ARmy Rumour SErvice

Originally Posted by ugly

3 RGJ were in Oakington till the end of 82 (I recalll the armoury was robbed!) This may account for elements being stood to on spearhead, that in itself was nothing new just check out the spearhead thread!

Ah, Oakington. Thinks its full of assylum seekers now. We did an SPE (Services protected evac) exercise there in about 81. We dropped right onto the camp , in high winds and had about 20% casualties! Cant remember if it was RGJ there then, but possibly.

Originally Posted by TIGER-MONKEY

Following the fighting, 1 QO HLDRS (IIRC) went down to take over from the task force .

1 QLR provided a company to 1 QO HLDRS BG. This may be the source of the tale - but those that went with this merry band will tell you that it was not a medal earner!

Originally Posted by chocolate_frog

Cheers R2Q and Ugly,

Can anyone confirm the story that the QO Highlanders had a bad time of it in FI? They were down there longer, had no kit and suffered loads of devorces because of the tour?

That was true of most of the units that garrisoned the place immediately after the war. It was six months plus away from home (troop ship either way from Ascension) with no comms home except blueys (no satphone or internet, of course); it coincided with one of the lengthy periods when the Army had shortages of all types of boots & clothing (quite often had to wear civvie stuff by the end of the tour), and many units - eg the Rapier dets around San Carlos - were living in sangers dug into the peat for the whole tour, asnd eating compo. So it was a bit like being on exercise for six months... My unit suffered a string of broken marraiges, whilst I think every singlie eventually received their bluey "Dear John" from the girlfriend.

Tell that to the kids today, and they won't believe you....

Originally Posted by Rodney2q

Originally Posted by chocolate_frog

IIRC, 5 Inf Bde (as it became) ended up being an ad hoc formation, with a few bods thrown in as they deployed. Obviously we know 2 and 3 PARA were stripped out and attached to 3 Cdo, and the SG and WG attached to fil their places. I think a few of the Staff slots were vacated by attachements to 3 Cdo. It is entirely possible he filled a Staff role or similar to fill such slots.

I was attached to HQ 5 Inf Bde during Op Corporate, having been posted in about 8 months earlier. The HQ staff was the usual mix of staff officers from various regiments. The Brigadier was LI, the BM was RA, at least two staff officers were RE, the Bde IO was WFR, there was at least one Para and one from a cavalry Regiment. The clerks were all RAOC plus a couple of RE draughtsmen. The int section was all Int Corps.

Prior to deployment a couple of RMP were attached from the local Provost Company- they ended up helping out with the Int Section - copying maps and stuff.

The HQ and Signal Sqn was R Sigs with a section of Pioneer Corps lads for the local defence of Bde HQ.

The brigade was screwed about by having major units detached and attached, but the HQ and staff remained pretty much in situ during the workup and deployment. A number of people were attached during the workup period but did not deploy south.

There were no attached QLR in the HQ that I can recall, however the Task Force HQ (General Moore's HQ) may have had a more esoteric mix of capbadges.

Hope this clears things up a bit.

Rodney2q

rodney2q

That's very interesting. Given that you had a rare insight into the conflict, and 5 Brigades role, which of the many books that have written about it do you think is the best reflection of events? Also, do you think TW will every write a book on his perspective of the war?

Sole

The rotation had improved after about 2 years with airtrooping taking over completely but it was still grim portakabins albeit better than tents and sangers!

..

I think 1QLR were based at Tern Hill Shropshire in 1982, as a home defence Bn.

I can't really think in what role a infantry Tom, up to Cpl rank(I assume), from outside of the Bde would have deployed on Op Corporate. Unless he was some sort of orderly or a specialist clerk type thingy!!!

With regard to the RHamps, they did deploy after hostilities ceased. But also needed reinforcing. My own Bn supplied them 10-15 guys, spread between South Georgia and the Main Islands. None of these guys were entitled to an SAM(rightly so).

Agreed that the SAM shouldnt have applied but there perhaps should have been some recognition of service in such a hole, 2 can limited with mags of live in your webbing for 4 months.
Perhaps it could have counted towards the ACSM but that may have needed a bar for the GSM 62 to qualify. I certainly felt sorryt for those crabs I met on their second tour who deserved whatever allowances they received for that additional tour.