{"id":789,"date":"2016-03-02T11:04:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T11:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/?p=789"},"modified":"2016-03-01T17:02:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T17:02:44","slug":"royal-marines-prepare-for-cold-weather-training-in-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/2016\/03\/02\/royal-marines-prepare-for-cold-weather-training-in-norway\/","title":{"rendered":"ROYAL MARINES PREPARE FOR COLD WEATHER TRAINING IN NORWAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ROYAL<\/a><\/p>\n

The crack of rifle fire and the roar of motor engines rebounded off the snow-covered fjords of northern Norway as Royal Marines prepared for NATO\u2019s biggest winter war games.<\/p>\n

Fast raiding craft and hovercraft have been tearing up and down the inlets around the port Harstad \u2013 more than 150 miles inside the Arctic Circle \u2013 as the men of 539 Assault Squadron get used to freezing conditions.<\/p>\n

More than 50 commandos from the squadron, based at RM Tamar in Devonport Naval Base, have deployed to northern Norway with their ORC offshore raiding craft and Landing Craft (Air Cushioned) \u2013 hovercraft to the general public, or LCACs (\u201cel cack\u201d) in everyday Royal Marines parlance.<\/p>\n

The eight weeks of training opened with the boat crews learning how to survive and operate as marines in the harsh Arctic conditions at \u00c5segarden camp outside Harstad.<\/p>\n

\"ROYAL<\/a><\/p>\n

Alongside their comrades from Kilo Company, 42 Commando, from Bickleigh outside Plymouth, the 539 men were taught basic survival skills by Royal Marines Mountain Leaders \u2013 the Corps\u2019 specialists in cold-weather warfare \u2013 moving on to moving around using skis and snowshoes and finally fighting in the rugged, snow-laden terrain in temperatures as low as -30\u02daC.<\/p>\n

Once acclimatized, the marines could move on to the business of amphibious operations; the squadron is expected to put Royal Marines ashore by landing or raiding craft whatever the climate.<\/p>\n

The ORCs can carry a dozen commandos and reach speeds over 30kts, while the hovercraft can carry 16 Royal Marines or two 1,000kg pallets of kit, gliding over water as fast as 35kts.<\/p>\n

\"ROYAL<\/a><\/p>\n

Normally, such missions are carried out stealthily \u2013 but the squadron can also provide covering fire courtesy of heavily-armed ORCs Gatling guns and 40mm grenade launchers.<\/p>\n

And should anything go wrong ashore, the boat and hovercraft crews are expected to ferry casualties to a first-aid post or field hospital.<\/p>\n

Two weeks have been set aside to learn the art of operating the craft in the Arctic \u2013 from the challenges of navigation (one snowy fjord with a rocky shore looks very much like another) to driving the hovercraft over ice, conducting long-range patrols and dropping and picking up reconnaissance parties.<\/p>\n

\"ROYAL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the toughest parts of operating in these conditions is the cold; you don\u2019t really realise how cold it is until you get out here \u2013 and when you add the wind chill factory from travelling at 35 knots on the fjords, you really can feel it,\u201d said hovercraft coxswain Marine \u2018Tommo\u2019 Thompson.<\/p>\n

Marine Alex Foster, a landing craft coxswain, added: \u201cThe snow and ice make things very challenging, very different from the conditions which were used to working in. It\u2019s a completely different world from operating on beaches in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s surprising how cold it gets when the sun goes down \u2013 which is very early in the afternoon. That\u2019s when we really have to look after our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ROYAL<\/a><\/p>\n

Once 539\u2019s initial training package is completed, the squadron will embark six of its ORCs on the Dutch assault ship HMNLS Rotterdam which is heading to Norway for NATO\u2019s Cold Response 2016.<\/p>\n

The exercise, which begins soon, will see 15,000 personnel from across the alliance practicing the art of Arctic warfare by land, sea and air.<\/p>\n

Images taken by Petty Officer (Photographer) Donny Osmond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The crack of rifle fire and the roar of motor engines rebounded off the snow-covered fjords of northern Norway as Royal Marines prepared for NATO\u2019s biggest winter war games. Fast raiding craft and hovercraft have been tearing up and down the inlets around the port Harstad \u2013 more than 150 miles inside the Arctic Circle… Continue reading ROYAL MARINES PREPARE FOR COLD WEATHER TRAINING IN NORWAY<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[572,574,575,66,573,571,44],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-watch","tag-539-assault-squadron","tag-arctic-circle","tag-devonport-naval-base","tag-nato","tag-norway","tag-orc","tag-royal-marine","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":795,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions\/795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}