“CONTACT FRONT” the words yelled by everyone when an enemy opens fire endangering your life. And from that point your section commander or platoon commander initiates a plan on how to destroy the enemy.
In week 20 of our training, we undertook the attack exercise, which lasted for five days. Before the exercise, we were issued with; Head-Mounted Night Vision System (HMNVS), LLM and Tactical Engagement System (TES) kit. “Preparation is the key” is what our Platoon Sergeant (PS) guruji always said to us. Bearing that in our mind, we packed our bergens and daysacks in a systematic way.
The day finally arrived, we loaded our bergens on the truck and prepared ourselves to move towards our designated training area. Upon reaching this location a series of trials took place to check the TES kit was working. Moments after we arrived at that location, we quickly grabbed our bergens and established a hasty harbour. We took a short break and went out with our section commanders to revise about the section attack. Day one went in a blink of an eye. Day two and three was focused on how the section attack is executed. It was fun and a realistic experience due to TES kit, as it would state the type of injury, where was it or else if we were dead. On the night of day three was our first night attack. This was tough as the visibility was poor and we could only see with the aid of HMNVS, so it was very hard to locate the enemy.
The second last day, we were briefed on how we were going to carry out the platoon attack. Advance to contact and we managed to destroy the section level enemy. After the attack we went back to the harbour area and gave our muscles a rest. Whilst recovering, our Platoon Commander planned a deliberate attack, which would be executed the following morning. We managed to execute as per the plan although our minds were switched off and our reaction times were at their slowest. After the deliberate attack we returned to the harbour area, had a motivational brief from the Wing Commander and tabbed back to our barracks. us a lot what we as an individuals and sections had to sustain and develop.
Although, this exercise was more challenging than the previous exercises, we tried to learn from it and enjoy every moment. Although the attack exercise has ended “GRENADE”, “SECTION COMMANDER POSITION CLEARED” are buzzing in my ears and looking forward for the challenges that are yet to come.
By Trainee Rifleman Deepraj Sunuwar, Gurkha Company, Catterick
