Muslim group has cancelled Wootton Bassett march

[RichardCranium]

There was a BBC series about 15 years ago on the selection and training for a unit called something like "The Snow and Mountain Cadre" - part of the Marines. I expect they have since been renamed.

What they did and could do was utterly amazing to me.

Selection included leaping between planks over 100 feet above the ground that were 6 feet apart - no safety equipment. Climbing around and jumping between rocks at sea level with waves washing over them - no ropes. Cliff climbing at night in pitch darkness - and absolute silence.

It finished with an exercise to blow up a radio mast one night which had patrolling sentries and a guard on each leg. The BBC crew had an infra red camera and filmed the operation from a distance. Just before dawn, the presenter said the Cadre had failed since they had only seen the guards moving and none of the Cadre had approached the mast. Then, as the light comes up, one of the guards spots the big box behind him marked "BOMB"...

[AtW]

Oops.

Please provide some links that would explain what exactly they taught locals in 70s when they were fighting Soviet forces there.

[AtW]

You really haven't got a clue, have you?

Please provide some links that would explain what exactly they taught locals in 70s when they were fighting Soviet forces there.

[sasguru]

You really haven't got a clue, have you?

Only just found that out?

[Churchill]

Steady on RC! Don't let facts get in the way of AtW imparting his superior knowledge.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

what could Royal Marines possibly teach people who live and fight in mountains?

They teach them what they want to teach them. The British Army has 100's of years of experience in all kinds of terrain and climates. Don't think they just threw all that away.

The British Army may be underfunded but they certainly are not understudied - especially higher up

[AtW]

Well, show me some links to what exactly they taught people who were born to live and die in mountains. I am sure those special troops are great at teaching other soldiers who don't live there to be better in mountains, however what you expect those guys to teach locals there?

What CIA sent instructors to reach them was how to fire stingers (supplied by CIA), how to use radios, shoot more accurately, how to do ambushes, mine roads etc.

So tell me exactly what those Royal Marines did teach, how to survive in mountains during cold night? How to deal with donkeys whilst moving weapons about?

[RichardCranium]

Please provide some links that would explain what exactly they taught locals in 70s when they were fighting Soviet forces there.

Are you familiar with the expression "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you"? This is one of those occasions when use of such an expression would be valid. Assuming I knew any links to such secret classified material online.

You asked what they could teach them. Well, there's a peasant community of yak farmers and growers of christ-knows-what and there's a crack team of military instructors familiar with a variety of forms of warfare in mountains.

I think there is probably something the Marines may have to tell a goat-herder about use of weapons lubricants in damp, sub-zero conditions or how their opponents' lack of knowledge about the terrain can be used against them.

You may as well say "What could the Marines teach a Southend cockle-stall fish seller about amphibious landings, after all the Essex boy knows all about sand."

[RichardCranium]

I was thinking of the "Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre". Link to a story from the Falklands.

Training includes:

rock climbing
Resistance to Interrogation (RTI)
patrolling and raiding
snow and ice climbing
cold weather survival
qualifying as a Military Ski Instructors

I don't think Afghan yak herders do much of the above in their day jobs.

[Ardesco]

The ones that consistently amazed me were the royal marine pathfinders. They can pick up a trail in any environment and track a single person down in an astoundingly short period of time.

One thing that our armed forces have is a hell of a lot of experience and bloody good training. Their kit may not be all that, but by god do they know how to use it.