Exercise Iron Hammer - West Germany - 1988 

British Army,one of a best armies at the world 👍

I had a Bundeswehr sleeping bag that had sleeves and there was a horizontal zip just above knees and it could be worn like a parka, great for going on stag as you were walking round in your sleeping bag.

At least our combats were not made in China back then.

Like in german Bundeswehr, in late 70s early 80s we had the same Uniform for Winter and Summer the only Winterclothing was the Parka and a thin long underpants, during my first exercise we had rain the whole day long everyone was wet to the bones and during night the sky cleared and the temp. dropped to minus degrees, was in a Muddy Foxhole with 15cm water neraly the whole night long except f 1 hour Recon patrol and in the Foxhole i was thinking about using the Sleeping bag as a Parker at first i decided not to do because cleaning equipment after the excercise cost time and is pain in the ass (not even used my own Rifle that night for firefight instead i took the one from the MG gunner ;) ) but after an half hour i took the sleeping bag and used it .

There was no limit on how many layers you wore under the uniform. I wore a total of 9 layers (including combats)

I was training on a brit base in Germany cant remember which one. We were there for a week during which the Faulkland invasion happened. We trained drank and fought a lot with you blokes. Lol We were all together against the Yanks though. The Royal Canadian Regiment. Queen Victoria's Regiment. Adopted by her in perpetuity. Prince Phillip was our honorary Commander. Our brother British regiment is your Fore and Afts. I Digress lol

Not quite, although I am in my twilight years of service now, there are still a few of us of that generation still in uniform. Great memories of these large scale exercises which are sadly a thing of the past. My first was Ex Lionheart in 1984. My old CO Richard Cousens briefing about avoiding blue on blue when the Battalion (2LI) was in the Air Mobile Role.

@@juliangreenwood528 I was 1 GREEN HOWARDS (1972 - 1995). Now aged 70. I remember Lionheart. Stuck in a pig farm with B Echelon processing reservists for most of it. Moving back into I Armd Div Admin area prior to ENDEX gave us an idea of the sheer scale of that exercise. Must have been the largest concentration of British soldiers that ever gathered in one plalce at the same time. Dunkirk in reverse. Happy days!

And the bratty van!

Observers of both sides could always visit the whole of occupied germany, besides certain millitary installations

@@flixri726 Hope I can see the similar de-escalation here too.

I suppose there’s an advantage in their observers seeing what we are capable of. It might send them a message that we are not an easy pushover and deter them from future conflict

Hi, the Observers in this video were officially there for the exercise. At all other times there were these intelligence gathering teams crossing the Iron Curtain. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_liaison_missions

"Gott schuf in seinem Zorn, Sennelager bei Padderborn."

Nice one, was about to say the same! Good old Wolfgang in his VW bimbling across the ranges. Sometimes down at area Mike!

Bratty, chips mit Mayo.

He was there, I remember getting the currywurst from him and a yellow handbag. Someone said his van, which went places where chieftains and challengers got bogged down, is in an army museum in England.

Yellow handbag 😂 Those in the know know😉 To those that don't know it's a 10 pack of Herforder Pils👍😁

@@Graham658 Happy days - RE 79-90 (Hameln)

@@thecurlew7403 That's awful. hate to think what he looked like when they got him out.

@@thecurlew7403 This sort of thing did happen back in the 1950's. My father was out in Germany from 1956 onwards with the Royal Signals. He told me about an incident when a tank crew slept under their Centurion tank and it sank crushing the crew men.

Hydro gas needed time to warm up, so chances are these tanks are moving out first thing on a very cold morning. Once warm they were fantastic cross country (I’m retired Royal Hussar)

no, they're good.

We still wore it till 91 in the R Sigs check out the complex guard at 20:48 noddy suit, 58 pattern kit and SLR. The kit we where issued in that era was very bad... Personal and warm kit had to be bought if you wanted to be warm as the issue kit was terrible.

Strange that you are exactly correct that lots of the chassis of these vehicles may well be in front line combat in the former eastern block. I pray that they will all see another day on both sides.

Как же поменялась тактика военных с тех пор. Всё таки беспилотник изменил многие на поле боя.

So true,those 60 ton challenger tanks have performed wonderfully in Ukraine,they rumble onto terrain,stop then descend 10 feet in the mud and become excellent fixed position armoured pillbox.

@@helenwhite2066 The same way that an Abrams or Leo would?

Not really, even without the nuclear part of the equation. NATO conventional forces were mainly for the optics of reassurance at the height of the cold war, as any technological advantages would be compensated for by double, triple or even quadruple number of soldiers and equipment available in the Warsaw Pact. There was this infamous period when the German Bundeswehr would effectively be able to fight for a week or ten days, then run out of ammo - and they had the largest number of tanks and artillery on NATO side. It would always boil down to the nuclear option under the make believe premise that Ivan would turn around once NATO engaged him with tactical nukes - wishful thinking.

Queen and country 🇬🇧🇩🇪

Yeah, gras it back and cradles it while whispering to it 'Come here my lovely' 🤣

Good for the vagus nerve!

Yeah but once done and dressed you felt warm as toast

And an egg banjo for breakfast,and mug of tea!bliss!

@@stevenbreach2561 With just the right amount of oily fingerprints on the bread.

@Big Red Hats off to you guys, although we weren't fed by the ACC on exercise (Tank crew got the 4 man compo packs. (One complete exercise of nothing but chicken supreme. Some foul up!) you kept us well fed, round the clock on Op Banner. Also although people complained about the food in camp, I think you all did a good job. We also had the pump up petrol cookers, but it wasn't uncommon to see blue gas bottles in the turret stowage bins.

@@chad6080 Agreed... Just wish we had a lot more of them.

The French still use the MILAN, and I think it's the best Ground to Ground Missile system available in NATO

hahahahaah

M14 Aiming stake, used to establish a firing line (reference point) when deflection shooting if I recall.

Many Thanks

L....85 innit. They had only gone into service when I was in cadets at school and that was like 86.

They started replacing them as early as 85 but they weren't fully replaced until about 89/90

Support units and artillery kept the SLRs for couple more years

I was R Sigs and we were not replaced SLR/SMG until early 91 ish

That "absolute idiot" was West German Bundeswehr showing the "foreign gentleman" from the East German Nationale Volksarmee how to hold the weapon correctly, as it is entirely different from what he is used to and certainly the first time for him. I suppose you just didnt understand what he said...