An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 21 move troops to the weakest area of the battle rapidly and in large numbers. The fact that huge amounts of military resources could be thrown in at a given point would have weighed heavily on the Soviet planners' minds. That, anyway, was the presumed way things would work in real life. For exercise purposes the armies broke into red and blue teams and battled it out all over Germany with the help of referees. Since we didn't use live ammunition during Reforger, the weapons would be test-fired on the ranges once the exercise was completed, to ensure they were fully operable. All the heavy artillery, mortars and tanks were put through a gruelling workout. As soon as the testing was done, all weapons, vehicles and equipment were returned to their respective bases. The toys of war were cleaned up and put away for another year, or until war really broke out, and the soldiers were sent back to their home bases. Reforger generally lasted from eight to eleven days. The usual preparation consisted of smaller units working together on separate exercises, building up to the final great attack. While this required a great deal of communication between the headquarters of dif- ferent armies, it also needed this cohesion to filter all the way down the chain of command as well. This became known as 'interoperability' and is what allowed a general from any Allied contingent to command American, British and Canadian troops seamlessly in battle. That was the theory, at least; whether it would have worked in reality is another question. When I took part in Reforger I was part of the 3rd Mechanised Commando. We drove our APCs to the railhead and loaded them on waiting trains. (Loading an 11-ton vehicle onto a train whose bed is not much larger than your vehicle is a tricky manoeuvre: one false move and the APC could fall off, possibly killing the driver and anyone nearby.) When we reached the destination railhead, we unloaded the APCs from the train, fuelled them, got the soldiers on board and set off for the exercise area. When we arrived at the staging area we camouflaged our ve- hicles and settled down for some much-needed rest. After six days in the field our quartermaster finally set up show- ers for us. After waiting in line for about an hour you'd be lucky to get under the shower before the water ran out, and even if it didn't all you'd get was about five minutes of lukewarm water trickling down onto your head. It might seem pitiful now but after that many days on the ground it felt great! Suddenly my APC's radio came to life with our captain's voice: "Start your engines!" I slipped down through the driver's hatch into the seat. The soldiers, who were standing outside, rushed to get in, the ramp was lifted, and we were on our way. This is what we had all been waiting for: 200,000 NATO soldiers clashing in the final great Reforger battle. At the jump-off point we married up with other heavily armed Canadian and American mechanised units, including an anti-tank group with TOW missiles mounted on their APCs. Together we push forward to where we would set up a line of defence and await the foe. This same scenario was being played out all over Germany and our group was just a very small cog in a very large wheel. The excitement was building even though it was only an ex- ercise, as it was on a magnitude that most soldiers never have a chance to experience. We waited for 48 hours for the attack we knew was coming. Then at about 0400hrs on the third day we heard the distinctive sound of M60 tanks moving at speed. Experience told us we were about to face some nasty action. All of a sudden we saw them coming towards us in arrowhead formation, their million-candle-watt searchlights cutting through the early morning mist. A magnificent sight! Immediately, the battle began to rage. Our mortar teams sent up para flares to light the battlefield and as they slowly drifted down their bright glow cast strange shadows across the landscape. Thunderflashes (large cardboard tubes filled with explosives meant to simulate bombs) were filling the air with ear-splitting noises. From behind our position two helicopters suddenly appeared with their searchlights cutting through the darkness, spearing the enemy tanks. All around us hundreds of soldiers fired thousands of blank rounds at the approaching tanks. Dug-in on a high ridge, we were relatively safe from the mighty metal monsters as their steel treads could not climb the steep rocky incline. However, we could see the heavy guns traverse in search of a target. Suddenly, as quickly as it began it ceased. The tanks turned and sped away and Reforger was over for another year. Frank Reid is a veteran, author and playwright who spent 8-years in the Canadian Army with the majority of the time spent overseas. He is an expert on the military period during the Cold War. Frank conducts extensive public speaking on military living history and works with veterans groups to further the cause of veterans' issues. He is a founding member and past President of the Royal Canadian Regiment Association of Waterloo. He has recently written a novel '1972-1979 A Canadian Soldier at Peace', based on his experiences on peacekeeping operations in Cyprus in 1974-1975, as well as NATO operations in Europe during the Cold War years. When not researching his second novel or interviewing ex-military personnel for a future documentary, he spends many hours doing organic gardening and studying herbalism. American M60 MBT. Photo: T/Sgt Boyd Belcher An M60A3 MBT during Reforger, 1985. APCs under camouflage nets. Photo: Brian Watters APCs being transported by train.

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