Wolves-mad tank driver survives tough NATO exercise
Four hundred soldiers took on a unique training exercise in sweeping wooded hills which was a far cry from their usual training routine.
Soldiers from The Queen’s Royal Hussars (QRH) – including a recruit from the Black Country – left their usual base in swapped a training area in North West Germany and headed deep into the wooded hills of Bavaria to take part in the exercise.
The Saber Junction 17 exercise involved almost 4,500 soldiers from 13 NATO contributing nations and one of the soldiers from QRH taking part was Trooper Levi Coyne from Wolverhampton.
The 21-year-old, who drives is a driver of a Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank, said of the exercise: “It has been very challenging. The ground is very boggy and has lots of tight wood blocks making it difficult to manoeuvre around.
“It’s not terrain we are familiar with so you have to be vigilant all the time to make sure a track doesn’t slip or that the tank gets bogged down.
"Although I am the junior member of the crew we are all learning and it’s a case of remembering your key soldiering skills and working together to overcome problems when we encounter them.”
Levi, an avid Wolves supporter, added: “This exercise has been demanding but really good for me, the laser targeting equipment we are using makes it very realistic, the closest thing to a real battle as you could imagine.
"Only the other day we had a tank battle with the opposition forces where we were able to get within 50 metres of their tanks, exchange fire and destroy a few of them – which was good fun.
“Although it is only an exercise the adrenalin definitely begins to flow when the action starts.”
Lieutenant Colonel Nick Cowley, commanding officer of QRH, spoke during a brief lull in the exercise about the benefits of working in a multinational environment to prepare for major combat operations.
He said: “Here we are working very closely with other NATO counterparts having formed up a Battlegroup with a company of Italians and Polish that is training under a US brigade and we are all learning from each other.
“Personally this has probably been the most testing exercise I have done. It is a good challenge for us as a Regiment and the feedback we have received is very positive and we have been able to demonstrate what we are able to do on operations.”
