Royal Marines unleashed their heavy weapons and armoured vehicles to assault ‘enemy’ positions during battles on Salisbury Plain. Armed to the teeth and backed by Viking and Jackal vehicles, 45 Commando led an assault through Berrill Valley, pushing their adversary back across villages and bridges using some of their most potent anti-armour weaponry. Ten different pockets of resistance were routed in a day-long assault, as the commandos tackled undulated terrain and driving rain in Wiltshire, ahead of stepping off on deployments in the jungle, desert and Arctic in the next few months and into next year.
It was a chance for the heavy weapons experts, the Fire Support Group (FSG), of the Arbroath-based unit to test their machine guns, grenade machine guns and Javelin anti-tank weaponry on the battlefield. The FSGs and X-Ray Company were transported into location using the Vikings to a site near the enemy before, with ruthless efficiency, gaining the upper hand during assaults. With the FSG using their heavy weapons, laying down supressing fire in positions flanking enemy targets, X-Ray tested their close combat abilities, working through the valley and into the village of Imber – a settlement abandoned in 1943 to make way for training for the invasion of Europe in World War Two.
This was the fiery crescendo of the tactical phase of Exercise Blue Steel and Exercise Viking Warrior, which started with live firing, where FSGs from around 3 Commando Brigade gathered to blow off the cobwebs on the ranges. The marines cleared through woodland, hamlets and into Imber before taking back two strategically vital bridges from the enemy. The marines cleared through woodland, hamlets and into Imber before taking back two strategically vital bridges from the enemy.
