18 NAVY NEWS, MAY 2009
● Landing craft from a Dutch Rotterdam-class landing ship move
towards shore during the assault phase of Exercise Egemen
and (below) a Royal Marine of Alpha Company, 40 Commando,
surveys the Turkish terrain
Next stop on th
“
THE rain clouds could be Rotterdam – there really was only one his breath, the commandos were preparing
seen clearly over the coast
scenario for the exercise: get the troops to shut up shop.
as we approached.
from ship to shore. Amphibious warfare is – rightly –
“The chilling wind blew and you could
The crux of Egemen was a five-day regarded as the most challenging of naval
have been forgiven for believing the
battle/rescue/evacuation mission. operations, and for five days the ships
mountainous coastline shrouded in cloud
But long before that, 40 Commando’s had supported the marines on their push
was that of the west coast of Scotland.
Recce Troop were already ashore, keeping inland.
“But no. This was Turkey on a spring day
a low profile with their Turkish counterparts
So with the enemy routed and the
in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
as they scouted for ‘enemy’ positions on
refugees safe, the tricky bit was over,
So lamented Cdr Simon Asquith,
Turkish soil.
right?
Commanding Offi cer of Her er
The fist was delivered by sea –
Wrong.
Majesty’s Submarine Talent as Charlie Company on to a deserted
“If bringing everything ashore after the
the hunter-killer boat arrived for beach – and by air, Alpha Company
initial attacks was difficult, restowing it
Exercise Egemen. dropped off by helicopter behind
after all our objectives were clear would
Talent mustered with the enemy lines.
prove even more of a test,” explained Lt
forces of Turkey, the Netherlands, “It was then that the real work
Newall.
Belgium, the United States and d began,” said Lt Paul Newall of 40
“Not only did we have to take everything
the rest of the RN’s Taurus 09 task ask Commando.
off the beaches by a variety of means
group. “As the companies reorganised,
but we also had to plan ahead for the
Having warmed up (metaphorically callly the ships had to begin sending
next phase of Taurus, ensuring that each
rather than literally as it was a tad cool) the rest of the unit – the medical
vehicle, Marine or piece of kit went to the
in Cyprus, the British amphibious forces facilities, food, water, equipment, vehicles,
correct ship, which was not necessarily the
shuffled into Turkish waters for the climax of communications – ashore.”
same one they left on the first day.
the first stage of the Taurus deployment. The aim of the exercise was to evacuate
“It was in everyone’s interest to get this
With so much amphibious power to civilians, holed up in a refugee camp,
right, not least because a mistake would
hand – 40 Commando, Turkish, Belgian saving them from a terrorist threat.
mean sailing on the wrong ship in the
and Dutch marines, HM Ships Bulwark While the Turkish marines set about
wrong direction.”
and Ocean, RFAs Mounts and Lyme Bay,
helping the non-combatants, the Royals
So how long did it take to get the right
the Dutch HNLMS Johan de Witt and
began hunting down the foe – again
men back on the right ship with the right
courtesy of a helicopter drop behind enemy
kit? Well, less than 12 hours amazingly.
lines.
Naval efficiency...
“The marines had soon taken the
NOT all the Egemen action took place
positions and the few remaining enemy
on the surprisingly-lush Turkish hills.
were on the run and being chased down,”
There were a few flies in the ointment,
said Lt Newall, “including, it was rumoured,
notably submarines trying to thwart
the Commander of the Amphibious Task
the landings (and escorts trying to stop
Group, who wanted to see for himself what
them).
we’re capable of.”
Among the ‘silent assassins’ were HMS
While Cdre Peter Hudson was catching
Talent and Turkey’s TCG Burakreis.
Two men of Talent – Lt Andy Beck and
LS ‘Trago’ Mills – left the cramped confi nes
of the T-boat behind...
... and found themselves in the even
more cramped confi nes of TCG Burakreis
for a dozen days. The diesel-electric boat
is a quarter Talent’s size with a third of its
crew.
nie henesy and al macleod
, ber
es: la(phots) shaun barlow
pictur
NEW 018-019_NN_May.indd 1 23/4/09 08:40:31
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