Poland in November has a reputation. If ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ had been set in Poland the famous Adrian Cronauer quote would have been… ‘It’s Cold, damn cold.’ It is well known within military circles that winter (almost) training in Poland can be bleak and uncomfortable, but as we arrived, one thing was for sure, it was positively warm [mild], almost T shirt weather. At least from my perspective……. that was good!

A column of Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicles move through the woodland tracks.

Infantry always have a part to play with a soldier from the Royal Welsh Regiment moving over the range as quickly as possible.

Who could have missed all the recent rhetoric and speculation on the situation in Ukraine? As a soldier, yes it is fair to say I have looked on the situation with interest. Then I got the call, I will be going to cover an exercise in Poland. Right, isn’t Poland right next to Ukraine? A quick look at the map (my eastern European geography is not perfect) at where we were going to be training and unless you live in the States (where it is not abnormal for people to drive for two hours to buy some groceries), we may as well be in Spain! Well practically.

A soldier from the Royal Welsh Regiment lays in a trench covering his arcs with his GPMG.

During a live range demo, a Scimitar extracts as the Challenger 2 and Leopard 2 advance to take on and destroy their targets.

Soldiers from the Royal Welsh prepare for a live range demonstration.

Of course the situation in Ukraine is relevant. With NATO governments including the US keen to support countries bordering Russia, in particular their NATO partners. The premise, in very simple terms for this exercise was to show unification between Poland and the UK (and in wider terms to the other NATO countries from the former Soviet Union) and to demonstrate that the UK has the capability to move it’s armour when needed, and in this case a large amount from long term storage.

Now I have covered exercises in Poland before, the last time in 2007 and this year I have been back twice, and taking all the cheap shots away, Poland is certainly a country investing in itself. The infrastructure certainly seems to have improved. Still a long way from Western European standards but the lack of investment from the old Soviet days is so evident. Since my last time here, the Polish Army, has now got the German built Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank, which is considered within the Tank community as amongst the top 4 in the world, rubbing shoulders with our own Challenger 2. Amusingly depending on who you speak to, the best is always disputed but then what would you expect?

British and Polish soldiers come face to face with each other and demonstrate that soldiers can get past the language barrier.

British Soldiers from Kings Royal Hussars need no second change to have a look around the Leopard 2 whilst the Leopard 2 crew check the barrel for any obstructions.

As far ex military exercises go this was perhaps relatively small, but at least significant with a reported 1300 British troops supporting probably double that from the Polish forces.

A Challenger 2 thunders over the open terrain during a live range.

A Warrior full of Infantry soldiers moves over the sandy mud.

What was clear though was the willingness of both nationalities to interact when possible and learn as much (language barriers aside) about each other as possible.

A good old ‘pack lift’ for the Warrior.

A Soldier during a pack lift wears a head torch, a most valuable tool in getting to all those dark corners.

Using the opportunity as valuable practice, a team of mechanics set about removing a broken power pack.

Probably one of the uncertainties of the exercise was how well the Armour (Challenger 2, Warrior, Bulldog and Panther) would hold up after in some cases over ten years in storage, but at the end of the exercise it was clear that the efforts to bring them up to the required standard quickly was effective with all the platforms holding up. That said the opportunity for ‘Pack lifts’, the practice of removing and replacing the power packs of the Armour, was still evident, but this is quite normal and probably in some cases fabricated as in the day to day roles of the Vehicle mechanic generally does not include the practice, so as a training objective, it is invaluable.

The Challenger 2 is still one of the quickest tanks around.

Any opinions or facts stated here in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Ministry of defence or any other official organisations.