Strewth! Black Country soldiers made to sweat in drills Down Under
Army reservists from the Black Country and Staffordshire have been sweating it out on gruelling exercises nearly 10,000 miles away in Australia.
Troops – including five from B Squadron Royal Yeomanry, known as the Black Country Cavalry – have been put through their paces in soaring temperatures of up to 30C (86F).
As part of Exercise Morelandcourt the reservists, from the Vicar Street headquarters in Dudley, were working together with Australia’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment and the 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment on a ‘highly testing exercise’ in Queensland.
Over the last two weeks, reservists of the Royal Yeomanry and the Australian 12/16 Hunter River Lancers, have been training in the light cavalry dismounted scout role as part of the operation.
It featured M1 Abrams tanks, ASLAV armoured vehicles and PMV Bushmaster troop transporters.
The Commanding Officer of 3 RAR, Lt Col Michael Kearns from Staffordshire – known as Pommie Mike – praised the British Army’s contribution as ‘excellent’.
Meanwhile Cpl Matt Smith, from Dudley, said: “This exercise has been the pinnacle of many weeks of training and preparation, and has been one of the most exhilarating and rewarding things that I have done in my military career so far.”
Around 40 troops from the UK took part in the military manouevres. It follows members of the Black Country Cavalry joining exercises in the Mojave Desert in California last year.
The squadron conquered exercise Diamond Back in up to 36C (96.8F) heats.
Deployed from RAF Brize Norton at the start of August last year to the United States National Training Centre in South East California, they joined the US Army for pre-deployment training in testing terrains in the desert.
