Battle Group Training in Libya

I've just tried to post a new topic and all I get is a screen full of BAOR flashes. I don't think I've done anything wrong, ( if I have I'll soon hear about it !)

Anyway, to start something new.

Before BATUS, until that nice Corporal Qadaffi stuck his hooter in, the British Army used to carry out Battle Group training, flying from Germany, in Libya.
This stopped with the Middle East War, 66 - 67.

Any old buggers, like me, remember it ?

brum

Nope

C'mon now Gordon. . . . Focus !

Stay with us !

We need you !!

Battle Group Training in the early 60s?????Never heard of it,but then i didn`t even know what a battle group was.When one spent all his time at rear corps HQ,one tended not to know what the real soldiers were doing.

It`s a bit different to-day.

Quote :

Middle East War, 66 - 67.

I just knew something else had happened in 66

The training finished in 1969 and the last British troops pulled out 28 Mar 70 and B Tp (formally 645 Sig Tp) of 1 Sqn 14 Sig Regt were the very last supplying a D13 (Medium Radio) airportable station to cover the rear link and went and return by ship from Torbruk as there was no airfield to take off from the lads mentioned trucks and equipment being dumped in the sea and stores buried in the desert and dug up by the Libyans straightaway cannot find much on the www except this
http://www.libyaonline.com/news/details.php?id=12899
I arrived Jan 70 from BAOR and on the other troop detachment who had just returned from Ulster being there from the start of the troubles Sep 69
Cheers
Steve

the RAC had 6 tanks all redied for war[dry clad i think is the term used] various regiments took it in turns to activate them once a year.the last visit made by the 15/19H was 1968.

Battlegroup Traing in Libya ended in Autumn 1969 when Gaddafi and his pals replaced the Monarchy in the country

I was with the 14/20th Hussars, 2nd Scots Guards Battle Group which was the last to complete the cycle of training/live firing in July that year , our replacements were stuck for 2/3 months up country whilst the diplomatic negotiations to extract them and certain key equipment were completed.

More to follow

We were in Libya in '67, I think with the Sherwood Foresters Battle Group and based at Tmimi. The Battery that relieved us had to cancel training because the Six Day War started (they swore it was nothing to do with them !) and they were needed to help moved dependents to a place of safety.
I hadn't realised that training carried on 'til '69, the wo - er, Arabs, were quite hostile when we were there.
Thanks for the link Steve. It's amazing how the Libyans took the credit for kicking the foreigners out !

JPW wrote:

Battlegroup Traing in Libya ended in Autumn 1969 when Gaddafi and his pals replaced the Monarchy in the country

I was with the 14/20TH, 2nd Scots Guards Battle Group which was the last to complete the cycle of training/live firing in July that year , our replacements were stuck for 2/3 months up country whilst the diplomatic negotiations to extract them and certain key equipment were completed.

More to follow

I was with 3Tp, 25 Field Sqn RE attached to 2 Scots Guards during their Battle Group training, but that was in 1968. We had a section at Timmimi overseeing the water purification plant and the rest of us were based at St Barbara's Camp.
On a visit to the Hussars we went into the OR's Mess for a drink and found the barman sat inside an oil drum full of water serving soft drinks from an adjacent oil drum.
On the Battalion live firing event we used about 200lbs of PE to 'liven up' the battle field with a variety of explosions to simulate 'hits' - great fun.

Okay, I'll bite.....

Why was the barman sitting inside an oil drum full of water while serving soft drinks from the adjacent drum? (sounds like one of those jokes that start off with "a priest, rabbi, and pastor went into a bar....").

I'm kind of guessing was a way to beat the Libyan heat, but finding out the actual answer would pretty much make my day because I can totally see myself mulling this one over and over....

Interesting stuff, we have some great posters on here. I know the LF's went to Egypt when I was very young, must have been some sort of operational tour as it was unaccompanied.

There was no sign of a water purification plant when we were at Tmimi, all our water came from a water trailer, rationed of course. One day it started raining and a few hopefuls got themselves all lathered up, then it stopped raining ! Any bathing had to be done in the sea, so we were filthy.
For someone bought up in the aftermath of WW2, Libya was fascinating, seeing places I'd only heard about in War comics. Tobruk, Bir Hacheim, RAF El Adem with its anti - tank ditch. It must've been murder for the Desert Rats fighting in those conditions but I suppose you get used to anything in time.

Stephen Lock wrote:

Okay, I'll bite.....

Why was the barman sitting inside an oil drum full of water while serving soft drinks from the adjacent drum? (sounds like one of those jokes that start off with "a priest, rabbi, and pastor went into a bar....").

I'm kind of guessing was a way to beat the Libyan heat, but finding out the actual answer would pretty much make my day because I can totally see myself mulling this one over and over....

No Joke - the heat was terrific.
Almost everyone not on essential duties was 'stood down' between 1100 hrs and 1500 hrs.
As far as I recall the barman spent most of his day sat in his oil drum. I think he also doubled as the ration clerk. He wasn't allowed to sell beer until after 1900 hrs.

brum wrote:

There was no sign of a water purification plant when we were at Tmimi, all our water came from a water trailer, rationed of course. One day it started raining and a few hopefuls got themselves all lathered up, then it stopped raining ! Any bathing had to be done in the sea, so we were filthy.
For someone bought up in the aftermath of WW2, Libya was fascinating, seeing places I'd only heard about in War comics. Tobruk, Bir Hacheim, RAF El Adem with its anti - tank ditch. It must've been murder for the Desert Rats fighting in those conditions but I suppose you get used to anything in time.

Apart from bowsers on trailers there was at least one AEC 10 tonner with two bowsers bolted to the flatbed.
All had to be filled from a well next to the main road in Timmimi. The RE section treated and then filtered the water a number of times before it was ready for consumption. I had never seen so many black plastic jerry cans in my life. I can only assume the plastic was used to disguise the taste of anything that had been added to the water!

I was in Muenster , when some of the FV432's came back from Libya in 1969.They were covered in reddish sand, which took ages to completely get rid of.
Traditionally when lifting a 432 Power pack, other VM's would be standing by to see what tools they could find in the hull. No so with these Libyan one, as it was thought that a scorpion might be lurking around.

Read Phlegmwahn and Gallaghers comments with interest

Looked up Timminmi on Google earth and found a new spelling Al Taminmi to the west of Tobruck, I thought I had been further in land and to the south I wonder whether there was more than one training area?

It wasa poignant return for the senior QM of the Scots Guards, he had first joined the same Battalion in 1941 just in time for the Knightsbridge Battles when Rommels Africa Corps defeated the British Army prior to the Battles at El Alamein

Gallaghers comments confirmed my memories that whilst the soft skinned logistic vehicles were permanently based in Libya each Infantyr Battalion in AOR gave up 1/2 FV 432 each spring to form a training pool and these were returned in the Autumn (I well remember the scenes in Munster one year when a Guards Battalion (not the Coldstream) were handed back a heap of scrap which they claimed had been one of their most reliable vehicles 4 months earlier.

Phlegmwahn we would have missed each other I did not join 2SG till late Autumn 68

Tmimi was easy to find JPW. As we drivers used to say, after Umerrezem turn left at the dead donkey.
We were under canvas while we were there, things were very basic.
A "Desert Rose" was something new !
Our Battery Commander had acquired a huge book from Middle East Command which gave a full acount of all the battles of the Desert campaign. Armed with this book he gathered all the Senior Ranks into Rovers and mounted a tour of some of the battle zones. We had a WO2, ACC with us, who'd been RA during the war. At the Knightsbridge Box position the WO2 was asked to recount his memories of his time there. He wasn't very forthcoming, he'd been a coverer on a 3.7 AA gun in the A/T role. As soon as they opened fire a huge dust cloud gave away their position to the Germans. He was the only one to survive.
We had a Rover 1/2 ton returned to us from Libya, covered in that pink dust and battered to death. Everybody disowned it !