February sapper mag:Layout 1 21/1/09 16:14 Page 19
Troop Commanders' Course 150 at the end of Ex DRAKES DRUM
focussing on the Corps’ contribution to the development
of Gibraltar, it makes for a fantastic exercise.
When the course moves to Gibraltar Barracks it
spends three months with the Battlefield Engineering
Wing where it covers all the combat elements. It looks at
bridging, route recce, force protection, water supply,
demolitions and minefields. It is during this phase of the
course that the intricacies of combat engineer tasks
become apparent and the young officers become aware
Constructing a cuplock tower as part of the BEW Phase
that just because the pamphlet states it takes a given
amount of time, it’s not always going to happen that way.
This becomes all the more apparent on Ex Drakes Drum,
the five day confirmatory exercise in and around the local
area. Most of the construction is done in the dark and not
much sleep is had by the course that week. It’s not all
work though and throughout the course there are chance
to study the Corps’ heritage. As part of this there is a
weekend battlefield tour to either the Normandy Beaches
or Arnhem to see just how vital the Royal Engineers have
always been on operations.
The final phase of the course is based in Command
Wing back at Brompton Barracks. Here the practical
work is dropped and young officers exercise their grey
matter focussing on Intelligence Preparation of the
Battlefield which is far more than colouring in large
searching Corps History and Customs during a day in London
areas of a map. This also allows time for students to
refine their engineer orders to ensure everything is slick
and flows smoothly. These weeks in Command Wing
lead into the final test exercise on Salisbury Plain, Ex
Phantom Sapper. This is similar to Drakes Drum in
terms of the tasks performed; however more focus is
placed on the planning and control of the task rather than
their implementation. Clearly this makes sense as it
forms a large part of the job troop commanders will be
doing on a day to day basis once they join their troops,
which for some on TCC 150 involved deploying straight
on operations within weeks of finishing the course.
Ultimately, whether it is to go on operations, exercise or
to remain in barracks for a while, the training the 31
officers of RETCC have received has been first class and
they all now feel ready to take their place in the Field
Army and put to use all they have learnt over the past
seven months.
Everyone gets their WSO Qualification (B) on the Course 19
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