General Exercises

1st QDG were lucky, we were in Germany from 1960 to 1964 and since we had Saladins, Saracens and Ferrets we were able to exercise over most of Germany and even made one trip to Denmark. Too many schemes to recall and I can't remember the names but there was the one where about 11 paras were klled when they dropped at night and mistook a canal for a road. Another stand out one was where when our "enemy" were the Yanks, I think our armor was outnumbered by about 30 to 1.....Then there was the time we really struggled to get our Saladins to the top of a ridge only to find a "Beetle" parked there.....Or the two years running that one of our Troops bogged all 4 vehicles in the same field......What fun we had.

I remember hearing about that too. I seem to remember that the unit was TA PARA
The thing is, I seem to remember Billy Connolly making some reference to the tragedy once.
I hadn't realised that they'd mistaken a canal for a road.

I was in Germany at the time of the above incident,but not on the exercise. From what I can recall, the Paras DZ was fairly close to the canal,and an order was given to stop all barges from entering that area of the canal for a given period. Apparently those responsible for closing off the canal were a bit slow or careless, allowing a barge to slip through. The descending Paras mistook the red light on the barge for the DZ,and ended up in the canal.One experienced para ,however,managed to get out of the canal alive, but was killed shortly after on the nearby road as he attempted to cross it.The Bundeswehr Colonel who was in charge of closing the canal, later committed suicide .

Hi Guys

This link tells you a bit more information of that Tragic night.

http://www.palacebarracksmemorialgarden.org/Exercise%20Bold%20Guard.htm

gallahad wrote:

I was in Germany at the time of the above incident,but not on the exercise. From what I can recall, the Paras DZ was fairly close to the canal,and an order was given to stop all barges from entering that area of the canal for a given period. Apparently those responsible for closing off the canal were a bit slow or careless, allowing a barge to slip through. The descending Paras mistook the red light on the barge for the DZ,and ended up in the canal.One experienced para ,however,managed to get out of the canal alive, but was killed shortly after on the nearby road as he attempted to cross it.The Bundeswehr Colonel who was in charge of closing the canal, later committed suicide .

That sounds a reasonable explaination. Poor sod who climbed out.....he must have broken a mirror while walking under a ladder.

I was in HQ 20 Bde when the reports started coming through, it was tragic.

We also lost some danish Tanks on a Rheine crossing a few yars later.

I have also heard the story of a Bedford, with men in the back, hit by an express train while it was attempting to cross the tracks on a training area.

I don't think I heard that one Gallahad, We were continually being reminded not to sleep under tracked vehicles as people were dying by being squashed. Did that ever actually happen?

I believe in the late eighties on Soltau training area... a crwman was squashed however, not being there and the story being told at NAAFI break it could be an urban legend

The story was going 'round in the sixties too. There's probably an actual incident at the root of all these urban legends. Just the thought of waking up with sixty- odd tons pinning me down gives me the creeps !
Another probable legend tells of a member of the gunnery staff standing behind a Centurion which duly fired, reversed out of it's position, (As they do), and drove over him.
"You could write a book", as they say.

brum

brum wrote:

I remember hearing about that too. I seem to remember that the unit was TA PARA
The thing is, I seem to remember Billy Connolly making some reference to the tragedy once.
I hadn't realised that they'd mistaken a canal for a road.

I seem to remember hearing about it on the news. The canal in question was the Kiel Canal, or Nord-Ostsee Kanal to the Germans. The only thing is I was convinced it was much later than the 1960-64 timeframe that Buzz puts it in.

Mike

Edit:
Doh! If I'd bothered to read the rest of the thread before replying I would have seen the link that says the Para Kiel Canal tragedy happened in '74.

jim wrote:

I don't think I heard that one Gallahad, We were continually being reminded not to sleep under tracked vehicles as people were dying by being squashed. Did that ever actually happen?

Probably another "Urban Legend". The way I heard the story in the '70s was that the whole crew kipped down under the tank and because it was p***ing down, the ground became soft and the tank sank on them. Recovery couldn't jack the tank up because of the soft ground so the tank was just winched/driven off under the assumption that the crew was already dead!

Isn't it funny how these urban myths get passed around. If this is the one I heard then (as I heard it) there was a group of soldiers (strength unknown) who thought they were in a bivvie area in Soltau. They bivvied down for the night and the tanks came through with fatal results. Wonder which one (if any) were true.

On an exercise on Soltau we were called out to recover a 432 that was driven into a pond while on black out. The water level was just under the drivers hatch. But in another forum I've read an account by a Reccy Mech who had to recover a 13/18 Royal Hussars Chieftain in 1975 on an exercise on Soltau when it was driven nose down into the Causeway Bog. The driver drowned in the mud.

ChrisP wrote:

Isn't it funny how these urban myths get passed around. If this is the one I heard then (as I heard it) there was a group of soldiers (strength unknown) who thought they were in a bivvie area in Soltau. They bivvied down for the night and the tanks came through with fatal results. Wonder which one (if any) were true.

Now that one was told to me by my Father, he said it happened in the mid 50's.

I do recall being in the middle of Senne plains in tentage and then hearing tanks start up all around us, that was absolutely scarey, luckily we all had tilly lamps and a genie, so we quickly lit the place up. Damned glad we did as well.