British forces lead NATO brigade in Polish river crossing

As dawn broke on Wednesday, British, German, Polish and French military engineers swarmed the western bank, deploying their amphibious rigs in anticipation of the advancing vehicles.

The British Army say here that eight hours later, the eight ferries had successfully ferried more than 750 pieces of equipment and upwards of a thousand troops across the 300-metre-wide gap, in an impressive display of NATO capability.

“The wide wet gap crossing came mid-way through Exercise Dragon 24 (running February 28 to March 14), one of several elements making up the overarching Exercise Steadfast Defender.

Comprising circa 20,000 soldiers and 3,500 equipment platforms from nine NATO countries, Exercise Dragon aims to test the Land component of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF(L)).

While the UK’s 7th Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team (7LMBCT) led the VJTF(L) to the Vistula, it was over to the subject matter experts, the German-British Amphibious Engineer Battalion 130 to orchestrate the river crossing.

Recent heavy rain only made the crossing more complicated for the exercising forces, testing their ability to adapt to changing scenarios. Nonetheless, the wet gap crossing successfully demonstrated the capability.”

Watching the display from the bank of the eastern shore, Brigadier Guy Foden, Commander of 7LMBCT, the Desert Rats, commented:

“It’s the first time for many in the Brigade that they’ve done a really wide crossing of a major waterway, certainly a river of this width – one of the major waterways in Europe. What you’re seeing here is NATO’s ability to project a Brigade with relative ease across a major water obstacle. It shows the capability of both the British and German amphibious regiment, but also our French and our Polish allies.

We don’t do this very often, so there’s not an inherent understanding of it, but what I would say is using the doctrine, using the procedures that we’re all taught, works and the proof in the pudding, because a large proportion of the brigade has already crossed over, and the rest will follow. And we’re putting deliberately every element across. So, this is not just a thing for Infantry Battalions; 6 RLC (Royal Logistic Corps) will be coming across later, 4th Regiment Royal Artillery will be bringing their guns across, Brigade main headquarters is coming across – the whole thing is coming across. But the key thing is, if you use the doctrine, it works.”