ARCTIC TRAINING - WHY?

I watched a programme on Tv last night about Chefs spending a day with the RM during cold weather training in the Arctic.

This is not a dig, I am genuinely interested... why does Royal still go to the Arctic for cold weather training ? And is that training - which seems a bit bizarre to me considering real world events - balanced by training in counter-insurgency ops ?

 

Watched the self-same Masterchef programme. I always enjoyed the food when I went on my winter holidays, but am amazed that they chose to test their hopefuls out on Royal's discerning palate. It always struck me that no matter what was served up as part of the 8000 calories a day, the punters would hoick out the chilli or curry powder to give it a bit of flavour!

 

why does royal go?? well loads of reasons ..its bloody harsh terrain , excellent learning curve , furthermore regarding climate change who says that we wont fight in cold inhospitable places (think afghan winter or south georgia ) ..the same has been said of paras learning to parachute ..its also the esprit de corps ...you cant say your an effective fighting unit unless the officers and men have the upmost confidence they can operate in any enviroment and anywhere in the world

 

The real truth........some years ago in a different age they bought all this cold weather gear, and skis, its got to be used up

 

And you forget to mention the pleasure of skiing on "Pussers Planks"

 

Forgot to address the real question in my last post.

When the chance came, last Oct / Nov to deploy in support of the people in Northern Pakistan, which could have exercised Royal, medical support, Aid to the Civil Power and numerous other parts of the repertoire, what did UK plc do? Quick as a flash - zilch other than packing up a few Chinooks to deploy when the RAF were ready. The RM is just the sort of rapidly deployable group to send in this type of emergency, but, of course, we have no humanitarian role!!

 

Well Royal's one and only purpose during the bad old days was to be dropped off in Norway and get crushed under the wheels of Russian tanks for the two weeks it would take the Spams to get their War Machine over the Atlantic, thereby keeping the Russkies away from Norways' airfields and denying their bombers the opportunity of blowing the crap out of the Spam Atlantic convoys. Hence why Royal got an all-expenses paid trip to Norway for a ski holiday every year.

Given that the whole raison detre of Royal training for Norway is slightly defunct these days, the original poster does have a valid question. WHY still train in Norway for a role that doesn't exist anymore? Surely there must be more relevant training the Booties can do that's just as manly and well 'ard?

 

Well I've done nine winters up in the Arctic wastes, with both Jack, Royal and once, a regiment of Donkey Wallopers.
My first time I asked what the hell did the locals do. The lovely Heidi replied, "Well, in the summer, theres the fishing and the fcuking."
What do you do in the winter?
"Its too cold to fish." came the reply.
Now thats a good a reason I know of going.

 

Good answer buffer, i knew there was a reason i moved here all those years ago.

 

Due to Buffer 01's response above I have lived here for the last twenty or so years, having first started training here as early as 1969 in the role described by Scribes.
The annual exercise , Cold Response, has just started with, they say, 10,000 troops taking part from as far afield as Spain, Italy, Holland,Germany, Sweden, Finland, UK (3 Cdo bde RM , RN and RAF Units), Norway and the US. In the newspaper sent to all households in the area by the Norwegian MOD it says that Winter training in Northern Norway tests both men and equipment in more arduous conditions than normal, which is good preparation for active joint service operations around the world. Built into the exercise are various exercises in dealing with terrorists and rioting civilian populations, as opposed to being squashed by tanks.

 

Quote
“Part of the exercise is to deal with terrorists and rioting civilian populations,†in Norway ??

Strewth the buggars are everywhere!

My next door neighbor in Guzz was a Bootneck Sergeant and he loved it, though he was convinced it would soon be axed as it was a blatant jolly. That was in 1972.

 

What cheor Buffer and Token ?

I came over first for the Snow and Cold Weather Warfare course in 1963.....

After that - of course - a posting to Aden - where else after ski training ?

Came here for good in 1966 - as a sailing instructor first then - when the
snow came - a ski instructor - In those days I did very little fishing .....

Norway has to be the finest place on earth to do any snow or cold weather
aquaint courses.... no-one fires back over here - well, not often.... and then
it's usually about fishing licences or similar.....

Forty years man and beast.....

'Aye

 

No doubt the arctic training will stand Royal in good stead when they are deployed later in the year in the next stage of Blair's mission from God!

 

Theres a rumour that spins in the land army that any bloke that can operate in the jungle is switched on ......

After 2 Norway tours attached to RM I can vouch that anyone that can't soldier in the artic is dead.....

Although I cant get my head round the constant showers and bars of soap?

 

With britain being a part of NATO the marines were tasked with defence of its northern flank, which contains artic regions. so royal must be able to fight in cold weather climates in order to forfill this obligation to NATO. hence annual deployments to Norway. hooray!

 

Is this a serious question. If you have to ask why the RM train in artic conditions, suggest you visit a BBC web site as they have no idea either.

 

Not much point in being Mountain / Artic Warfare soldiers if you havn't been trained in it is there?

 

Well said Skunkmeister. But I do recall us having a Cloggy who was PW and ML trained up at ClokenWorken. He must be tabs out back in Holland with that second qualification. (But seeing as the ML course is arguabley the hardest course in any military, they tend to be as hard as coffin nail so I wouldn't want to upset him.)

As Harry-Webster said, if you can fight and operate in the Arctic, the rest of the world is a doddle.

Gulf War Pt1 saying went something like, "Trained for the Arctic, Dressed for the Temperate, Dumped in the Desert".

 

Didn't it come to use when the sent Royal up to Afgahn to clear the Mountains up there?

Even they didn't find ole Osama, so I doubt he was there.

 

I remember watching a programme on RM pilots. They (the RM) said that the arctic training was because if you can fight in the arctic, you can pretty much put up with anything.

Train hard, fight easy.