Winding


TO FIGHT effectively in the bitter cold of the Arctic, you have to train there, writes Mike Gray.


To train effectively, you have to learn how to survive there. And your trainers have to learn how to work and survive there too – as do the people who keep the training base ticking over.


that training for more than four decades.


changed dramatically over the years, Clockwork itself has been adapted and fine-tuned, but the basic mechanism is still running smoothly, furnishing Commando Helicopter Force


personnel with the wherewithal to operate effectively in one of the harshest environments on earth. Ply your trade successfully here,


and you can do the same with confidence in the dust of the desert or the chill of the mountains. It doesn’t get much harder than


Clockwork. But


not


l Joint Helicopter Command personnel head into the Bardufoss training areas during a Cold Weather Survival Course field exercise


through the mountains and landing in clouds of powdery snow (although there is plenty of


Former deeps in mountains high


ISOLATED, self-contained and operating in a harsh environment – a common description of the world of submarines. Isolated, self-contained and operating in


a harsh environment – an apt description of the Clockwork training organisation. So the switch from Trident boats to Bardufoss was perhaps not such a leap in the dark for Clockwork’s Logistic Officer as it might have seemed. Lt Mike Howarth’s job back in Yeovilton is LO for the CHF Combat Support Squadron, and he takes on the particular requirements for Norway for half the year. Originally a sonar operator on Polaris


boats, Lt Howarth accepted a commission in 2005 and returned to bombers – he reckons he has served around eight-and-a-half years below the waves, and is one of only 25 or so serving personnel with a gold deterrent pin for completing more than 20 patrols. “The job here is that I run all the


logistics,” said Lt Howarth. “I own the supply chain elements – all the


rations, fuel, ammunition, equipment and all the personnel that provide services, such as human resources, medics, pay and admin.” That doesn’t just mean getting chefs,


stewards, stores specialists and the like into place for the deployment – he also has to ensure that enough cold-weather trained personnel are available in Yeovilton to replace anyone who has to drop out of Clockwork. Supply lines are varied. Food comes up in refrigerated lorries on a three-day trip from a central MOD supplier in Germany – the food is essentially from the same stocks as that sent to Afghanistan. “We have to make sure that we order in


good time, giving us enough flexibility if the drivers do not make it across some really quite small roads in difficult conditions to get here,” said Lt Howarth. “If the people here do not have enough food in their bellies, no training goes on. “While this is obviously bigger than a


l A Bv206 in the Bardufoss training area


submarine, it works the same way – you are confined for much of the time in a


small section. “I would say there are some very striking


similarities to the way a submarine works, including working with a small team of people. “We do punch out into the local society,


though, as I deal with local banks and suppliers.” Calorie intake has to be high on so


Clockwork, food is plentiful and


welcome (Navy chefs relish the chance to ply their trade in such circumstances), and hot drinks are readily available. “You will not find a big burly chef ready to rap you on the knuckles if you take too much,” said Lt Howarth.


One of the biggest banes of his life (“an


emotive subject,” he sighs) is the lack of fresh milk – UHT is much more readily available in the area. Replacement


equipment comes a


different route. Priority material will be at Bardufoss within 48 hours, with couriers DHL delivering from Tromsø Airport. But larger items, such as a replacement


engine, would most likely arrive directly at Bardufoss/Snowman International Airport (the civilian


airport’s recently-adopted


name) by RAF Hercules. Vehicles and large machinery used throughout the deployment, which may stay out in Norway for more than a year, are shipped in and out by military roll-on roll- off ferry through the small port of Sørreiso, a 30-minute drive from Bardufoss. Lt Howarth left Bardufoss earlier than


many of the base party in order to plan for his ‘other’ job, rear-supply for this month’s Joint Warrior exercises. But he will not be sad to go back to the next Norwegian winter. “It’s brilliant – how can you not enjoy


it?” he said.


“I spent all of my career to date just sneaking about the oceans, and all of a sudden this set me free in the highlands of Norway.”


Pictures: PO(Phot) Mez Merrill (CHF) just about the annual Junglies exercise zipping is


that – see centre pages). Clockwork is a self-contained, self-supporting (self-winding?) world which acts as a springboard for bigger,


evolutions which lie at the heart of the Navy’s business. And when people say that living in the wild, desolate expanses of Norway is a bit like life in a submarine (see left), or on a warship in mid-ocean,


quite as strange a comparison as it seems. Clockwork starts ticking in


it isn’t


the late summer when a team flies out to Norway to carry out maintenance on buildings and infrastructure, cut the grass and apply a lick of paint, which could not be done during the winter. In November the people who


run the base at Bardufoss – the 40 or so CHF enablers and base party members, around half of them logisticians, who provide the training facility under the auspices of the tri-Service Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) – gather their cold-weather gear and prepare to fly out to Norway. They are greeted by bitter cold


more complex (CHF) And as the aircraft and kit have Clockwork has been providing


weather, but not the snow and ice which are the hallmark of Clockwork – in December 2011 the temperature was below -20° Celsius but there was no white stuff to be seen until well after the Christmas break.


in snow, the first phase of training can get under way, with the enablers being put through their paces.


Yeovilton before Christmas, including a day of lectures on aspects of life in the deep freeze. It is a varied programme, including elements of physiology and meteorology alongside memorable anecdotes and aphorisms – a thought-provoking introduction for those heading to the Arctic for the first time. We heard tales of tent eye


metal, and there


to 69º North – almost 200 miles inside the Arctic Circle – are required to do a refresher course. For the rest – from senior officers to the junior chefs and stewards – it is the full Cold Weather Survival Course (CWSC). The training starts back in


Old hands who are returning Once the landscape is swathed


(caused by stove fumes in an enclosed space) and frostnip, of human skin sticking to ice- cold bare


l A Junglie Mk4 Sea King during a load-lifting exercise at Bardufoss. (Right) The Clockwork camp at the RNoAF base at Bardufoss


24 APRIL 2012: www.navynews.co.uk


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