in the MoD and arranged to meet with his British counter-part. The Attache offered a deal- namely to provide the British with *ANY* information that they wanted to know about any the Soviet military development projects at that time. In return, the Sov's asked one question- "How did you assemble and deploy the task force so rapidly?" The British officer consulted with higher authority, and he was authorised to speak to the Attache and a 'deal' was thrashed out. In the aftermath of the Falkland's, the Sov's reassessed the British military and it's capabilities. They realised that the British would stand up and fight tooth and nail against any Soviet attack against West Germany. It made them stop and think.........
My dad told me about seeing an accident fatality roadside during these exercises as a TA officer, a real sobering for him and reminder of how serious these deployments were.
I spent 78-80 in Germany in US Army. Our exercise was REFORGER (return of forces to Germany. Things to keep in mind is the depth of the defense in depth now includes many of the nations I was supposed to be facing. My unit was an anti tank missile and systems repair unit based in Nurnberg. We did not have enough trucks to move the entire unit in one go so some of us were supposed to stay in our shop cranking out repaired TOW and dragon units and advising using units when they were ready.
In the 1980/90s me and my parents often stayed in a hotel at the small town of Rasdorf, near the East-German border. A few times we woke up because of M60 and in leater years M1-tanks rumbling through the main street. One day, we were driving along the border and stumbled upon an armoured column of M60s. They must have thought we were Russian spies, because the guys on top of the last tank motioned us to stay further away! Fun times for a Dutch boy in his early teens!
As much as its a shame our numbers have collapsed, I do this it has its advantages. There are more important things to focus on, and numbers in any army matter little compared to technology such as nukes etc.
I served on this exercise with the Royal Irish Rangers I was the Battalion mortar officer. I ended up in the spearpoint phase as part of an ad hoc Airborne bed Commanded by Brig Jeeps . A great exercise many lessons learned and employed later , not much sleep but really excellent.
In the late '90s we had Exercise Ulan Eagle, which was Brigade size. Drove from West Germany all the way through what had been East Germany and into Poland, exercised in Poland then drove back about a month later.
fredbrackely not aware of that. In '97 I think was the first one, don't know which Bde, but they ended it with a Jim Davidson concert. '98 was 4th Armd Bde and there was no endex event. I think 7 Bde were then supposed to take over readiness, but in '99 decision was made for 4 to deploy to Kosovo. Whilst waiting in Macedonia we then got our Jim Davidson concert lol.
There was Two. The first was in 1996, where Jim Davidson came out and filmed his One for the Boys Show. The next one was in 1998, I missed the first one, but came back early from Bosnia and was sent on Exercise with 21 Royal Engineer Regt. From what I remember we spent a lot of time in NBC suits. The last night was a blast as we all move to an area ready to move off the following day. We were allowed to send lads on a beer run and got to sample the delights of Polish Beer.
Digger Buckett if there was a second concert it most definitely wasn’t 1998. As stated above 1998 was 4th armd Bde. There definitely wasn’t an endex concert in 1998. I think that was partly the reason for the concert in 1999 in Macedonia with 4th Armd Bde.
@@SeanHendy There was only the one concert at the end of the Exercise and that was in 96, I can't remember if our whole regt went out on that one. I was Told that Jim had Blamed the Brits for tapes going missing from the recording as He thought they had nicked them as he was very late starting the show. It turned out it was The Polish that had pinched them. The Next one was one I was on in 98 with 21 Eng Regt, there was other Eng regt out there as there was a big Bridge laying Demo. Don't know if they continued affer that as I had then gone back to the UK to Join the ACC in 99. I was surprised that I didn't get sent out to Kosovo as I had done Back to back summer tour in Bosnia in 97 and 98.
I grew up in Pembroke in West Wales. German Leapards passed our school, seemingly on the first day of spring each year, on the way to the Castelmartin ranges. It was the only place the West German army was permitted to train outside Germany. We also had Chieftains, and Saracens, which was great when you're a kid.
The tunnel would be a primary target, defended or not. However I doubt the enemy would use it because UK can use that as a chokepoint for anyone going through.
The tunnel would represent a chokepoint for an attacking force, but it serves excellently as part of the logistics framework to support a force in the field, as well as keeping road traffic to a minimum in and around Folkestone and Calais by allowing for freight to be transferred from road to rail and back again away from the channel.
I was on this scheme in my Chieftain as a driver and nothing broke, not as uncommon as you'd think if you were lucky enough to get a good pack and do your maintenance properly although I certainly wouldn't say that Chieftain was anywhere near as reliable in comparison to Challenger
@@vuk.3866 aye the challie 1 struggled in extremes like Iraq but the challie 2 went to Oman on excercise and other extremes and from what I've heard it did fine
I was there as a member of The Life Guards attached to 2 ADS tasked with training the thousands of battle casualty replacements sent from the UK it was a huge undertaking and something we simply couldn't do now
Attrition is the bit we're still out on, I think? At least when we have mostly theories and models and not a lot of practical experience (thankfully) on how quick large-scale mechanised warfare between the powers would run up.
I took part in EX Lionheart, with 2nd field regiment Royal Artillery, we had M109a2 self propelled Howitzer's , 155mm, we also had HMLC Alvis Stolwart's and 432s we where stationed in Munster, back then, there was also a very big parade that year in May in Dortmund when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth came to review the hole of the Royal Artillery, Busy year,
A shame? The UK should have a professional, specialist army. Modern warfare is not about the numerical advantage in personnel and we should embrace the fact that the geopolitical world doesn't need such a mobilised force. There's no shame.
@@Casper6277 If the British people regain the independence we crave BREXIT, and once again expand our trading network globally. We will require a much bigger professional; armed force to protect our overseas interests. Particularly a navy more than three times the current size and an expanded RAF with much greater reach. The regular army (the professional specialists) should never be permitted to fall below 100,000 very well equipped fully mechanised combat troops.
I was there, damage control with a bunch of mad Royal Engineer types, was part of the rescue teams sent to a trooper trapped under a challenger. also a badly crushed hand by a back door of a warrior. role overs of Fox armoured cars was popular and a poor civilian killed at a set of traffic lights. I had also been on damage control for cursaider 80.
Was the boxhead civvy killed by a panzer driver pulling back on two tillers i.e. braking too sharply, and the front end lifting in the air and smashing down on the car? I heard a story about that about 5 years later in 1989
As I remember civvy car over took combat engineer tractor found its self at a red light stopped combat engineer tractor stopped spigot did not , came of top of the combat engineer tractor through the car straight through the driver. think the incident your thinking of involved a warriors back end 1986 ish.
Fox - straight over the top of me.. at Cromer Corridors.. test fired the Millan there too. all good.. had worst just a scratch got another one. job done
My dad went on exercise lionheart, says he remembered that there were so many military vehicles that the tar-mac they were on was sunk and cracked, he told me “At that moment I knew what my dad saw in ww2”
@@richardmiller3922 I was RAF and even though our weapons training was limited at the time, I admit I loved the SLR. I thought it was a great weapon and very accurate. Believe it or not, I actually liked using the Stirling and got great satisfaction when I stitched the 45 degree pattern on the target.
I took part as part of a blowpipe light anti-aircraft unit. Very memorable experience. Thanks for the video. I have my photographs as mementos. Lots of running out into the fields to protect the tanks on the advance to the Leine, then back to the landrover, then do it again...
As someone who participated all those years ago, and spent six weeks being naffed about. We did have some good times, when we actually got into the field.
Keep in mind this was 2 years after the Falkland incident. I'm not completely aware of this consequences for the British army but I'm pretty sure it has also connections to this operation like representing the manpower and tactics of the British army.
Was at my local cemetery this week, it was the mrs fathers birthday. Anyway I noticed a grave close by of a serviceman killed on exercise in Germany 1984 and thought to myself "Wonder how that happened"? guess I know now, the lad was 22.
A couple of them died while sleeping under the new Challenger tanks in the rain,,, although forbidden tank crews would shelter from the rain and cold under Tanks at night,, They didn't reckon on the much heavier weight of the new tanks along with a couple of rainy days which caused the tanks to sink crushing the troopers below, Sadly by the time they got the heavy lifting gear in place it was too late
Great video man! I love the fact that you could deploy Harriers directly in the field! Something tells me it wouldn't be quite so easy with an F-35. ...nostalgic sigh... ;) Back when the UK could design and build a great aircraft all on its own.
@Cool Waters Absolutely. The US Marines are still keeping theirs going. Far longer than expected. It's just so unique, and clearly useful. .... more sighs.. In fairness to the Americans, they did give us money to help develop the Harrier when the UK government wouldn't.
@@gonzomuse it was already in service before the USMC bought any. My primary school teacher's ex husband was the lead Harrier test pilot, pretty cool to meet him as kid
@@centrica1234 Nice. That guy has to be extremely brave to test a hovering aircraft! I might be remembering that incorrectly but I'm pretty certain the documentary on here about the development of the Harrier talks about US funding. Good doc, I'll try and find it.
@@gonzomuse The USMC are keeping theirs in service because they bought a ready supply of spares when they got all the UK harriers and parts. Shame they were retired early though. US did most of the development on the AV8B version which led to the UK GR5/GR7
Great video. Also amazing to see how scaled down the US and NATO armies are now vs in the 80's. The US would do an exercise of near this size almost every year through the 70s and 80s, it was called REFORGER.
I was on this exercise as an MP working alongside US and German MP's. I had just got married and cut short my honeymoon short to be on it. We travelled by road and ferry making our way through europe to Germany spending most of our time hunkering down in german forest's. A great bunch of men that will be friends for life, Reece a US MP gave me a crash course on the .45 handgun. Then I was sent to be with the Irish Rangers during which time we captured 4 civilians within our perimeter, in the boot of their car was 2 cases of prepared molotov cocktails, they were going to be used on troops that were keeping the MSR's open. Memorable experience and sp pleased I was part of it.
Badger Lowe Germany had failed in 1939 Germany and was in real trouble, Royal Air force and Navy were still fighting their war and the British Army had escaped. Germany's navy didn't have a ability to follow up Germany's attack into France and they found themselves at the English Channel wondering what to do next. Any landing in the UK would have resulted in a chemical attack on their army, their navy would have had to come out of hidding and their air force would have had to fight at a disadvantage. RAF had the advantage of in depth support and would be able to attack the German surface fleet and the Royal navy would have been like a pack of wolfs with any landing fleet. But without Russia how would the invasion of Poland have worked out? The big what if game and without Russia there would have been a Nazis party in 1939?
@Badger Lowe Don't forget that without the UK Russia and Europe would have been lost to Germany, UK were the only nation left fighting when Russia shit them selves and pulled out of WW1.
@Badger Lowe *OUR raf and navy saved OUR asses. Sorry, it just grinds my gears to see Brits speak worse English than people who have it as a second language.
Yank here, I’m proud to have the British as allies. I just disagree strongly that nothing like this needs to occur again with the British Army. The peaceful end of the Cold War in Europe was hard fought in exercises like these as a strong deterrent. If you desire peace prepare for far. Now we Americans bear an unfair burden of Europe’s defense when NATO obligations should be collective security in nature. We cannot meekly invite conflict by taking advantage of the peaceful post Cold War era these men won. The uncomfortable reality is that there will always be regional threats and it’s best to be prepared to prevent the worst case scenario from happening. I pray the British military will one day reclaim this type of strong defensive posture.
I took part in Lionheart as an Infantry Company second in command. We were part of 6 Airmobile Bde which was then trialling airmobility, namely moving as much as possible by helicopter. We were used to block armoured incursions or breakouts or rapidly seize vital ground or perhaps a bridge in coup de main operations. In Lionheart we were all ready to deploy to seize some bridges but the exercise ended. We then had to wait in a nice German wood for 3 days for all the UK bound vehicles to clear the roads before we could drive to our local barracks.
Niall Ogilvy I was the Sapper troop commander for 1LI in the same brigade. I too remember us having to wait for the UK based troops to go home! Where was Wolfgang when we needed him?
@@bob_the_bomb4508 Wolfgang died a couple of years ago, what I would like to know is how was it he showed up just as you were harbouring up must have had better intelligence than the GRU?
William Traynor-Kean Yep. I remember having cammed up my panzer on Saltau so that it was invisible to the naked eye from 25 metres. Yet 15 minutes later, there he was...
William Traynor-Kean I couldn't really, given that I was first in the queue! Lead by example and all that...after a few weeks of eating babies' heads and the egg operator's all in stew, a brattie was de rigeur :)
You do understand the British Army right now is larger than what it was during the interwar years when the British Empire was at its height... Theirs no reason for a large army in peacetime.
@@samwell8 "If you want peace, prepare for war" (Si vis pacem, para bellum) the standing army does not need to be so large, but you must have a large base of reservists. And they need to be lead by experienced officers when the day comes. Those experienced officers, need to be part of the standing army, and reservists need refresher trainings on a regular base. br, zool formerly radio op in the german-navy
@@zoolkhan Late answer but exactly this. This is how the nazis were able to mobilize so quickly. They had tons of veterans from WW1 that couldnt join the military due to the treaty of versailles and were disgruntled with said treaty. When the call for mobilisation came they were all ecstatic to rejoin the armed forces.
It was actually followed up just 6 years later with another vast logistics effort for much the same forces (and 10X bigger to a much more distant location) ...only that one wasn't an exercise it was The Gulf War. I imagine a huge number of those involved in Lionheart went to the Gulf or provided logistics expertise... though I sense less clean up was required :-)
This is kinda funny and interesting. In some smaller cities you can still see the "marks" made by tanks and other vehicles. For example, pressed sidewalks from tanks. I can remember when I was very young, British soldiers and Tanks lurking through the forests.
I remember being cammed up in a Royal Signals Rebro detachment somewhere in Niedersachsen in a small wood in winter 1991-2 and some curious locals driving up a dirt track to our position at night with headlights off to investigate...by the time the guy on radio watch got the rest of us out of our gonk bags (sleeping bags) and outside they had driven off. Happened a couple of times then we stayed up all night waiting for them. At the time there were a lot of IRA attacks on British Forces in Germany so we were a bit nervous. On cue they came driving up again and as we had agreed, 3 of us in our combat kit, helmets on, with cammed up faces, surrounded them with our rifles pointed at them. Our Corporal whipped the keys out of their ignition while the driver had his hands on the dashboard, both the guys were completely terrified, because of course they didn't know we had no bullets in our rifles lol...he said to me very clearly ''if they move, kill them'' and I cocked my empty rifle for dramatic effect and the driver went white and started shaking...the Cpl then radio'd through to the MPs what to do, the problem was the car, an Opel I think, didn't even have number plates, I think they were just from a local farm and didn't go on roads with the car...anyway he came back and told them in German (he was born and went to school in Germany, his dad was in the army too and his mum was German) in no uncertain terms to clear off and not come back, and we never saw them again. Funny. Other times we were deployed in some Stadtswald and local joggers and pensioners walking their dogs walked past and always said ''Guten Morgen/Tag''. Once a girl and a guy came and our Detachment commander invited them for a coffee in the tent attached to the landrover...when the guy said that he was from Russia Jim, our Det Commander, threw something over our radios and cryptographic equipment, lol it was 1992 so the Cold War had only just finished. Happy days.
@@simonh6371 I see you were the perfect guests in my country :) Worry not, i returned the favor when i cut your field telephone lines near training ground munster - and stole at least 30 meters of wire for my own antenna-building projects. We are even now - btw, point a rifle at me in my own land, yard or house - bullet or not - expect to lose a limb. We can still go for a pint afterwards, its nothing personal.
@@zoolkhan Erm bro it was at the time of IRA attacks on our guys, even an innocent German woman, Heidi Hazell, was killed by the IRA. These guys were acting shady and initially we didn't know who they were. And don't act like a hardman, there are still British military in Germany. You wouldn't do anything if they pointed a rifle at you.
I know a Chieftain tank that went through a house by mistake, not on the Ex but in winter one year mid 1980s. Must have been messy it skidded on ice and just could not stop.
Lionheart was my first exercise as a newly trained Airtrooper in the Army Air Corps, and my abiding memory was of crapping myself for days waiting to be attacked by the Gurkhas ..... luckily they never did, massive exercise, smelt like a dog otter when it finally finshed...ahhh the memories.
Remember it still, once we had completed this we were sent on a Regimental Exercise down to the American Sector at Grafenwhor, slight issue we were still all painted up with the markings for Lionheart, so they knew who we were, got a little grief as we were attached to the Guards who canned the US units twice
I was based at RAF Gutersloh ‘82/‘86 [RAF Brat, dad an FLT] seem to recall the deaths incurred by tank regiment was due to the guys sleeping underneath them to keep warm but the tanks unfortunately sank overnight, crushing crews as they weren’t used to the new size weight of challenger. I was aged 9 at the time so might not remember things completely right... but then travelling the corridor and check point Charlie was pretty normal, bombs in Rhinedalen and Townsend Thorenson ferry’s capsizing meant I lost most my Star Wars toys to a new family joining the squadron that lost everything moving over... Thank you for the video share, so many memories, still love visiting my old home and a tree I planted in Herman Lietz strasse in ‘83 Cheers 🤙
Deserves a medal . I did it once it was like being tortured by sadistic looneys. Given the choice of doing it again id rather have lorry batteries attached to barb wire and viciously wrapped around my testicles while i was electrocuted with s club 7 songs on repeat while being water boarded and a rather sharp and overly large piece of scaffolding rammed up my ass by a Scouse arm wrestler on a near leathel dose of speed . And i dont say this lightly or want to go to far but id rather drive a Vauxhall
It was great fun, in the morning left our barracks, by nightfall digging in after being airlifted by crab air on day one. Rumour has it the going rate was a crate of beer for an AFV that 'accidently' destroyed a barn.
Yes, I liked the part about German farmers asking NATO forces to 'accidentally ' destroy their barn so that NATO would have to bear the cost of rebuilding it.
I was part of Exercise Lion Heart and was serving at that time with 17/21st Lancers in Münster, Germany. It was an amazing expierence and at times very Dangerous. Alot of damage was caused during the exercise and one thing i do remember like it was yesterday was watching a Tank slide down a hill after heavy rain and plough straight into a country house, with great luck know one was killed even though the tenents where home. Great video and thanks for the memory.
Good comparison,i lived through those times,our army is just as professional today but without the numbers, plus i dont think society has changed for the better either.
Didn’t take part in Lionheart 84 as I was serving in a training unit in UK at the time, but I’d taken part in the previous biggest FTX in BAOR, Spearpoint in 1980 when I was with HQ 20 Armd Bde in Detmold. Left the British Army on 28th September 1984, Lionheart 84 was probably still going on then. The guy near the end of the film with an NBC boot pulled on his head was quality 😁
I was on it. I was in the Kings. I am planning a driving holiday from My home in Liverpool to Poland you have given me the rote I will take. by the way, the Liverpool echo sent a reporter along with the Kings. Thanks, Simon Thornton
I was based at RAF Gutersloh ‘82/‘86 [RAF Brat, dad an officer] seem to recall the deaths incurred by tank regiment was due to the guys sleeping underneath them to keep warm but the tanks unfortunately sank overnight, crushing crews as they weren’t used to the new size weight of challenger. I was aged 9 at the time so might not remember things completely right... but then travelling the corridor and check point Charlie was pretty normal, bombs in Rhinedalen and Townsend Thorenson ferry’s capsizing meant I lost most my Star Wars toys to a new family joining the squadron that lost everything moving over... Thank you for the video share, so many memories, still love visiting my old home and a tree I planted in Herman Lietz strasse Cheers
Well, I'm a fan of national service , in which the government conscripts all members of the public who aren't going into stem or medical fields , when they reach 18 , not necessarily to do military operations but infrastructure construction and maintenance, trained in the medical field through it , and basically the government for a period of 4 year forcefully trains you for a needed job, be it a doctor, nurse, mechanic ,soldier, sailor, engineer and therapist . Though everyone who is put through it, should get basically military training and put into reservists .
I was serving with 54 Sqn RCT in Catterick Garrison, when we took part in Ex. Lion Heart. Our Sqn vehicles embarked from Hull to Zeebrugge, and then drove into Holland and Germany. I was in C Troop driving a 10 Ton solid metal six wheeler truck, crash gearbox. So loud, the driver and passenger seats were separated by the engine cover in the middle. We only had one task during the exercise, when we were loaded with jerricans of fuel, took them somewhere, and that was it. My truck broke down and I had to be towed all the way back to the UK, hitched to another ten ton truck by a 10ft Tow Bar. 400 terrifying miles having to steer to follow the towing vehicle!
As an Army Signaller, Op. Lion Heart, was my first deployment. The military began it induction into the exercise, by first stating, they expected to lose 50 people dead in accidents with three times that number injured.. In traveling to Germany, we had to travel into Belgium first, where some of the communist locals, threw stones and bottles at us, as we crossed the boarder.. However, most were friendly and understood our purpose. During supply runs in Germany, or vehicle rests, we were allowed to carry our weapons into shops and department stores, which in the UK was not allowed. The exercise was long a hard, but a great experience for real battles down the line.. I am proud to have been a participant of Lion Heart, and a veteran of what came next...
I was on that exercise with the 7th royal Anglian TA, I was 17 and half and it was my first time leaving the UK, it was pretty amazing to be part of at such a young age
Lionheart was my first big exercise after training. Spent 3 weeks in the 4 Div RV pot bashing! My 21st birthday I got a hot bath in the farmhouse and 2 bottles of beer! Happy days 🙂
Mostly northern Germany I think, Rhine Westfalen Area, one of 1 BR Corps weak points was the Monden gap, didn’t fancy a Russian Shock army rolling across the north German plains! Not that I saw much from within my Dixie bashing tent!
I took part as a recovery mechanic attached to 28 amphibious engineer regiment Hameln , ended up so tired I drove a 22t wrecker of the road and still didn’t wake up . Ended in lots of trouble 😀
What sort of thing would you need to train for? This is the classic NATO-Warsaw pact plan. A big mechanised conflict along a front in Germany or Poland.
@@iteachyou1575 Napoleon and his Marshals did not win one single battle against Wellington during the entire Peninsular War. And, Napoleon took part in only one battle, which was Waterloo, and he lost that too. The Royal Navy destroyed both the French and Spanish fleets at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, ten years before the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
The next one after using regular reserves was exercise " brave defender" to plan home defences. The one after that was exercise " capital guard" which opened and utilised some of the " sealed " bunkers. One phase of this exercise involved corroboration with the army and emergency services. A simulated train crash in Scotland, a simulated airliner crash in Kent and a simulated fighter plane crash in the docks in Hull. Just after this there was a real train crash in London and the Lockerbie aircrash in Scotland.
I remember it well I was at RAF Odiham. Normally, I was the Ops Wg Clerk. However, my war role was the Ops Wg dispatch rider deploying on a CANAM 250. We went on detachment to Denmark for 2 weeks. It rained for most of the time. An enjoyable trip, with a day in Copenhagen. I still have the small wooden beer drinking model. I’m 64 now, happy days.
? .... Never forget my friend Russia win the war with its 11 Million dead soldiers on eastern front, diminishing the Wehrmacht in a war of attrition. Britain was nowhere to be found in WW2 same as le grand nation France. So all praise to the mighty red army
SNAFU was never more applicable. Sat in traffic jams for two weeks. UK and Belgium. Never did reach Germany but did lots of "meet and greet" with the Belgians, who were absolutely fantastic! Especially the ladies.
I'm loving the original footage. It's a shame we moved so far away from this. From the failed attempt at creating a Euro QRTF to overly engineered platforms that would be unserviceable in the field (cough F35). It was just simpler back then.
@Миодраг Здравковић Why 60000 of them? If you want to use that many you use a strategic one troll. Also you had 60000 of them plus all your strategic ones and you still lost so it didn't make much of a difference did it? You lost your empire, most of your country and you ended up broke and guess what? My 12 mins was 30 years ago and you probably weren't even there, your hanging on dreams of a Soviet empire that's gone trying to suck up for putin. troll.
Indeed, I saw a lecture where an American officer (retd.) said he'd met in the Ukraine a former Soviet officer whose job it had been on Day 1 to put 500 tactical nukes on Denmark, the Soviets liked their bacon crispy. God knows what they planned to put on areas with significant forces in them.
@Миодраг Здравковић I'm delusional! You don't get it do you? You don't need 60000 nuke rounds, you probably only need 10 or 20 large ones and also how fast do you think one of those rounds gets to the US or Russia? It's not instant when you press the "button", it takes about 8 to 10 mins depending where they're launched from so there's plenty of time to press your "button" and send some back and NO leader, NO LEADER, wants that coming their way. One missile probably carries about 5 or 6 MIRV's and they're about 8 times more powerful than the ones that took out Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So all your gold , oil , mines , gas , uranium won't mean anything when a. you've got no one to mine it and b. you've got no one to sell it too. You see once they go there is no stopping them and things will escalate and unfortunately there aren't very many places that are separate and "fall out" doesn't just stop at borders. MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction perversely, is what kept this planet in one piece. They're a waste of money really because nobody will use them, or I hope they won't, but once one country has them they all want them, "Nuclear Paranoia". Also the USSR DID lose the Cold War, not through militarily means but through economic means. The USSR went broke first because they couldn't keep up with the US and their empire fell apart, "military chicken", and the first thing the Western World did was shrink it's military in reply as they couldn't afford to keep it at those levels when there was no enemy any more, the called it "The Peace Dividend" . You are right though "money does make the world go round" but remember it's no good having it if you can't use it! You can't eat it! Try learning some actual history and not Marxist Propaganda as you weren't there, "KID".
I drank a lot of beer in the bars of Berlin, it was intense. Mon cheri was a tough operation and opened my mind to Cold War opportunities. I'm proud of my service...
Absolutely knackering exercise, was involved as a section commander in the Royal Engineers. Good for me as I was ex 59 Cdo, so we had never seen tanks and a build up like this.
It’s correct they carry 6, but I don’t recommend pentagon wars as source material for anything else. As implied it was a sarcastic take on military development
When NATO doesn't even do exercises that big it shows how pointless it is to do it again. It's not a necessity. You just only like the kudos of hearing hundreds of thousands of our troops being deployed. At a huge cost to the military that almost cost a small war in itself. We were scared of Russia then. Now it's fairly impossible seeing any kind of land attack on any European nation
Not at all, we can drop smart bombs through roofs from 4000m and drone strike scum without even having to set foot on the ground. It's not WW2 anymore, fight smarter not harder.
A mate i used to work with told us a funny story about when on a big nato exercise in germany his company RRF where dug in in a field having ration pack breakfast, they heard a gong sound in the next field upon investigation through the hedgerow the neighbours US Army had a massive mobile canteen, needless to say ration packs were discarded and a load of our lads enjoyed freshly prepared sausages, eggs, bacon,waffles panckes and gallons of coffee 😆
If you want to watch Exercise Lionheart look it up on RUclips it's on here. The audio is crap and video isn't all that good but if you want to reminisce about the 1980s British Military it's for you.
at that moment I was a medic in the 82d Abn, stuck in Ft Bragg, NC - then 3 years later as a medic in the CA Natl Guard went to Team Spirit 87 in South Korea
This was just 2 years after the Falklands war against Argentina, so the British army was well prepared and boosted from that war in terms of budget and experience and moral with Thatcher as PM and Not May ✌
Rob Fraser the joke flew right over your head. It wasn’t me saying that we could turn Americans British 😂, it was saying that the Americans could pull off an operation like this today
My first exercise on joining my Regiment only a month before, stuck in the Gunner's seat of a chieftain not really having a clue what I was supposed to be doing, and a small window in my gunners sight to see out of. I think the longest we stayed inside for was 4 days! And I'd do it again in a heartbeat, great memories.
I didn’t know British army is so small compared to other Western countries. I’m not mocking you Brits. I’m a US Marine and I consider it an honor to have fought side by side with Royal Marines and Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, very professional warriors. Every time I hear about the British Armed Froces, I always imagine the greatest generation of WW2 warriors kicking NAZI and Fascists butts. I’m Filipino-American and it’s surprising that the Philippine military has more personnel. How I wish the Philippine military also have the same military equipment and technology you guys have. The best experience for me was our camp running out of cigarettes. Then out of nowhere in the dessert, comes 4 British pinkish brown camouflaged rovers filled with cigarettes and other goods. They sold us cigarettes at a fair price. They could have doubled the price and we would not complain. I couldn’t remember the exact price, all I can remember was the prices was close to amount we paid at our PX.
"ask him, I am only here to blow the bridge" - best response
if you do nothing Russia will repeat the story with Attila who captured Rome(
That was my favourite bit, such a bloke haha
Ahah typical British Army response
Need to know basis..security.." Do what"
Nothing summarises the British attitude to life, than that quote #.
These exercises were huge back in the 70s and 80s. They even calculated in expected casualties and losses on them. My cousin, was one of them. RIP Gary, I will always miss and remember you.
No mate, usually accidents in a realistic/chaotic environment.
RIP GARY
I was an ambulance driver, one from our ambulances had to go and pickup a guy killed on a train.
As a former US Army soldier, it was always interesting operating in joint training events like these with our Allie’s. Brits and Aussies always had an outstanding sense of humor.
Good to have you on board mate 🇺🇸🇬🇧 - GB, US and ANZACs together are a force to be reckoned with.
British troops equipment and uniform looked so classy back then
@@calipto4605 No it wasn't, the combats were alright but the other kit was pretty poor. Also just for your info, my life expectancy was 12mins, we weren't expected to stop the Warsaw Pact forces but only slow it down so the Yanks could do "Reforger" which was them getting reinforcements from the US to Europe before the Soviet Shock armies got to the channel. We all knew that and weren't going to make it easy for them, don't forget the areas we trained over were the areas they would've had to fight through and they also knew it too.
Americans created the modern uniform pattern, I prefer the old look.. it's why the change. Also, both countries have now restricted different things like in the US, you can no longer roll up your sleeves.. it was literally a trade mark for them yet for some stupid reason they decided it wasn't professional looking.. the part of their sleeves rolled up had to be perfect in the thickness, how high, etc.. but stupid politicians got in the way.
When you look at uniforms, always blame the politicians. It's very rarely the top brass that want these changes.. they don't care as long as it works and their soldiers look professional enough for combat. Afterall, they're there to kill and occupy, they're not their to taste the local tea.
@@Glorious_Kim_Jong_Un
Well...for a princess you looked darn hot in that ambulance driver uniform on 1940...
Dianna Rigg has nothing on ER
@@Glorious_Kim_Jong_Un well the MTP looks proffesional, and works well in a wide range of enviroments.Most modern camofluages are made using scientific reaserch, and it shows because you see the camofluage working well in from afghaninstan to estonia and catterick, i guess it saves money to create a universal camoflauge and is much more convienient for the troops. so unless we are blaming poloticians for creating life a hellava lot easier for our troops and saving money in the process, i think we can agree this is something they got right.
@@sticks5614 really intresting insight, was some years before i was born but you must have been on your job if you were a soldier in that period massive respect man.
Remember it well
I sat on a box for 24 hrs
No food...no relief
"Transport will be here to pick this up in an hour or so"
I might still be there....
Hurry up and wait.
@@daws167 the official British army motto
A work colleague described it as 'two week's of being lost'.
I can actually hear the difference in the accents between old and current, it's crazy how languages change over time:)
Brits back in the day didn’t have a diet full of soy unlike today
@Donald Trump very accurate, much accurate such facts. well done
When i was a kid in Glasgow my older brother joined the army, it would have been 1982 he joined, when i saw him again 3-4 years later he had a weird mix of English and Glaswegian accent.
Those are ''Army'' accents. Squaddies still speak differently today.
@almightyinferno they're...there is as in ''over there'' ...you mean they're as in they are...back in the 80s people could still write basic English...since GCSEs came in the standard dropped
No idea why, but the interview with the soldiers are amusing as all hell.
The one that praised the virtues of the Challengers looked positively stoned. Like a British Sudden Clarity Clarence...
131,000 personal and 750 tanks, 13,000 RAF on duty, incredible numbers. I can imagine Soviet intelligence was in overdrive.
Considering the lacklustre performance of Soviet T class armour in Ukraine, has one wondering how they would have faired against the Challenger, Abrams, Leopard and indeed even the Chieftain, do have a soft spot for these
@@steveneastland4128 looks like we won't have to wait long to see ..
@@justinboyan573 indeed, the Challenger 2 should be an incredibly tough nut to crack, the Abrams had some loss in Kuwait, the Leopard in Syria, I don’t think a single Challenger has been lost to enemy action
@@steveneastland4128 Well you have to factor in the fact that i doubt any tank would do any better in Ukraine. The main losses seem to be from ATGMs and close range Anti-Tank, which historically speaking there IS a reason why in Afghanistan you didnt see Challengers and Abrams zooming around suppressing the Taliban, it was mostly done by lightly armored mine resistant vehicles. Conventional warfare like we are seeing in Ukraine is very taxing on Troops and Equipment, thats why general estimates during the cold war were that the immediate supply of conventional munitions would be used up within a few weeks.
In Iraq we saw very few Coalition losses because the Iraqis were armed primarily with sub-par export models that lacked even hydraulic turret drives aka they needed manual turning. In Ukraine we have two opponents that technologically speaking are relatively en paar hence you are seeing lots of losses on either side.
13,000 RAF on duty…NAAFI profits must have plummeted.
I remember it , I was a kid at the time living in Germany, my dad was British army; he was away for weeks,my overriding memory is my mum “ you wait until your father gets home “
Dan M ha ha , hexi blocks and bacon grill ,my favourite 😋
Boy, do I remember those same words form my mother from the crazy times my old man was on exercise at Soltau or Sennelager.
I was a reservist called out for the exercise. I finished a night shift then reported for my deployment . With in six hours of leaving my front door I was on the FEBA fully armed and ready to fight, which I thought was pretty impressive.
In those days there were different levels of reserve , I was an ex regular. Then there was the Territorial Army who would have trained at week ends and a two weeks a year commitment. Since then the UK has had a restructure and the reserve has become a much broader commitment. I like to think we can still do the business if asked.
One thing the British military is very impressive at is rapid mobilisation, which is no mean feat when you consider all the details and logistics required. The Falklands War is a good example of rapid mobilisation over 8000 miles of communication and fighting an enemy that outnumbered our fighting forces roughly five to one.
I heard that the Russians were so impressed at the rapid mobilisation and deployment of our troops that they admitted they would not be able to replicate it. Although I do not know if that is in fact true.
@@wasp6594 It is correct, even more, Russian defence planners were so surprised by the effectiveness of British forces in the South Atlantic they had to revise their plans against the BAOR in Germany.
Mick Keogh I was same
@@zipz8423 *100% CORRECT* The Sov's were staggered by the ability of the British to assemble and deploy the task force in 48 hours. So much so, the Russian Defence Attache in the UK contacted his liaison officer in the MoD and arranged to meet with his British counter-part. The Attache offered a deal- namely to provide the British with *ANY* information that they wanted to know about any the Soviet military development projects at that time. In return, the Sov's asked one question- "How did you assemble and deploy the task force so rapidly?" The British officer consulted with higher authority, and he was authorised to speak to the Attache and a 'deal' was thrashed out. In the aftermath of the Falkland's, the Sov's reassessed the British military and it's capabilities. They realised that the British would stand up and fight tooth and nail against any Soviet attack against West Germany. It made them stop and think.........
My dad told me about seeing an accident fatality roadside during these exercises as a TA officer, a real sobering for him and reminder of how serious these deployments were.
I spent 78-80 in Germany in US Army. Our exercise was REFORGER (return of forces to Germany. Things to keep in mind is the depth of the defense in depth now includes many of the nations I was supposed to be facing. My unit was an anti tank missile and systems repair unit based in Nurnberg. We did not have enough trucks to move the entire unit in one go so some of us were supposed to stay in our shop cranking out repaired TOW and dragon units and advising using units when they were ready.
I did 3 Reforgers, '81, "82, and '83. Good times....
I was stationed in Germany when this happened, 1st Infantry Division, returned for a REFORGER in 86 from Ft Riley Ks.
What’s up brother
In the 1980/90s me and my parents often stayed in a hotel at the small town of Rasdorf, near the East-German border. A few times we woke up because of M60 and in leater years M1-tanks rumbling through the main street. One day, we were driving along the border and stumbled upon an armoured column of M60s. They must have thought we were Russian spies, because the guys on top of the last tank motioned us to stay further away! Fun times for a Dutch boy in his early teens!
I really miss that exercise………can’t say we could do it again though……..different times I guess.
Such a shame the British Amy numbers have collapsed so hard now days
Vote Labour then.
Yeah i wish we had a stronger more professional army
Tbh there’s no need for a bigger army at the moment, I’d rather have the tax money spent on social improvements while we are at peace times
@@jackiechan1148 We do have a professional army.
As much as its a shame our numbers have collapsed, I do this it has its advantages. There are more important things to focus on, and numbers in any army matter little compared to technology such as nukes etc.
I served on this exercise with the Royal Irish Rangers I was the Battalion mortar officer. I ended up in the spearpoint phase as part of an ad hoc Airborne bed Commanded by Brig Jeeps . A great exercise many lessons learned and employed later , not much sleep but really excellent.
In the late '90s we had Exercise Ulan Eagle, which was Brigade size. Drove from West Germany all the way through what had been East Germany and into Poland, exercised in Poland then drove back about a month later.
Yes I remember that. There was a funny video somewhere of some pissed off RA gunners complaining about their superiors.
fredbrackely not aware of that. In '97 I think was the first one, don't know which Bde, but they ended it with a Jim Davidson concert. '98 was 4th Armd Bde and there was no endex event. I think 7 Bde were then supposed to take over readiness, but in '99 decision was made for 4 to deploy to Kosovo. Whilst waiting in Macedonia we then got our Jim Davidson concert lol.
There was Two. The first was in 1996, where Jim Davidson came out and filmed his One for the Boys Show. The next one was in 1998, I missed the first one, but came back early from Bosnia and was sent on Exercise with 21 Royal Engineer Regt. From what I remember we spent a lot of time in NBC suits. The last night was a blast as we all move to an area ready to move off the following day. We were allowed to send lads on a beer run and got to sample the delights of Polish Beer.
Digger Buckett if there was a second concert it most definitely wasn’t 1998. As stated above 1998 was 4th armd Bde. There definitely wasn’t an endex concert in 1998. I think that was partly the reason for the concert in 1999 in Macedonia with 4th Armd Bde.
@@SeanHendy There was only the one concert at the end of the Exercise and that was in 96, I can't remember if our whole regt went out on that one. I was Told that Jim had Blamed the Brits for tapes going missing from the recording as He thought they had nicked them as he was very late starting the show. It turned out it was The Polish that had pinched them.
The Next one was one I was on in 98 with 21 Eng Regt, there was other Eng regt out there as there was a big Bridge laying Demo.
Don't know if they continued affer that as I had then gone back to the UK to Join the ACC in 99. I was surprised that I didn't get sent out to Kosovo as I had done Back to back summer tour in Bosnia in 97 and 98.
I grew up in Pembroke in West Wales. German Leapards passed our school, seemingly on the first day of spring each year, on the way to the Castelmartin ranges.
It was the only place the West German army was permitted to train outside Germany. We also had Chieftains, and Saracens, which was great when you're a kid.
I just spent a month in castlemartin, not quiet the Bahamas is it
Vespelian they used ranges in Dumfries and Galloway
Euro tunnel is prepared to move military resources through it?
Thought genuinely never crossed my mind...
in case of a full scale war, it would probably be the first target for the enemy
@@cerealpipe maybe, but unless they wanted to do naval/air invasion uk then they would need the tunnel too
@@cerealpipe The tunnel is underwater, and would be heavily defended navally to prevent its loss.
The tunnel would be a primary target, defended or not. However I doubt the enemy would use it because UK can use that as a chokepoint for anyone going through.
The tunnel would represent a chokepoint for an attacking force, but it serves excellently as part of the logistics framework to support a force in the field, as well as keeping road traffic to a minimum in and around Folkestone and Calais by allowing for freight to be transferred from road to rail and back again away from the channel.
I was 11 years old and my dad was based in RAF Laarbruch when Lionheart kicked off. We got evacuated to the UK. It was incredibly exciting for us.
I was on this scheme in my Chieftain as a driver and nothing broke, not as uncommon as you'd think if you were lucky enough to get a good pack and do your maintenance properly although I certainly wouldn't say that Chieftain was anywhere near as reliable in comparison to Challenger
Challie?
Reliable?
Really?
From what I have heard/read, it was *VERY* unreliable, and the Challie 2 still has many problems
@@vuk.3866
So in other words you heard/read and you know more than someone who actually did it, wow.
@@dukecraig2402 no, I'm, really suprised.
From what I've gathered, Cheftain was ok to maimtain, whill thw Challie was a nightmare
@@vuk.3866 aye the challie 1 struggled in extremes like Iraq but the challie 2 went to Oman on excercise and other extremes and from what I've heard it did fine
Nice one brother👍
I was there as a member of The Life Guards attached to 2 ADS tasked with training the thousands of battle casualty replacements sent from the UK it was a huge undertaking and something we simply couldn't do now
Dude....we were ALL there...
That was the whole point
I left The Life Guards in 1977 after 6 years, best time of my life.
Attrition is the bit we're still out on, I think? At least when we have mostly theories and models and not a lot of practical experience (thankfully) on how quick large-scale mechanised warfare between the powers would run up.
Is it me, or does it sound like the presenter keeps saying, '1994' ???
Scottish accent for you
I heard it properly
Matt Eborne
Bwitain
Its very clearly 1984 although maybe thats coz im used to the accent tho
Is you. Check your ears...lol
I took part in EX Lionheart, with 2nd field regiment Royal Artillery, we had M109a2 self propelled Howitzer's , 155mm, we also had HMLC Alvis Stolwart's and 432s we where stationed in Munster, back then, there was also a very big parade that year in May in Dortmund when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth came to review the hole of the Royal Artillery, Busy year,
It wasn't a live Ammunition Excercise @Michael Moretti
It’s a shame we can’t do anything that impressive now a days.
Impressive was not a word that came to mind at the time. Trust me on that one.
A shame? The UK should have a professional, specialist army. Modern warfare is not about the numerical advantage in personnel and we should embrace the fact that the geopolitical world doesn't need such a mobilised force. There's no shame.
@@Casper6277 If the British people regain the independence we crave BREXIT, and once again expand our trading network globally. We will require a much bigger professional; armed force to protect our overseas interests. Particularly a navy more than three times the current size and an expanded RAF with much greater reach. The regular army (the professional specialists) should never be permitted to fall below 100,000 very well equipped fully mechanised combat troops.
Israel might need to fight their own wars one of these days.
@@Casper6277 It would be better if Brits has fund for a LARGER, professional, specialist army, so it's indeed a shame.
I was there, damage control with a bunch of mad Royal Engineer types, was part of the rescue teams sent to a trooper trapped under a challenger. also a badly crushed hand by a back door of a warrior. role overs of Fox armoured cars was popular and a poor civilian killed at a set of traffic lights. I had also been on damage control for cursaider 80.
Was the boxhead civvy killed by a panzer driver pulling back on two tillers i.e. braking too sharply, and the front end lifting in the air and smashing down on the car? I heard a story about that about 5 years later in 1989
As I remember civvy car over took combat engineer tractor found its self at a red light stopped combat engineer tractor stopped spigot did not , came of top of the combat engineer tractor through the car straight through the driver. think the incident your thinking of involved a warriors back end 1986 ish.
Fox - straight over the top of me.. at Cromer Corridors..
test fired the Millan there too.
all good..
had worst
just a scratch
got another one.
job done
I was there. One of our Foxes rolled... Luckily nobody was seriously hurt! They were incredibly unstable when off-road!
I love how strong everyone's accents are in the clips. They are always like stereotype sounding american or stereotype British lol
My dad went on exercise lionheart, says he remembered that there were so many military vehicles that the tar-mac they were on was sunk and cracked, he told me “At that moment I knew what my dad saw in ww2”
The SLR/FAL was a quality rifle on of my favourite ever
I loved the SLR, a bugger to carry but it did pack a punch! At least I didn't tote the GPMG too much.
@@richardmiller3922 I was RAF and even though our weapons training was limited at the time, I admit I loved the SLR. I thought it was a great weapon and very accurate. Believe it or not, I actually liked using the Stirling and got great satisfaction when I stitched the 45 degree pattern on the target.
KandRgaming Productionz ditto
@@richardmiller3922 We were equipped with Sterlings, but I used to enjoy the occasional go with the SLR on the ranges.
I took part as part of a blowpipe light anti-aircraft unit. Very memorable experience. Thanks for the video. I have my photographs as mementos. Lots of running out into the fields to protect the tanks on the advance to the Leine, then back to the landrover, then do it again...
One of your best vids, really interesting.
if you do nothing Russia will repeat the story with Attila who captured Rome(
@@justfun7322 They will. Putin wants another Eastern Bloc, USSR and to rule the world.
As someone who participated all those years ago, and spent six weeks being naffed about. We did have some good times, when we actually got into the field.
Keep in mind this was 2 years after the Falkland incident. I'm not completely aware of this consequences for the British army but I'm pretty sure it has also connections to this operation like representing the manpower and tactics of the British army.
Was at my local cemetery this week, it was the mrs fathers birthday. Anyway I noticed a grave close by of a serviceman killed on exercise in Germany 1984 and thought to myself "Wonder how that happened"? guess I know now, the lad was 22.
A couple of them died while sleeping under the new Challenger tanks in the rain,,, although forbidden tank crews would shelter from the rain and cold under Tanks at night,, They didn't reckon on the much heavier weight of the new tanks along with a couple of rainy days which caused the tanks to sink crushing the troopers below, Sadly by the time they got the heavy lifting gear in place it was too late
Great video man! I love the fact that you could deploy Harriers directly in the field! Something tells me it wouldn't be quite so easy with an F-35.
...nostalgic sigh... ;) Back when the UK could design and build a great aircraft all on its own.
@Cool Waters Absolutely. The US Marines are still keeping theirs going. Far longer than expected. It's just so unique, and clearly useful. .... more sighs..
In fairness to the Americans, they did give us money to help develop the Harrier when the UK government wouldn't.
@@gonzomuse it was already in service before the USMC bought any. My primary school teacher's ex husband was the lead Harrier test pilot, pretty cool to meet him as kid
@@centrica1234 Nice. That guy has to be extremely brave to test a hovering aircraft!
I might be remembering that incorrectly but I'm pretty certain the documentary on here about the development of the Harrier talks about US funding. Good doc, I'll try and find it.
@@gonzomuse The USMC are keeping theirs in service because they bought a ready supply of spares when they got all the UK harriers and parts. Shame they were retired early though.
US did most of the development on the AV8B version which led to the UK GR5/GR7
@@chaz8758 Yes, the UK Harriers were all recently upgraded with new avionics too, before they were sold off.
Great video. Also amazing to see how scaled down the US and NATO armies are now vs in the 80's. The US would do an exercise of near this size almost every year through the 70s and 80s, it was called REFORGER.
the Peace dividend.
*LITTLE*
*BIT*
*OF DESTROY*
Yes, that's what we Germans like to do
*stuka sirens
I was on this exercise as an MP working alongside US and German MP's. I had just got married and cut short my honeymoon short to be on it. We travelled by road and ferry making our way through europe to Germany spending most of our time hunkering down in german forest's. A great bunch of men that will be friends for life, Reece a US MP gave me a crash course on the .45 handgun. Then I was sent to be with the Irish Rangers during which time we captured 4 civilians within our perimeter, in the boot of their car was 2 cases of prepared molotov cocktails, they were going to be used on troops that were keeping the MSR's open. Memorable experience and sp pleased I was part of it.
the fact that Britain had to save our arses twice! by "invading" Europe, its not unimaginable to belive they might need too again.
@Badger Lowe dont forget Russia switched sides.
Badger Lowe Germany had failed in 1939 Germany and was in real trouble, Royal Air force and Navy were still fighting their war and the British Army had escaped. Germany's navy didn't have a ability to follow up Germany's attack into France and they found themselves at the English Channel wondering what to do next. Any landing in the UK would have resulted in a chemical attack on their army, their navy would have had to come out of hidding and their air force would have had to fight at a disadvantage. RAF had the advantage of in depth support and would be able to attack the German surface fleet and the Royal navy would have been like a pack of wolfs with any landing fleet. But without Russia how would the invasion of Poland have worked out? The big what if game and without Russia there would have been a Nazis party in 1939?
@Badger Lowe Don't forget that without the UK Russia and Europe would have been lost to Germany, UK were the only nation left fighting when Russia shit them selves and pulled out of WW1.
Badger Lowe nope. The British Isles were not under threat of invasion at any time during WW2.
@Badger Lowe *OUR raf and navy saved OUR asses. Sorry, it just grinds my gears to see Brits speak worse English than people who have it as a second language.
Yank here, I’m proud to have the British as allies. I just disagree strongly that nothing like this needs to occur again with the British Army. The peaceful end of the Cold War in Europe was hard fought in exercises like these as a strong deterrent. If you desire peace prepare for far. Now we Americans bear an unfair burden of Europe’s defense when NATO obligations should be collective security in nature. We cannot meekly invite conflict by taking advantage of the peaceful post Cold War era these men won. The uncomfortable reality is that there will always be regional threats and it’s best to be prepared to prevent the worst case scenario from happening. I pray the British military will one day reclaim this type of strong defensive posture.
@LUNAR BLOODDROP Good, glad we aint controlling half the world and enslaving millions. Tory bastards.
I was there in 1984 with my unit 133 Corps Field Workshops (R.E.M.E) (V)
I took part in Lionheart as an Infantry Company second in command. We were part of 6 Airmobile Bde which was then trialling airmobility, namely moving as much as possible by helicopter. We were used to block armoured incursions or breakouts or rapidly seize vital ground or perhaps a bridge in coup de main operations. In Lionheart we were all ready to deploy to seize some bridges but the exercise ended. We then had to wait in a nice German wood for 3 days for all the UK bound vehicles to clear the roads before we could drive to our local barracks.
Niall Ogilvy I was the Sapper troop commander for 1LI in the same brigade. I too remember us having to wait for the UK based troops to go home! Where was Wolfgang when we needed him?
@@bob_the_bomb4508 Wolfgang died a couple of years ago, what I would like to know is how was it he showed up just as you were harbouring up must have had better intelligence than the GRU?
William Traynor-Kean Yep. I remember having cammed up my panzer on Saltau so that it was invisible to the naked eye from 25 metres. Yet 15 minutes later, there he was...
Try telling the blokes that queuing up for Wolfgangs chips was not tactical.
William Traynor-Kean I couldn't really, given that I was first in the queue! Lead by example and all that...after a few weeks of eating babies' heads and the egg operator's all in stew, a brattie was de rigeur :)
On a positive note, only take 1 Eurostar get what's left the British army over to France now.
You do understand the British Army right now is larger than what it was during the interwar years when the British Empire was at its height... Theirs no reason for a large army in peacetime.
@@samwell8 "If you want peace, prepare for war"
(Si vis pacem, para bellum)
the standing army does not need to be so large, but you must have a large base of reservists. And they need to be lead by experienced officers when the day comes. Those experienced officers, need to be part of the standing army, and reservists need refresher trainings on a regular base.
br, zool
formerly radio op in the german-navy
@@zoolkhan Late answer but exactly this. This is how the nazis were able to mobilize so quickly. They had tons of veterans from WW1 that couldnt join the military due to the treaty of versailles and were disgruntled with said treaty. When the call for mobilisation came they were all ecstatic to rejoin the armed forces.
It was actually followed up just 6 years later with another vast logistics effort for much the same forces (and 10X bigger to a much more distant location) ...only that one wasn't an exercise it was The Gulf War. I imagine a huge number of those involved in Lionheart went to the Gulf or provided logistics expertise... though I sense less clean up was required :-)
This is kinda funny and interesting. In some smaller cities you can still see the "marks" made by tanks and other vehicles. For example, pressed sidewalks from tanks. I can remember when I was very young, British soldiers and Tanks lurking through the forests.
I remember being cammed up in a Royal Signals Rebro detachment somewhere in Niedersachsen in a small wood in winter 1991-2 and some curious locals driving up a dirt track to our position at night with headlights off to investigate...by the time the guy on radio watch got the rest of us out of our gonk bags (sleeping bags) and outside they had driven off. Happened a couple of times then we stayed up all night waiting for them. At the time there were a lot of IRA attacks on British Forces in Germany so we were a bit nervous. On cue they came driving up again and as we had agreed, 3 of us in our combat kit, helmets on, with cammed up faces, surrounded them with our rifles pointed at them. Our Corporal whipped the keys out of their ignition while the driver had his hands on the dashboard, both the guys were completely terrified, because of course they didn't know we had no bullets in our rifles lol...he said to me very clearly ''if they move, kill them'' and I cocked my empty rifle for dramatic effect and the driver went white and started shaking...the Cpl then radio'd through to the MPs what to do, the problem was the car, an Opel I think, didn't even have number plates, I think they were just from a local farm and didn't go on roads with the car...anyway he came back and told them in German (he was born and went to school in Germany, his dad was in the army too and his mum was German) in no uncertain terms to clear off and not come back, and we never saw them again. Funny. Other times we were deployed in some Stadtswald and local joggers and pensioners walking their dogs walked past and always said ''Guten Morgen/Tag''. Once a girl and a guy came and our Detachment commander invited them for a coffee in the tent attached to the landrover...when the guy said that he was from Russia Jim, our Det Commander, threw something over our radios and cryptographic equipment, lol it was 1992 so the Cold War had only just finished. Happy days.
@@simonh6371 I see you were the perfect guests in my country :)
Worry not, i returned the favor when i cut your field telephone lines near
training ground munster - and stole at least 30 meters of wire for my own antenna-building projects.
We are even now - btw, point a rifle at me in my own land, yard or house - bullet or not - expect to lose a limb. We can still go for a pint afterwards, its nothing personal.
@@zoolkhan Erm bro it was at the time of IRA attacks on our guys, even an innocent German woman, Heidi Hazell, was killed by the IRA. These guys were acting shady and initially we didn't know who they were. And don't act like a hardman, there are still British military in Germany. You wouldn't do anything if they pointed a rifle at you.
I know a Chieftain tank that went through a house by mistake, not on the Ex but in winter one year mid 1980s. Must have been messy it skidded on ice and just could not stop.
@@zipz8423 it was going fast enough to skid!!!!!!????
Lionheart was my first exercise as a newly trained Airtrooper in the Army Air Corps, and my abiding memory was of crapping myself for days waiting to be attacked by the Gurkhas ..... luckily they never did, massive exercise, smelt like a dog otter when it finally finshed...ahhh the memories.
My first big exercise on heavy artillery ...opened my eyes ,still on FB with our crew from those days
I was on that exercise as a Chieftain crewman, 3rd Troop, 'C' Squadron, 17th/21st Lancers.
Remember it still, once we had completed this we were sent on a Regimental Exercise down to the American Sector at Grafenwhor, slight issue we were still all painted up with the markings for Lionheart, so they knew who we were, got a little grief as we were attached to the Guards who canned the US units twice
Rest in peace to those who past on this exercise great video
Well the army is now preparing for mobilisation in Europe again.
I was based at RAF Gutersloh ‘82/‘86 [RAF Brat, dad an FLT] seem to recall the deaths incurred by tank regiment was due to the guys sleeping underneath them to keep warm but the tanks unfortunately sank overnight, crushing crews as they weren’t used to the new size weight of challenger.
I was aged 9 at the time so might not remember things completely right... but then travelling the corridor and check point Charlie was pretty normal, bombs in Rhinedalen and Townsend Thorenson ferry’s capsizing meant I lost most my Star Wars toys to a new family joining the squadron that lost everything moving over...
Thank you for the video share, so many memories, still love visiting my old home and a tree I planted in Herman Lietz strasse in ‘83
Cheers 🤙
Brings back memories was there with the engineers
10 hours in a Kia, ouch! Good watch tho
Deserves a medal . I did it once it was like being tortured by sadistic looneys. Given the choice of doing it again id rather have lorry batteries attached to barb wire and viciously wrapped around my testicles while i was electrocuted with s club 7 songs on repeat while being water boarded and a rather sharp and overly large piece of scaffolding rammed up my ass by a Scouse arm wrestler on a near leathel dose of speed . And i dont say this lightly or want to go to far but id rather drive a Vauxhall
Adam lucky you
It was great fun, in the morning left our barracks, by nightfall digging in after being airlifted by crab air on day one. Rumour has it the going rate was a crate of beer for an AFV that 'accidently' destroyed a barn.
Yes, I liked the part about German farmers asking NATO forces to 'accidentally ' destroy their barn so that NATO would have to bear the cost of rebuilding it.
I was part of Exercise Lion Heart and was serving at that time with 17/21st Lancers in Münster, Germany. It was an amazing expierence and at times very Dangerous. Alot of damage was caused during the exercise and one thing i do remember like it was yesterday was watching a Tank slide down a hill after heavy rain and plough straight into a country house, with great luck know one was killed even though the tenents where home. Great video and thanks for the memory.
Good comparison,i lived through those times,our army is just as professional today but without the numbers, plus i dont think society has changed for the better either.
Our enemies are within.
I think those lads were just better stock than they are today but I could be wrong.
I was in the Falklands. 82. And then stationed in osnabruck. 83/86. Lionheart. We mainly just sat around. !!
Didn’t take part in Lionheart 84 as I was serving in a training unit in UK at the time, but I’d taken part in the previous biggest FTX in BAOR, Spearpoint in 1980 when I was with HQ 20 Armd Bde in Detmold.
Left the British Army on 28th September 1984, Lionheart 84 was probably still going on then.
The guy near the end of the film with an NBC boot pulled on his head was quality 😁
I joined up in 1985 and this exercise was all anyone ever talked about.
I was on it. I was in the Kings. I am planning a driving holiday from My home in Liverpool to Poland you have given me the rote I will take. by the way, the Liverpool echo sent a reporter along with the Kings. Thanks, Simon Thornton
My mates the Donahues were all in the Kings reg at the time, all top lads, respect.
I was based at RAF Gutersloh ‘82/‘86 [RAF Brat, dad an officer] seem to recall the deaths incurred by tank regiment was due to the guys sleeping underneath them to keep warm but the tanks unfortunately sank overnight, crushing crews as they weren’t used to the new size weight of challenger.
I was aged 9 at the time so might not remember things completely right... but then travelling the corridor and check point Charlie was pretty normal, bombs in Rhinedalen and Townsend Thorenson ferry’s capsizing meant I lost most my Star Wars toys to a new family joining the squadron that lost everything moving over...
Thank you for the video share, so many memories, still love visiting my old home and a tree I planted in Herman Lietz strasse
Cheers
Well, I'm a fan of national service , in which the government conscripts all members of the public who aren't going into stem or medical fields , when they reach 18 , not necessarily to do military operations but infrastructure construction and maintenance, trained in the medical field through it , and basically the government for a period of 4 year forcefully trains you for a needed job, be it a doctor, nurse, mechanic ,soldier, sailor, engineer and therapist .
Though everyone who is put through it, should get basically military training and put into reservists .
I was serving with 54 Sqn RCT in Catterick Garrison, when we took part in Ex. Lion Heart. Our Sqn vehicles embarked from Hull to Zeebrugge, and then drove into Holland and Germany. I was in C Troop driving a 10 Ton solid metal six wheeler truck, crash gearbox. So loud, the driver and passenger seats were separated by the engine cover in the middle. We only had one task during the exercise, when we were loaded with jerricans of fuel, took them somewhere, and that was it. My truck broke down and I had to be towed all the way back to the UK, hitched to another ten ton truck by a 10ft Tow Bar. 400 terrifying miles having to steer to follow the towing vehicle!
I was there with the RTC as it was known back in the day
As an Army Signaller, Op. Lion Heart, was my first deployment. The military began it induction into the exercise, by first stating, they expected to lose 50 people dead in accidents with three times that number injured.. In traveling to Germany, we had to travel into Belgium first, where some of the communist locals, threw stones and bottles at us, as we crossed the boarder.. However, most were friendly and understood our purpose. During supply runs in Germany, or vehicle rests, we were allowed to carry our weapons into shops and department stores, which in the UK was not allowed. The exercise was long a hard, but a great experience for real battles down the line.. I am proud to have been a participant of Lion Heart, and a veteran of what came next...
8:25 this is where Germany and Europe were divided, until the 22nd of December 1989 at 11 o'Clock
I was on that exercise with the 7th royal Anglian TA, I was 17 and half and it was my first time leaving the UK, it was pretty amazing to be part of at such a young age
Lionheart was my first big exercise after training. Spent 3 weeks in the 4 Div RV pot bashing! My 21st birthday I got a hot bath in the farmhouse and 2 bottles of beer! Happy days 🙂
Where in Germany was the Ex?
Mostly northern Germany I think, Rhine Westfalen Area, one of 1 BR Corps weak points was the Monden gap, didn’t fancy a Russian Shock army rolling across the north German plains! Not that I saw much from within my Dixie bashing tent!
I took part as a recovery mechanic attached to 28 amphibious engineer regiment Hameln , ended up so tired I drove a 22t wrecker of the road and still didn’t wake up . Ended in lots of trouble 😀
I wish we would do something similar again, this is when our military packed a punch, not that it doesn't today
Biggest deployments since have been the likes of Saif Sarrea in Jordan and the gulf States, 30,000 odd deployed pre GW2
Jack Derbisz
We couldn’t do Grenada
We can drop smart bombs from 3000m. Why would we need a land invasion? Fight smarter, not harder.
What sort of thing would you need to train for? This is the classic NATO-Warsaw pact plan. A big mechanised conflict along a front in Germany or Poland.
@@iteachyou1575 Napoleon and his Marshals did not win one single battle against Wellington during the entire Peninsular War. And, Napoleon took part in only one battle, which was Waterloo, and he lost that too. The Royal Navy destroyed both the French and Spanish fleets at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, ten years before the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
The next one after using regular reserves was exercise " brave defender" to plan home defences. The one after that was exercise " capital guard" which opened and utilised some of the " sealed " bunkers. One phase of this exercise involved corroboration with the army and emergency services. A simulated train crash in Scotland, a simulated airliner crash in Kent and a simulated fighter plane crash in the docks in Hull. Just after this there was a real train crash in London and the Lockerbie aircrash in Scotland.
A British invasion in the EU territory!... Sheer delight! Greetings from Greece.
Ahem... NATO territory...
I was on that exercise - Europe were our Allies then and they are today.
Matt allen The Europeans or British ?
@@badgertheskinnycow not for long. Brexit will free us! 😉
I remember it well I was at RAF Odiham. Normally, I was the Ops Wg Clerk. However, my war role was the Ops Wg dispatch rider deploying on a CANAM 250. We went on detachment to Denmark for 2 weeks. It rained for most of the time. An enjoyable trip, with a day in Copenhagen. I still have the small wooden beer drinking model. I’m 64 now, happy days.
"...the English army had just won the war..."
? .... Never forget my friend Russia win the war with its 11 Million dead soldiers on eastern front, diminishing the Wehrmacht in a war of attrition. Britain was nowhere to be found in WW2 same as le grand nation France. So all praise to the mighty red army
I bet the older Germans in that family were thinking
*Aw Scheiße, hier gehen wir wieder.*
SNAFU was never more applicable. Sat in traffic jams for two weeks. UK and Belgium. Never did reach Germany but did lots of "meet and greet" with the Belgians, who were absolutely fantastic! Especially the ladies.
I was one of 30 Australian Military Police that were deployed to support Ex Lionheart 84, a massive exercise of military proportions.
4:45 Young farage getting his way into politics?
Thats what I was thinking I had to look up if he was ever in the Army or not and it apperes he was never in the army.
I joined in 86 and remember spending 5 months or more on exercise in Germany 3rd Armed Div.
I'm loving the original footage. It's a shame we moved so far away from this. From the failed attempt at creating a Euro QRTF to overly engineered platforms that would be unserviceable in the field (cough F35). It was just simpler back then.
Ahhhh, the days when British and Commonwealth soldiers still carried the good old L1A1.
24487882 was in operation:lionheart and i enjoyed it, now i am 57 years of age i think i could do it again....jt
You could, but would you want to! Remember cheese possessed? Remember 10 man compo packs with pilchards and macedone mixed vegetables.
Oatmeal blocks with jam and cheese possessed - kept us going
AB biscuits, like eating compressed cardboard....sure that stood for anal blocking 🙂
I was on that one, Remember it well. We were still a force to be reckoned with back then
All wiped out by tactical nukes
We had them too. I used to be in the regt that had them.
@Миодраг Здравковић Why 60000 of them? If you want to use that many you use a strategic one troll. Also you had 60000 of them plus all your strategic ones and you still lost so it didn't make much of a difference did it? You lost your empire, most of your country and you ended up broke and guess what? My 12 mins was 30 years ago and you probably weren't even there, your hanging on dreams of a Soviet empire that's gone trying to suck up for putin. troll.
@Professor Waffle I'm sure if nato allies mobilized 130k troops towards Russias border tactical nukes would be an option to stop the allies attack
Indeed, I saw a lecture where an American officer (retd.) said he'd met in the Ukraine a former Soviet officer whose job it had been on Day 1 to put 500 tactical nukes on Denmark, the Soviets liked their bacon crispy. God knows what they planned to put on areas with significant forces in them.
@Миодраг Здравковић I'm delusional! You don't get it do you? You don't need 60000 nuke rounds, you probably only need 10 or 20 large ones and also how fast do you think one of those rounds gets to the US or Russia? It's not instant when you press the "button", it takes about 8 to 10 mins depending where they're launched from so there's plenty of time to press your "button" and send some back and NO leader, NO LEADER, wants that coming their way. One missile probably carries about 5 or 6 MIRV's and they're about 8 times more powerful than the ones that took out Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So all your gold , oil , mines , gas , uranium won't mean anything when a. you've got no one to mine it and b. you've got no one to sell it too. You see once they go there is no stopping them and things will escalate and unfortunately there aren't very many places that are separate and "fall out" doesn't just stop at borders. MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction perversely, is what kept this planet in one piece. They're a waste of money really because nobody will use them, or I hope they won't, but once one country has them they all want them, "Nuclear Paranoia". Also the USSR DID lose the Cold War, not through militarily means but through economic means. The USSR went broke first because they couldn't keep up with the US and their empire fell apart, "military chicken", and the first thing the Western World did was shrink it's military in reply as they couldn't afford to keep it at those levels when there was no enemy any more, the called it "The Peace Dividend" . You are right though "money does make the world go round" but remember it's no good having it if you can't use it! You can't eat it! Try learning some actual history and not Marxist Propaganda as you weren't there, "KID".
I drank a lot of beer in the bars of Berlin, it was intense. Mon cheri was a tough operation and opened my mind to Cold War opportunities. I'm proud of my service...
I think the population of Gloucester would now be more formidable than the British Army
Absolutely knackering exercise, was involved as a section commander in the Royal Engineers. Good for me as I was ex 59 Cdo, so we had never seen tanks and a build up like this.
Bradleys don't carry 11 people, they never did, except on PAPER. They carry 6. See Pentagon Wars.
You forgot to count the 5 personnel who ride on the OUTSIDE lol
It’s correct they carry 6, but I don’t recommend pentagon wars as source material for anything else. As implied it was a sarcastic take on military development
I was on this exercise... not in Germany but Denmark!
My my how the British forces have fallen, sad.
When NATO doesn't even do exercises that big it shows how pointless it is to do it again. It's not a necessity. You just only like the kudos of hearing hundreds of thousands of our troops being deployed. At a huge cost to the military that almost cost a small war in itself.
We were scared of Russia then. Now it's fairly impossible seeing any kind of land attack on any European nation
That is becasue we dont need a big force no more , the danger fom the east is gone and if it comes back trust me the numbers will rise again.
A Britain has always for most of history had a small, but very professional military like in WWI and the Napoleonic Era.
@@SamSam-pp8le trust you lol coz young British men falling over themselves to fight and die for an establishment that hates them and wants them gone.
Not at all, we can drop smart bombs through roofs from 4000m and drone strike scum without even having to set foot on the ground. It's not WW2 anymore, fight smarter not harder.
A mate i used to work with told us a funny story about when on a big nato exercise in germany his company RRF where dug in in a field having ration pack breakfast, they heard a gong sound in the next field upon investigation through the hedgerow the neighbours US Army had a massive mobile canteen, needless to say ration packs were discarded and a load of our lads enjoyed freshly prepared sausages, eggs, bacon,waffles panckes and gallons of coffee 😆
If you want to watch Exercise Lionheart look it up on RUclips it's on here. The audio is crap and video isn't all that good but if you want to reminisce about the 1980s British Military it's for you.
By the look of the video in this report that's where they got the footage from.
at that moment I was a medic in the 82d Abn, stuck in Ft Bragg, NC - then 3 years later as a medic in the CA Natl Guard went to Team Spirit 87 in South Korea
Impossible now
It's a tragic reality... slowly defeated from within
This was just 2 years after the Falklands war against Argentina, so the British army was well prepared and boosted from that war in terms of budget and experience and moral with Thatcher as PM and Not May ✌
“The British Army could never pull the numbers needed today”
America: “hold my beer”
The key word is "British"... you think the Americans could somehow magic up a few hundred thousand British troops do you?
Rob Fraser the joke flew right over your head. It wasn’t me saying that we could turn Americans British 😂, it was saying that the Americans could pull off an operation like this today
My brother was part of this I think he was based in Germany at the time....it must of been amazing....
Christ, I had no idea of how many capabilities we have lost.
It's a silent defeat.
My first exercise on joining my Regiment only a month before, stuck in the Gunner's seat of a chieftain not really having a clue what I was supposed to be doing, and a small window in my gunners sight to see out of. I think the longest we stayed inside for was 4 days!
And I'd do it again in a heartbeat, great memories.
I didn’t know British army is so small compared to other Western countries. I’m not mocking you Brits. I’m a US Marine and I consider it an honor to have fought side by side with Royal Marines and Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, very professional warriors.
Every time I hear about the British Armed Froces, I always imagine the greatest generation of WW2 warriors kicking NAZI and Fascists butts.
I’m Filipino-American and it’s surprising that the Philippine military has more personnel.
How I wish the Philippine military also have the same military equipment and technology you guys have.
The best experience for me was our camp running out of cigarettes. Then out of nowhere in the dessert, comes 4 British pinkish brown camouflaged rovers filled with cigarettes and other goods. They sold us cigarettes at a fair price. They could have doubled the price and we would not complain. I couldn’t remember the exact price, all I can remember was the prices was close to amount we paid at our PX.
Yes i was there with Recce Platoon sigs
Good job digging up all that old footage.
All the Ex Lion heart videos taken and shown on BFBS (an episode per day) are available on RUclips to watch.