Yeah, this looks a lot like 'Free Lion.' I was the Senior Intelligence Analyst for the 2nd Armored Division (Forward), an US armored brigade out of Garlstedt that was the 'attacking force' against the Dutch and Germans...
Hallo Sir ! I have seen the Exercise Free Lion 1988 as a 15 year old Teenager . Have you any Pictures of this Exercise or from the FTX-Spearhead Crusader 1980 ??? I am a Very Big Hardcore Fan of the Nato Exercises about the Area in Landkreis Hildesheim, and Landkreis Hannover in the 1980s. !!!
I'm afraid I don't have any. As I was an Intelligence guy at that time, it was our policy to restrict photography, and of course, during these exercises, we were too busy 'fighting the war' to have much time to take pictures.....
Great movie. It is about the big Nato excercise Free Lion. I still have a photo of the old woman on the bicycle (fahrrad) crossing the bridge. On the movie is the dutch 17e pantser infantrie bataljon (limburgse jagers),13e pantser infantrie brigade. They were part of the attacking forces together with the third american pantser brigade and the third german aufklarungs bataljon. The defending forces were the7e german pantser infantrie brigade and the dutch 41e and 42 pantser infantrie brigade.
From the BAOR, The British Second Light Infantry Batallion and 662 Squadron Army Air Corps took part in exercise Free Lion '88. They were with the attacking forces and did an air mobile strike on 20 september with Sikorsky helicopters across the river Leine at Coppenbrugge. Chieftain units were not in exercise Free Lion '88, must be another exercise?.
The tanks in this video are all Leopard 1 tanks (1A3?). The APC's (IFV's) are YPR 765's, there are some 155mm SP howitzers, an armored recovery vehicle, and a M577 command track (I commanded one of these during this exercise).
