Left home at 10.45, Picked ATS Mellor up and after a fairly decent voyage (apart from an unscripted tour of Cambridge), we arrived at Kentwell Hall at 4.30pm. The officers tent was set up for the purposes of a cooking, a few of the Suffolks group were already there setting tentage up. Cpl Heaton and Pte Heaton arrived about 6.30, we immediately put up the 14 man tent. The East Yorks are no strangers to Kentwell, we used to take part in the "Requisitioned" event every October, i think its about 10 years since we last visited for an event. Afew more of the Suffolks arrived, so it was time for a visit to the pub (The Hare) at the end of the very long drive, a few beers were consumed and it was soon time to head back to camp and bed.
On Saturday we were woken by the Suffolks Sgt at 07.00, A breakfast of Bacon grill butties and tea was consumed, it was then time for an O Group, followed by section drill, i took the small group of East Yorks (now joined by Pte Dennington), for some drill, we did both foot and rifle drill, we practiced the "about turn on the march", which was very good indeed - even i am getting the hang of it now!. At 10.00 am we had an opening parade, taken by Lt Preece, this was followed by Platoon drill, i took this, with CPL Gibson taking over for a bit. It was soon morning break time, this was followed by the East Yorks sitting in on the Suffolks weapons handling tests, lunch was had at 12.00pm (stew). The afternoon was spent on section tactics, first a single section and then 2 sections, we moved into the woods and did some firing in support of a small skirmish with Sgt Shane and C/Sgt Legg acting as the enemy. Lt Preece then gave a very informative lecture on patrolling and house clearing - That was the training part of the day over. We had a look at the hall and a walk round the site, a BBQ was had and as the weather turned a bit wet, we retreated to the "Turks Head" (a small pub next to our camp), later on we went back to the Hare for a very sociable few beers, we stayed there until 11.15pm.
Sunday dawned a bit damp and windy, the start time was a bit later - this came in handy following the social activities the night before! The cooker then decided that it was going to break down (faulty gas regulator), i had a small spare stove, so this was used to cook a lovely breakfast of sausages, we then had a morning parade, this was followed by the group splitting into 2 groups - one group did house clearing, whilst the other group went onto the woods to practice Patrolling - Lt Preece took the house clearing, i took the Patrolling exercise - this was again done using Sgt Shane and C/Sgt Legg and the 3 ATS ladies as an enemy, the idea was that we would patrol into the woods and try not to be detected - on both forays into the woods, both patrols were detected - it was a very interesting exercise. Given the poor weather, it was decided that we would finish training and break camp earlier than the the programmed time, a final parade was had and we then set about taking down tents and packing vehicles. Goodbyes were said and we set off on our respective journeys home.
This was a 3rd 3IDA event and the Suffolks "home" event, there will be more - i think this alliance is the way forward - common minds, same uniform, same ethic, all that's different is the cap badge. A very good weekend indeed, interesting and informative lectures, good interaction between the 2 groups, a lovely location, good sociable evenings - whats not to like!
C/Sgt Hebden
