6 Airmobile Brigade

Does anyone remember the short lived trial in the early 80's when 6 Armd Bde became 6 Airmobile Bde ?

It was a precursor to later changes to 24 (?) Brigade and was done on trial basis only - 6 Bde later reverting to an armoured brigade.

I'm looking for information on the orbat of the Brigade, whether it was just 2 x Inf Battalions or whether they had artillery support, and if so - what ?

Thanks
Niall

there used to be an air mobile brigade in topcliffe 1974 it was 24,dont know if that helps,dave.

We where based in Peninnsula and Barrosa Barracks in Deilinghofen near to Hemer. It consisted of Us 2nd Bn The Light Infantry and the Gordon Highlanders. We did not have any Artillery Support. We had our own Mortars and Milan thats about it.

We didn't have any helicopters never mind Artillery. 1 Gordons and 2 LI. We were Corps reserve supposedly and each Battalion was Milan heavy. Four Milan Platoons per Battalion. Good times.

Just realised this is an old thread but..most here are old men so...

From what I can remember the Bde wasn't about for long, Nov 83 to sometime in 87! The Bde HQ was at Salamanca Bks in Soest with the two gusting three Inf Bns in the bks already mentioned, I thought 1LI were also part of it for a short while as well. Funny you could hardly call it a brigade as it was smaller than a battle group FFS!

It was a four year trial between 1984 - 1987. 1 LI did the first year then were replaced by 2 LI. 1 Gordons did the four years. It was a small Brigade but it was supposed to be a Corps reserve force, sent in to plug gaps where required. Exercises mainly meant tabbing to a defensive position from a drop off point, from vehicles or helicopters, and digging in. Repeat. Not very exciting really.

From various sources:

In 1976 the British Army Of the Rhine was completely reorganised as four Armoured Divisions. The old ‘Brigade’ organisation was removed and in its place was the ‘Task Force’ concept, which was designed to be heavy on ‘teeth’ arms and light on organic logistical ‘tail’ elements, which would be massed at the divisional level and allocated where needed. In addition, there were independent ‘Field Forces’ which contained their own organic logistical support elements. Both Task Forces and Field Forces would be extensively reinforced by regular Army and Territorial Army Infantry Battalions in wartime.
1st Armoured Division comprised Task Force (TF) ‘Alpha’ & TF ‘Bravo’. 2nd Armoured Division had TFs ‘Charlie’ & ‘Delta’. 3rd Armoured Division had TFs ‘Echo’ & ‘Foxtrot’. 4th Armoured Division had TFs ‘Golf’ & ‘Hotel’.

With the onset of the Falklands War in April 1982, the core of 6 Field Force was used to create a new 5 Infantry Brigade.

6 Airmobile Infantry Brigade was created from 6 Armoured Brigade in 1983. This experimental brigade had only x2 Infantry Battalions and was intended to be a Milan-heavy, heli-borne, forward-deployed anti-tank barrier. It was converted back to an Armoured Brigade in 1988 and the Airmobile role went to 24 Infantry Brigade in 2nd Infantry Division.

6 Airmobile Brigade would normally utilise RAF Chinook and Puma helicopters for transport, though it also had the services of an AAC squadron for a time.

Lessons earned from the Falklands War may have changed strategic planning!