![]() ![]() ![]() Training for this desert deployment started in earnest with the arrival of the QRIH vehicles. The second phase was their employment following the arrival of their vehicles from late October, ‘desertising’ equipment not designed or in other cases just unsuitable for desert conditions, and training for their operational role in support of the 1st Marines. The first phase the arrival from mid-October 1990 of the troops to Saudi Arabia, acclimatisation and living inside hot and cramped port hangers under the care of the 1st Marines, themselves uncertain to their British coalition partners capabilities, was a poor experience for the QRIH and not one for which the soldiers were well prepared. ![]() The regiment trooped to the port city of Al Jubayl (scene of a later suspected chemical attack) and awaited the arrival of their 57 Challenger 1 tanks and other equipment. On the 26th October 1990, ‘C’ Squadron of the QRIH was the first to deploy British tanks into the Saudi Arabian desert since Operation Vantage in 1961. Specialist training was provided in desert survival techniques, and a focus was given to NBC training (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare), with an expectation that the Iraqi’s would use their stocks of chemical weapons if coalition forces attacked. Troops from the Queen’s Own Hussars helped manage the ranges, providing range instruction and the ‘ammo bashing’ (unpacking the larger tank ammunition in preparation for firing). The other regiments in the Brigade had recently undergone intensive training at BATUS in Canada which the Hussars missed out on having just arrived with the British Army of the Rhine.ĭue to additional workloads required by the QRIH troops, to make ready for deployment, other tank regiments were asked to help organise their training. The Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Denaro was recovering from a polo accident four weeks earlier when he had broken his skull in four places requiring a metal plate to be inset but was still taking part in the exercise. Prior to the war the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars had just arrived in Fallingbostel as part of the 7th Armoured Brigade (under the command of Brigadier Patrick Cordingley), part of 1st (UK) Armoured Division, and was engaged in training on the Soltau-Lüneburg Training Area known to all as Soltau. Operation Granby / US Desert Storm Tactical Deployment Map showing deployment from 24th -28th February 1991 ![]()
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