if you do nothing Russia will repeat the story with Attila who captured Rome(

That was my favourite bit, such a bloke haha

Ahah typical British Army response

Need to know basis..security.." Do what"

Nothing summarises the British attitude to life, than that quote #.

Good to have you on board mate 🇺🇸🇬🇧 - GB, US and ANZACs together are a force to be reckoned with.

No mate, usually accidents in a realistic/chaotic environment.

RIP GARY

I was an ambulance driver, one from our ambulances had to go and pickup a guy killed on a train.

@@calipto4605 No it wasn't, the combats were alright but the other kit was pretty poor. Also just for your info, my life expectancy was 12mins, we weren't expected to stop the Warsaw Pact forces but only slow it down so the Yanks could do "Reforger" which was them getting reinforcements from the US to Europe before the Soviet Shock armies got to the channel. We all knew that and weren't going to make it easy for them, don't forget the areas we trained over were the areas they would've had to fight through and they also knew it too.

Americans created the modern uniform pattern, I prefer the old look.. it's why the change. Also, both countries have now restricted different things like in the US, you can no longer roll up your sleeves.. it was literally a trade mark for them yet for some stupid reason they decided it wasn't professional looking.. the part of their sleeves rolled up had to be perfect in the thickness, how high, etc.. but stupid politicians got in the way. When you look at uniforms, always blame the politicians. It's very rarely the top brass that want these changes.. they don't care as long as it works and their soldiers look professional enough for combat. Afterall, they're there to kill and occupy, they're not their to taste the local tea.

@@Glorious_Kim_Jong_Un Well...for a princess you looked darn hot in that ambulance driver uniform on 1940... Dianna Rigg has nothing on ER

@@Glorious_Kim_Jong_Un well the MTP looks proffesional, and works well in a wide range of enviroments.Most modern camofluages are made using scientific reaserch, and it shows because you see the camofluage working well in from afghaninstan to estonia and catterick, i guess it saves money to create a universal camoflauge and is much more convienient for the troops. so unless we are blaming poloticians for creating life a hellava lot easier for our troops and saving money in the process, i think we can agree this is something they got right.

​@@sticks5614 really intresting insight, was some years before i was born but you must have been on your job if you were a soldier in that period massive respect man.

Considering the lacklustre performance of Soviet T class armour in Ukraine, has one wondering how they would have faired against the Challenger, Abrams, Leopard and indeed even the Chieftain, do have a soft spot for these

@@steveneastland4128 looks like we won't have to wait long to see ..

@@justinboyan573 indeed, the Challenger 2 should be an incredibly tough nut to crack, the Abrams had some loss in Kuwait, the Leopard in Syria, I don’t think a single Challenger has been lost to enemy action

​@@steveneastland4128 Well you have to factor in the fact that i doubt any tank would do any better in Ukraine. The main losses seem to be from ATGMs and close range Anti-Tank, which historically speaking there IS a reason why in Afghanistan you didnt see Challengers and Abrams zooming around suppressing the Taliban, it was mostly done by lightly armored mine resistant vehicles. Conventional warfare like we are seeing in Ukraine is very taxing on Troops and Equipment, thats why general estimates during the cold war were that the immediate supply of conventional munitions would be used up within a few weeks. In Iraq we saw very few Coalition losses because the Iraqis were armed primarily with sub-par export models that lacked even hydraulic turret drives aka they needed manual turning. In Ukraine we have two opponents that technologically speaking are relatively en paar hence you are seeing lots of losses on either side.

13,000 RAF on duty…NAAFI profits must have plummeted.

In those days there were different levels of reserve , I was an ex regular. Then there was the Territorial Army who would have trained at week ends and a two weeks a year commitment. Since then the UK has had a restructure and the reserve has become a much broader commitment. I like to think we can still do the business if asked.

One thing the British military is very impressive at is rapid mobilisation, which is no mean feat when you consider all the details and logistics required. The Falklands War is a good example of rapid mobilisation over 8000 miles of communication and fighting an enemy that outnumbered our fighting forces roughly five to one. I heard that the Russians were so impressed at the rapid mobilisation and deployment of our troops that they admitted they would not be able to replicate it. Although I do not know if that is in fact true.

@@wasp6594 It is correct, even more, Russian defence planners were so surprised by the effectiveness of British forces in the South Atlantic they had to revise their plans against the BAOR in Germany.

Mick Keogh I was same

​@@zipz8423 *100% CORRECT* The Sov's were staggered by the ability of the British to assemble and deploy the task force in 48 hours. So much so, the Russian Defence Attache in the UK contacted his liaison officer in the MoD and arranged to meet with his British counter-part. The Attache offered a deal- namely to provide the British with *ANY* information that they wanted to know about any the Soviet military development projects at that time. In return, the Sov's asked one question- "How did you assemble and deploy the task force so rapidly?" The British officer consulted with higher authority, and he was authorised to speak to the Attache and a 'deal' was thrashed out. In the aftermath of the Falkland's, the Sov's reassessed the British military and it's capabilities. They realised that the British would stand up and fight tooth and nail against any Soviet attack against West Germany. It made them stop and think.........

Brits back in the day didn’t have a diet full of soy unlike today

@Donald Trump very accurate, much accurate such facts. well done

When i was a kid in Glasgow my older brother joined the army, it would have been 1982 he joined, when i saw him again 3-4 years later he had a weird mix of English and Glaswegian accent.

Those are ''Army'' accents. Squaddies still speak differently today.

@almightyinferno they're...there is as in ''over there'' ...you mean they're as in they are...back in the 80s people could still write basic English...since GCSEs came in the standard dropped

The one that praised the virtues of the Challengers looked positively stoned. Like a British Sudden Clarity Clarence...

Hurry up and wait.

@@daws167 the official British army motto

A work colleague described it as 'two week's of being lost'.

Dan M ha ha , hexi blocks and bacon grill ,my favourite 😋

Boy, do I remember those same words form my mother from the crazy times my old man was on exercise at Soltau or Sennelager.

Vote Labour then.

Yeah i wish we had a stronger more professional army

Tbh there’s no need for a bigger army at the moment, I’d rather have the tax money spent on social improvements while we are at peace times

@@jackiechan1148 We do have a professional army.

As much as its a shame our numbers have collapsed, I do this it has its advantages. There are more important things to focus on, and numbers in any army matter little compared to technology such as nukes etc.

I did 3 Reforgers, '81, "82, and '83. Good times....

I was stationed in Germany when this happened, 1st Infantry Division, returned for a REFORGER in 86 from Ft Riley Ks.

What’s up brother

In the 1980/90s me and my parents often stayed in a hotel at the small town of Rasdorf, near the East-German border. A few times we woke up because of M60 and in leater years M1-tanks rumbling through the main street. One day, we were driving along the border and stumbled upon an armoured column of M60s. They must have thought we were Russian spies, because the guys on top of the last tank motioned us to stay further away! Fun times for a Dutch boy in his early teens!

I really miss that exercise………can’t say we could do it again though……..different times I guess.

Yes I remember that. There was a funny video somewhere of some pissed off RA gunners complaining about their superiors.

fredbrackely not aware of that. In '97 I think was the first one, don't know which Bde, but they ended it with a Jim Davidson concert. '98 was 4th Armd Bde and there was no endex event. I think 7 Bde were then supposed to take over readiness, but in '99 decision was made for 4 to deploy to Kosovo. Whilst waiting in Macedonia we then got our Jim Davidson concert lol.

There was Two. The first was in 1996, where Jim Davidson came out and filmed his One for the Boys Show. The next one was in 1998, I missed the first one, but came back early from Bosnia and was sent on Exercise with 21 Royal Engineer Regt. From what I remember we spent a lot of time in NBC suits. The last night was a blast as we all move to an area ready to move off the following day. We were allowed to send lads on a beer run and got to sample the delights of Polish Beer.

Digger Buckett if there was a second concert it most definitely wasn’t 1998. As stated above 1998 was 4th armd Bde. There definitely wasn’t an endex concert in 1998. I think that was partly the reason for the concert in 1999 in Macedonia with 4th Armd Bde.

@@SeanHendy There was only the one concert at the end of the Exercise and that was in 96, I can't remember if our whole regt went out on that one. I was Told that Jim had Blamed the Brits for tapes going missing from the recording as He thought they had nicked them as he was very late starting the show. It turned out it was The Polish that had pinched them. The Next one was one I was on in 98 with 21 Eng Regt, there was other Eng regt out there as there was a big Bridge laying Demo. Don't know if they continued affer that as I had then gone back to the UK to Join the ACC in 99. I was surprised that I didn't get sent out to Kosovo as I had done Back to back summer tour in Bosnia in 97 and 98.

I just spent a month in castlemartin, not quiet the Bahamas is it

Vespelian they used ranges in Dumfries and Galloway

in case of a full scale war, it would probably be the first target for the enemy

@@cerealpipe maybe, but unless they wanted to do naval/air invasion uk then they would need the tunnel too

@@cerealpipe The tunnel is underwater, and would be heavily defended navally to prevent its loss.

The tunnel would be a primary target, defended or not. However I doubt the enemy would use it because UK can use that as a chokepoint for anyone going through.

The tunnel would represent a chokepoint for an attacking force, but it serves excellently as part of the logistics framework to support a force in the field, as well as keeping road traffic to a minimum in and around Folkestone and Calais by allowing for freight to be transferred from road to rail and back again away from the channel.

Was the boxhead civvy killed by a panzer driver pulling back on two tillers i.e. braking too sharply, and the front end lifting in the air and smashing down on the car? I heard a story about that about 5 years later in 1989

As I remember civvy car over took combat engineer tractor found its self at a red light stopped combat engineer tractor stopped spigot did not , came of top of the combat engineer tractor through the car straight through the driver. think the incident your thinking of involved a warriors back end 1986 ish.

Fox - straight over the top of me.. at Cromer Corridors.. test fired the Millan there too. all good.. had worst just a scratch got another one. job done

I was there. One of our Foxes rolled... Luckily nobody was seriously hurt! They were incredibly unstable when off-road!

Dude....we were ALL there... That was the whole point

I left The Life Guards in 1977 after 6 years, best time of my life.

Attrition is the bit we're still out on, I think? At least when we have mostly theories and models and not a lot of practical experience (thankfully) on how quick large-scale mechanised warfare between the powers would run up.

Challie? Reliable? Really? From what I have heard/read, it was *VERY* unreliable, and the Challie 2 still has many problems

@@vuk.3866 So in other words you heard/read and you know more than someone who actually did it, wow.

@@dukecraig2402 no, I'm, really suprised. From what I've gathered, Cheftain was ok to maimtain, whill thw Challie was a nightmare

@@vuk.3866 aye the challie 1 struggled in extremes like Iraq but the challie 2 went to Oman on excercise and other extremes and from what I've heard it did fine

Nice one brother👍

Scottish accent for you

I heard it properly

Matt Eborne Bwitain

Its very clearly 1984 although maybe thats coz im used to the accent tho

Is you. Check your ears...lol

I loved the SLR, a bugger to carry but it did pack a punch! At least I didn't tote the GPMG too much.

@@richardmiller3922 I was RAF and even though our weapons training was limited at the time, I admit I loved the SLR. I thought it was a great weapon and very accurate. Believe it or not, I actually liked using the Stirling and got great satisfaction when I stitched the 45 degree pattern on the target.

KandRgaming Productionz ditto

@@richardmiller3922 We were equipped with Sterlings, but I used to enjoy the occasional go with the SLR on the ranges.

It wasn't a live Ammunition Excercise @Michael Moretti

A couple of them died while sleeping under the new Challenger tanks in the rain,,, although forbidden tank crews would shelter from the rain and cold under Tanks at night,, They didn't reckon on the much heavier weight of the new tanks along with a couple of rainy days which caused the tanks to sink crushing the troopers below, Sadly by the time they got the heavy lifting gear in place it was too late

@Badger Lowe dont forget Russia switched sides.

Badger Lowe Germany had failed in 1939 Germany and was in real trouble, Royal Air force and Navy were still fighting their war and the British Army had escaped. Germany's navy didn't have a ability to follow up Germany's attack into France and they found themselves at the English Channel wondering what to do next. Any landing in the UK would have resulted in a chemical attack on their army, their navy would have had to come out of hidding and their air force would have had to fight at a disadvantage. RAF had the advantage of in depth support and would be able to attack the German surface fleet and the Royal navy would have been like a pack of wolfs with any landing fleet. But without Russia how would the invasion of Poland have worked out? The big what if game and without Russia there would have been a Nazis party in 1939?

@Badger Lowe Don't forget that without the UK Russia and Europe would have been lost to Germany, UK were the only nation left fighting when Russia shit them selves and pulled out of WW1.

Badger Lowe nope. The British Isles were not under threat of invasion at any time during WW2.

@Badger Lowe *OUR raf and navy saved OUR asses. Sorry, it just grinds my gears to see Brits speak worse English than people who have it as a second language.

Impressive was not a word that came to mind at the time. Trust me on that one.

A shame? The UK should have a professional, specialist army. Modern warfare is not about the numerical advantage in personnel and we should embrace the fact that the geopolitical world doesn't need such a mobilised force. There's no shame.

@@Casper6277 If the British people regain the independence we crave BREXIT, and once again expand our trading network globally. We will require a much bigger professional; armed force to protect our overseas interests. Particularly a navy more than three times the current size and an expanded RAF with much greater reach. The regular army (the professional specialists) should never be permitted to fall below 100,000 very well equipped fully mechanised combat troops.

Israel might need to fight their own wars one of these days.

@@Casper6277 It would be better if Brits has fund for a LARGER, professional, specialist army, so it's indeed a shame.

@Cool Waters Absolutely. The US Marines are still keeping theirs going. Far longer than expected. It's just so unique, and clearly useful. .... more sighs.. In fairness to the Americans, they did give us money to help develop the Harrier when the UK government wouldn't.

@@gonzomuse it was already in service before the USMC bought any. My primary school teacher's ex husband was the lead Harrier test pilot, pretty cool to meet him as kid

​@@centrica1234 Nice. That guy has to be extremely brave to test a hovering aircraft! I might be remembering that incorrectly but I'm pretty certain the documentary on here about the development of the Harrier talks about US funding. Good doc, I'll try and find it.

@@gonzomuse The USMC are keeping theirs in service because they bought a ready supply of spares when they got all the UK harriers and parts. Shame they were retired early though. US did most of the development on the AV8B version which led to the UK GR5/GR7

@@chaz8758 Yes, the UK Harriers were all recently upgraded with new avionics too, before they were sold off.

the Peace dividend.

if you do nothing Russia will repeat the story with Attila who captured Rome(

@@justfun7322 They will. Putin wants another Eastern Bloc, USSR and to rule the world.

​@LUNAR BLOODDROP Good, glad we aint controlling half the world and enslaving millions. Tory bastards.

highlands yes

*stuka sirens

I remember being cammed up in a Royal Signals Rebro detachment somewhere in Niedersachsen in a small wood in winter 1991-2 and some curious locals driving up a dirt track to our position at night with headlights off to investigate...by the time the guy on radio watch got the rest of us out of our gonk bags (sleeping bags) and outside they had driven off. Happened a couple of times then we stayed up all night waiting for them. At the time there were a lot of IRA attacks on British Forces in Germany so we were a bit nervous. On cue they came driving up again and as we had agreed, 3 of us in our combat kit, helmets on, with cammed up faces, surrounded them with our rifles pointed at them. Our Corporal whipped the keys out of their ignition while the driver had his hands on the dashboard, both the guys were completely terrified, because of course they didn't know we had no bullets in our rifles lol...he said to me very clearly ''if they move, kill them'' and I cocked my empty rifle for dramatic effect and the driver went white and started shaking...the Cpl then radio'd through to the MPs what to do, the problem was the car, an Opel I think, didn't even have number plates, I think they were just from a local farm and didn't go on roads with the car...anyway he came back and told them in German (he was born and went to school in Germany, his dad was in the army too and his mum was German) in no uncertain terms to clear off and not come back, and we never saw them again. Funny. Other times we were deployed in some Stadtswald and local joggers and pensioners walking their dogs walked past and always said ''Guten Morgen/Tag''. Once a girl and a guy came and our Detachment commander invited them for a coffee in the tent attached to the landrover...when the guy said that he was from Russia Jim, our Det Commander, threw something over our radios and cryptographic equipment, lol it was 1992 so the Cold War had only just finished. Happy days.

@@simonh6371 I see you were the perfect guests in my country :) Worry not, i returned the favor when i cut your field telephone lines near training ground munster - and stole at least 30 meters of wire for my own antenna-building projects. We are even now - btw, point a rifle at me in my own land, yard or house - bullet or not - expect to lose a limb. We can still go for a pint afterwards, its nothing personal.

@@zoolkhan Erm bro it was at the time of IRA attacks on our guys, even an innocent German woman, Heidi Hazell, was killed by the IRA. These guys were acting shady and initially we didn't know who they were. And don't act like a hardman, there are still British military in Germany. You wouldn't do anything if they pointed a rifle at you.

I know a Chieftain tank that went through a house by mistake, not on the Ex but in winter one year mid 1980s. Must have been messy it skidded on ice and just could not stop.

@@zipz8423 it was going fast enough to skid!!!!!!????

You do understand the British Army right now is larger than what it was during the interwar years when the British Empire was at its height... Theirs no reason for a large army in peacetime.

@@pyrs9544 "If you want peace, prepare for war" (Si vis pacem, para bellum) the standing army does not need to be so large, but you must have a large base of reservists. And they need to be lead by experienced officers when the day comes. Those experienced officers, need to be part of the standing army, and reservists need refresher trainings on a regular base. br, zool formerly radio op in the german-navy

@@zoolkhan Late answer but exactly this. This is how the nazis were able to mobilize so quickly. They had tons of veterans from WW1 that couldnt join the military due to the treaty of versailles and were disgruntled with said treaty. When the call for mobilisation came they were all ecstatic to rejoin the armed forces.

Niall Ogilvy I was the Sapper troop commander for 1LI in the same brigade. I too remember us having to wait for the UK based troops to go home! Where was Wolfgang when we needed him?

@@bob_the_bomb4508 Wolfgang died a couple of years ago, what I would like to know is how was it he showed up just as you were harbouring up must have had better intelligence than the GRU?

William Traynor-Kean Yep. I remember having cammed up my panzer on Saltau so that it was invisible to the naked eye from 25 metres. Yet 15 minutes later, there he was...

Try telling the blokes that queuing up for Wolfgangs chips was not tactical.

William Traynor-Kean I couldn't really, given that I was first in the queue! Lead by example and all that...after a few weeks of eating babies' heads and the egg operator's all in stew, a brattie was de rigeur :)

My first big exercise on heavy artillery ...opened my eyes ,still on FB with our crew from those days

Yes, I liked the part about German farmers asking NATO forces to 'accidentally ' destroy their barn so that NATO would have to bear the cost of rebuilding it.

Deserves a medal . I did it once it was like being tortured by sadistic looneys. Given the choice of doing it again id rather have lorry batteries attached to barb wire and viciously wrapped around my testicles while i was electrocuted with s club 7 songs on repeat while being water boarded and a rather sharp and overly large piece of scaffolding rammed up my ass by a Scouse arm wrestler on a near leathel dose of speed . And i dont say this lightly or want to go to far but id rather drive a Vauxhall

Adam lucky you

Our enemies are within.

I think those lads were just better stock than they are today but I could be wrong.

? .... Never forget my friend Russia win the war with its 11 Million dead soldiers on eastern front, diminishing the Wehrmacht in a war of attrition. Britain was nowhere to be found in WW2 same as le grand nation France. So all praise to the mighty red army

Where in Germany was the Ex?

Mostly northern Germany I think, Rhine Westfalen Area, one of 1 BR Corps weak points was the Monden gap, didn’t fancy a Russian Shock army rolling across the north German plains! Not that I saw much from within my Dixie bashing tent!

Thats what I was thinking I had to look up if he was ever in the Army or not and it apperes he was never in the army.

My mates the Donahues were all in the Kings reg at the time, all top lads, respect.

We had them too. I used to be in the regt that had them.

@Миодраг Здравковић Why 60000 of them? If you want to use that many you use a strategic one troll. Also you had 60000 of them plus all your strategic ones and you still lost so it didn't make much of a difference did it? You lost your empire, most of your country and you ended up broke and guess what? My 12 mins was 30 years ago and you probably weren't even there, your hanging on dreams of a Soviet empire that's gone trying to suck up for putin. troll.

@Professor Waffle I'm sure if nato allies mobilized 130k troops towards Russias border tactical nukes would be an option to stop the allies attack

Indeed, I saw a lecture where an American officer (retd.) said he'd met in the Ukraine a former Soviet officer whose job it had been on Day 1 to put 500 tactical nukes on Denmark, the Soviets liked their bacon crispy. God knows what they planned to put on areas with significant forces in them.

@Миодраг Здравковић I'm delusional! You don't get it do you? You don't need 60000 nuke rounds, you probably only need 10 or 20 large ones and also how fast do you think one of those rounds gets to the US or Russia? It's not instant when you press the "button", it takes about 8 to 10 mins depending where they're launched from so there's plenty of time to press your "button" and send some back and NO leader, NO LEADER, wants that coming their way. One missile probably carries about 5 or 6 MIRV's and they're about 8 times more powerful than the ones that took out Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So all your gold , oil , mines , gas , uranium won't mean anything when a. you've got no one to mine it and b. you've got no one to sell it too. You see once they go there is no stopping them and things will escalate and unfortunately there aren't very many places that are separate and "fall out" doesn't just stop at borders. MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction perversely, is what kept this planet in one piece. They're a waste of money really because nobody will use them, or I hope they won't, but once one country has them they all want them, "Nuclear Paranoia". Also the USSR DID lose the Cold War, not through militarily means but through economic means. The USSR went broke first because they couldn't keep up with the US and their empire fell apart, "military chicken", and the first thing the Western World did was shrink it's military in reply as they couldn't afford to keep it at those levels when there was no enemy any more, the called it "The Peace Dividend" . You are right though "money does make the world go round" but remember it's no good having it if you can't use it! You can't eat it! Try learning some actual history and not Marxist Propaganda as you weren't there, "KID".

Biggest deployments since have been the likes of Saif Sarrea in Jordan and the gulf States, 30,000 odd deployed pre GW2

Jack Derbisz We couldn’t do Grenada

We can drop smart bombs from 3000m. Why would we need a land invasion? Fight smarter, not harder.

What sort of thing would you need to train for? This is the classic NATO-Warsaw pact plan. A big mechanised conflict along a front in Germany or Poland.

@@iteachyou1575 Napoleon and his Marshals did not win one single battle against Wellington during the entire Peninsular War. And, Napoleon took part in only one battle, which was Waterloo, and he lost that too. The Royal Navy destroyed both the French and Spanish fleets at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, ten years before the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

You forgot to count the 5 personnel who ride on the OUTSIDE lol

It’s correct they carry 6, but I don’t recommend pentagon wars as source material for anything else. As implied it was a sarcastic take on military development

The key word is "British"... you think the Americans could somehow magic up a few hundred thousand British troops do you?

Rob Fraser the joke flew right over your head. It wasn’t me saying that we could turn Americans British 😂, it was saying that the Americans could pull off an operation like this today

By the look of the video in this report that's where they got the footage from.

Ahem... NATO territory...

I was on that exercise - Europe were our Allies then and they are today.

Matt allen The Europeans or British ?

@@badgertheskinnycow not for long. Brexit will free us! 😉

You could, but would you want to! Remember cheese possessed? Remember 10 man compo packs with pilchards and macedone mixed vegetables.

Oatmeal blocks with jam and cheese possessed - kept us going

AB biscuits, like eating compressed cardboard....sure that stood for anal blocking 🙂

Denglish as its best....Deutsch+English becomes Denglish!!! LOL....

All the Ex Lion heart videos taken and shown on BFBS (an episode per day) are available on KZfaq to watch.

So true, and tight shorts as well, there was definitely a gay icon thing going on there lol

It's a tragic reality... slowly defeated from within

It's a silent defeat.