26 NAVY NEWS, JULY 2007
● Smokin’ aces... (Above) Smoke from a 105mm gun of 29 Commando Regiment RA drifts across the
Danish scrubland and (left) a Danish soldier pauses while his Royal Marine comrades confer in the shadow
of an Atlantikwall bunker
A spot of
ing
I
N THE Royal Navy
line of sight, interfering with Already the experiences
everyone knows there’s
radio transmissions, of their brethren in 42
fi sh on Friday.
the threat of booby and 45 Commando
traps, terrifi ed civilians in Afghanistan are
You can set your watch by it.
trying to escape the being passed on to
So too in the green berets.
fi ghting, dashing through 40 Commando (who
But there’s a good chance you’ll
the crossfi re. will deploy to Helmand
encounter it on every other day of
“This is the hardest with NATO in due course).
the week too.
thing we do,” says Maj In Afghanistan, such
FISH is the less-than-subtle
Cheeseman. makeshift explosives in
(and not entirely offi cial) acronym
●
“It’s also the thing we need some cases proved too
for what is becoming the green
as
to do most of.” weak to smash their way
beret’s new area of expertise:
R
You cannot, of course, blast through the thick walls of Taleban
Fighting In Someone’s House.
of
your way through the streets of compounds.
(More accurately, and more
Taunton, the nearest major town The next step up is a vertical
offi cially, it’s OBUA – Operations
to 40 Commando’s home, to train charge, a demolition bar, an 18lb
–
in a Built-Up Area; it was, until
for such fi ghting. charge fi xed fl ush to a wall, then
recently, FIBUA – Fighting In a
bang.
tr
Built-Up Area.)
Fortunately, there are artifi cial
So where do you go FISHing
towns designed solely for the But then it’s one bang among
a
in Denmark, then? Why, near the
military. many in this urban battle.
of
country’s principal fi shing port,
Brickby is the Danish There are fl ashes, bangs,
ex
● Look back in anchor... A green beret
Esbjerg, of course, specifi cally
counterpart of Copehill Down, a wispy white smoke billows
glances back along a straight country lane
Danish Army ranges near the
the mock European village on through Brickby.
Th
during an exercise to evacuate civilians as
small town of Oxsbøl.
Salisbury Plain, which prepares The tat-tat-tat of the Royals’
ta
Noble Mariner reaches its climax
Maj Alex Murray, 40 Cdo’s
British troops for operations on SA80s mingles with the tat-tat-tat
ai
second-in-command, is our
the Continent. of the enemy’s weapons.
hi
(entertaining) tour guide as we
It has everything a village There’s the chug-chug-chug
fro
roll through the rather barren
should have. Expansive village of Danish soldiers in jeeps fi ring
Bø
Jutland countryside – our guide
square. A school. Farmsteads. at the enemy with their heavy
co
when his chicken’s not squawking
Town houses. machine-guns.
up
(his mobile phone has a tone
And it has some things no A Lynx drops in on a rooftop
m
which sounds like a bird being
village should have: rather nasty to pick up a casualty. With each
in
strangled).
chaps wearing balaclavas and crump of a 4.5in shell landing
to
“And if you look to your right,
thick green jumpers brandishing a shudder goes through your
on
you will see Danish 155mm
rifl es. heart.
th
howitzers drawn up,” he points
As a spectacle, it is A hysterical Brickbyer skips
a
out.
mesmerising. Loud, smelly – across the town square, his
pr
No scenic vistas or great
there’s an odour similar to burnt hands covering his face.
le
cathedrals here. Oh no, we’re
fi reworks drifting through Brickby And when it is all over, there are
here to fight. (Actually, the Royals
– chaotic. bodies strewn on the ground. The
81
are here to fight, we’re here to
Royals abseil from an 847 Naval walls of houses are charred. The
hi
watch them.)
Air Squadron Lynx at one end of fl oors of rooms are littered with
ba
And this is rather a fine place
the town. They are soon masked spent shell cases. The smoke
a
for fighting. Maj Murray raves
by smoke shells, followed by 4.5in and smell of battle lingers.
ex
about the ranges near Esbjerg:
shells from HMS Manchester This is fi ghting in every
cl
“The training we have had is
smashing into the Danish soil. dimension.
en
second to none. We cannot get
The balaclava-clad enemy in It is not merely a question of co-
enough of this place.”
the town square leap up and ordinating commandos fi ghting
‘We’ are his men, referred to
begin shooting in the direction from building to building.
repeatedly as “warrior monks”.
of the four marines who landed You have to organise engineers
Not sure about the monk bit, but
by rope... only the main assault to carry out demolitions.
the warriors are very much in
comes not from the north but Helicopters or Land Rovers
evidence...
from the west. must be on hand to pluck the
Soldiers and marines do not
The commandos advance in wounded to safety. Strikes by
like FISH. Why? Because it offers
small groups, mortars and shell jets have to be co-ordinated with
all the advantages to the defender
fi re covering their advance. artillery barrages and infantry
and none to the attacker.
A green beret (his world- attacks.
yo
renowned cap has been replaced
“For every one defender
There are the guns of ships off w
in battle by a helmet) leans a
you need ten assault
shore to throw into the mix. re
metal ladder against the outside
troops,” explains Maj Dan
And when the battle is won, the w
Cheeseman.
wall of a house, then clambers troops must rest and eat.
do
up and inside a window to begin War, of course, does not always sh
Maj Cheeseman leads Bravo smoking out the foe. take place in towns. The Royal
Company – about to fi ght its way Of course, the enemy isn’t Marines are, fi rst and foremost, on
through a village with Danish light always so obliging as to leave a amphibious troops. du
reconnaissance troops. window or door open. And so a handful of miles from th
Numbers tell only half the If there isn’t an obvious Brickby, they practise what they ju
story, however, when it comes to opening, make one. do best: coming ashore from the di
fi ghting in towns. Mousehole charges – two sea to seize a beachhead.
As soon as a building is turned pieces of wood forming an ‘X’ At the heart of modern tr
into rubble, it becomes a rabbit with charges on all four ends amphibious operations is the m
warren for the defender – witness – punch a small hole (but rather mobile operations group: a in
Stalingrad or Berlin as proof. larger than a mousehole) through motorised company of Royals ca
Add to that buildings blocking a brick wall. – in this case Charlie Company
0025-027_NN_Jul.indd 225-027_NN_Jul.indd 2 116/6/07 11:20:206/6/07 11:20:20
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