C Company, 3 PARA, are in Bosnia Herzegovina taking part in Exercise QUICK RESPONSE 2018 as part of EUFOR’s Multinational Battalion.
The Ministry of Defence say that this is an effort aimed at deepening and strengthening working relationships with international partners, and helping ensure a safe and secure environment for the people of the country, in support of local authorities and the Armed Forces.
As part of the realistic and challenging training package, soldiers wearing fire retardant overalls, balaclavas and helmets, and bearing protective shields, faced petrol bomb-wielding instructors posing as rioters, testing both their public order skills and their ability to apply them under pressure.
According to the Army in a news release, the men of C Company are in Bosnia Herzegovina helping to ensure a safe and secure environment for the people of the country, in support of local authorities and the Armed Forces, working closely with their Austrian, Hungarian and Turkish counterparts.
Private Tamas Borzak, of 8 Platoon, C Company, 3 PARA, talks about undergoing ‘fire inoculation’ during public order training at Camp Butmir, Sarajevo.
“The fire inoculation, I can imagine civvies back home if they were to do it they’d probably take some baby steps backwards as the Molotovs were coming at you. But it’s good to see the blokes standing firm, going straight through it, seeing the petrol bomb come at you, and “bang!” it’s on your feet, and everyone just does the drills and gets their head like that, ‘cos you can see that they’re really trying to concentrate and get the drills correct, otherwise you will get hurt. But we’re Reg, we do the job right, we’re professional soldiers.”
Is that their job nowadays seems just a little sinister.
Are the Green Goddess Fire Engines still stored somewhere or have they finally been scrapped?
My uncle bought one a few years ago to stand with his gypsie caravans and various horse boxes, RRs and classic Jags. I think he’s subsequently sold it on but I think finally they’ve all gone
Lol ok! I’m well out of date!
Deep joy the Paras doing EU civil unrest training. Thanks Theresa.
“As part of the realistic and challenging training package, soldiers wearing fire retardant overalls, balaclavas and helmets, and bearing protective shields, faced petrol bomb-wielding instructors posing as rioters, testing both their public order skills and their ability to apply them under pressure.”
And therein lies a few questions.
Are the troops being trained for Public Order duties within the EU or the UK?
Given the current friction between Hungary & Poland with the EU Politburo, will they be ordered to Warsaw or Budapest?
Given the way a lot of us feel about the EU right now that would not be a good idea !
Not a chance! The EU can sort out its own mess. We are well out of it.
I’m curious.
I assume it costs more to train a soldier for the Parachute Regiment, much like the Royal Marines, due to their specialised role, length of training, P Company, para training and so on.
So if they are specialist troops why use them in a role like this?
I can appreciate that the army needs rounded soldiers trained in a variety of tasks and this is just a company sized deployment but surely elite are elite and should be used as such. Could we really not find a company from the line infantry for this?
There are only two Battalions of the Parachute Regiment in 16 Air Assault Brigade after all, who, along with the Royal Marines, are the UK’s Rapid Reaction forces.
What next? A troop from 22 SAS used to support an army field kitchen? I know what I say is ridiculous but that is how it seems to me.
Think of it as character building with a practical application. Any drill that involves shit hitting the fan is good for unit cohesion and steeling soldiers nerves for similar situations.
There’s also the unfortunate reality that HM Armed Forces simply don’t deploy in depth enough to be able to afford for soldiers NOT to be capable of everything, especially elite units like the Paras and Marines who are more likely than anyone to be deployed in hot spots. If the situation arises where local command need to restore public order and 3 PARA are the only available infantry unit, it’ll have to be 3 PARA that restores order.
Thank Callum.
I imagine this is a statement to the Republic serbska next door. We all guess whose funding them, their little green men and any pan slavic ideology that might fracture our near neighbours in the, still healing, Balkans. . 3 para is ready to go by the sounds of it, who could get there quicker !
This is like using a racing car to plough a field. What a wonderful use of some of the best men we have. I hear QNLZ is doing a stint on Med migrant patrol when she comes back from the US. Anything to help our EU friends…….
To everyone saying this is sinister or just serving the EU, do try and remember that soldiers have been called in to restore public order since the beginning of time. The British army has always practiced this sort of thing, and put it to use everywhere from India to Northern Ireland. The fact that it’s being done with our ALLIES in the EU doesn’t suddenly mean our forces are subservient to some greater EU army, it means we are maintaining working relationships with other NATO forces.
Yeh right.
Callum is bang on, public order aka riot control has been part of the British Army for decades, it’s only recently in the last couple of years when the focus shifted to Afghan and Iraq that it had less attention focused on it. If anything this is just relearning old skills that should not have been allowed to lapse in the first place.
I’m no fan of the EU and it’s agenda but some of the tin foil hat bollocks that’s often posted in the comments section is hilarious.