This is a new venue for the group as far as training days are concerned, we displayed here at an event last year and since then an area outside of the museum has become available, we did not know what to expect and wether it would fit our needs, gladly it turned out to be an excellant location which suited all our training requirments as a Living History Group. The turnout by group members was high with thirty plus arriving early on a very cold and windy Sunday morning. After a chin wag and a catch up with each other after the christmas spell we proceeded to the ramparts section of the Explosion Museum fully kitted up with uniform, webbing, weapons and all the nourishment we needed for the day ahead.

The day started with a safety brief and an overview of what we would be doing, then we were split into our two squads, first and second squad and a kit inspection was made by our Captain. A new incentive this year for the two squads is a point system whereby any infringement by a member will result in points being deducted from his squad if that member has not followed the event orders giving out the week prior to the event. Likewise points will be awarded to the squads on anything positive that a member has done, the whole purpose of this is the squad with the better score at the end of the season will be awarded the group gridiron which they will keep and display with for the whole of the following season.

After the kit inspection we then proceeded out of the HQ area for a patrol with both squads along a raised concrete walkway that runs through the whole area between the high walled ramparts. The purpose of this was to install good patrolling techniques, including hand signals, formations, using cover effectively and good arcs of fire. When we reached the far end we were broken down into our two squads and split up into two different areas which had buildings in them. This lead into the next lesson which was house clearance techniques, but firstly we were given a brief on how to use the group radios, so how to set them up and how to use them correctly. The house clearance then followed and this ment breaking the squad down into three man teams with each team being responsible for clearing a room in their assigned building. We spent about an hour on this with the NCO's giving the lesson and trying to teach us the best way to perform an entry and clearance on a building. The plus point with our NCO's is that they are military trained which helps not just on this type of lesson but pretty much all our lessons that we are taught so this is a big plus for us, especially the members with no military background.

When this was completed we proceeded back to the HQ area where we broke for lunch and much needed rest from wearing our webbing and backpacks, most of us had our hex burners out and heated up some water for a hot drink and to cook a hot meal from our ration packs.

After lunch our next lesson was to put into practice what we had been taught in the morning, so patrolling, house clearance and engaging the enemy. We broke into our two squads again, this time one squad was to proceed up the concrete path to some distance away from the HQ area to setup an ambush for the other squad who was going to patrol not knowing where the other squad was going to be laid in waiting. To make this a bit more realistic we were going to use blank firing weapons, so M1 Garands, K98 Rifles, M1 Carbines and an assortment of pistols, along with these we had smoke grenades and flash bangs or crow scarers. Safety is paramount at this point in the day so a safety brief was given before hand and those members with weapons training we issued a blank firing weapon for their usage.

First squad proceeded to their ambush area to setup, they broke the squad down into small two man units to spread out over a small area and found cover in buildings, bushes, behind walls and so on. Then second squad patrolled out some time later along the concrete pathway taking caution at each turn and clearing any buildings when they came across them until such point they reached the ambush area where first squad opened fire. This resulted in a lot of noisy bangs, small blasts and smoke grenades going off with both squads firing and moving trying to either defend their position  or to push back the defenders, this ended up with second squad pressing forward the attack to clear out the defenders until all had been found. Then we swapped roles, second squad became the defenders setting up an alternative ambush area and first squad to patrol out to engage.

When this was completed second squad then went back to the HQ area to setup another defensive postion against first squad who were then going to make their way along any route possible to take the position away from second squad. After about half an hour first squad finally over ran the area much to their joy, an end ex. was called and all weapons were made safe and any unused blanks returned to their secure containers. There then followed a brass clearing to pick up any blank shell cases across the whole area we had used during the afternoon, a debrief was then given after which we then packed up after a really great day of training, possibly one of the best training days we have had, roll on the next one.

Photographs are here -

http://www.candaimages.com/gallery_478724.html