g up frozen Clockwork


were warnings about well,


eating drinking well (hot wets,


preferably) and making regular visits to the heads. While on that subject, the old chestnut of drinking one’s own urine in a emergency was firmly crushed. “Do not drink your own piss,” a


Royal Marines Mountain Leader announced bluntly. “If you are in so bad a situation


that you have to drink your own piss it’s not going to help, because it’s full of uric acid crystals and that’s the crap the body is trying to get rid of. “Whack it back in and you’re not doing any good.” In any case, he said, the ‘gold standard’ for water supplies in a tight spot would be white, fluffy snow – and there was, we had been assured, going to be enough of that for everyone... The enablers are the first to go through the fabled Cold Weather Survival Course (CWSC), which is all in a day’s work to commandos but a little more daunting for someone who wields a spanner rather than a weapon. C/Sgt Al Grant RM said: “The guys that come out here are in a totally different environment. “Temperatures can drop to -30° Celsius in January, so they have to get used to not being in a nice comfortable hangar, and learn to survive here as well as work.” Personal admin is a phrase


that crops up a good deal around Bardufoss – looking after yourself and your clothing and equipment. This is taught through a couple


of days of lectures, then three or four days in the field. “They start off in ten-man slowly getting them into


tents,


sorting out their admin, sleeping and cooking in a tent, make sure they do not set fire to themselves or the tent because there are stoves or lanterns,” said C/Sgt Grant. They then go into four-man


tents, and spend a night in a snow shelter, which can be “quite comfortable”


two below zero (thanks to body heat


and a


at a degree or candle) while


the


temperature plummets outside. The downside is the need for


ventilation and at least one person on watch at all times to avoid the heat source going out or poisoning the air.


There is tactical training


– sentry duty, contact with the enemy – in preparation for a tactical exercise at the end of the course and the FOBEX which concludes Clockwork in March. And then everyone – all ranks, all specialisations,


engineers, everyone – does the ice-breaking drills. “The


ice-breaking interesting. is quite It’s character-


building,” said C/Sgt Grant. “The dit creep [a tale which gets taller in the telling] means the hole gets bigger, the water gets deeper and colder... “It doesn’t really, but it almost


grows arms and legs. “But it’s not that big a problem.


It’s just cold water. “The first time we did it this


year it was -22° Celsius, so it’s actually warmer in the water.” Each candidate slides into a hole cut in the 3ft thick ice on a small lake at the wartime German airfield, adjacent to Bardufoss. The bergen is pushed out of the


water, then the individual drags himself out using ski-poles to bite into the ice. They roll around in the snow to absorb water, down a tot of rum and dash to a tent where their colleagues whip their freezing clothes off and dress them in warm dry apparel from the waterproofed bergen. “That cold shock can be quite something to matelots. Royal Marines tend to be more used to these conditions, and are used to the shock,” said C/Sgt Grant. “That’s why they do it in mankinis and that kind of thing, to lighten it up.” Another Royal who raised a smile through chattering teeth was the signaller who went into the water and did 14 lengths of the ice hole before climbing out. “We have had a few failures


this year, and it is usually through admin,” said C/Sgt Grant.


www.navynews.co.uk


“Unless you have been out here and done it, you do not know what to look for. “When you get really cold you get lethargic, and do not put your coat on or get into your sleeping bag, so you get more cold and you are on the way to hypothermia. “It is things like getting a hot


wet inside them – it is easier to sit around chatting because making a hot wet is more effort, but it is the thing you should do. “Failure – which is basically getting a cold weather injury – means they go home, and clearly had not looked after themselves. “Others occasionally clearly do


not have the wherewithal to look after their personal safety – there is something lacking.” Again, what is second nature to bootnecks – such as living out of a bergen – needs to be trained into sailors who rarely, if ever, have had the need to worry about such things until Clockwork. “A Royal Marine coming in can produce a well-packed Bergen, whereas a matelot’s would look like a Christmas tree to start with...” said C/Sgt Grant. “Some matelots have a problem


– ‘I didn’t join up to do this, I joined up to fix a helicopter. Give me a spanner in Yeovilton and I’m happy...’


“But most get it eventually.” For some the change of climate


is even more pronounced, such as two of the stewards on this year’s Clockwork enabling team. “The Caribbean guys find it


cold – they pretty much wear everything all the time,” said C/ Sgt Grant. The weather can be deceptive –


Logistics Officer Lt Mike Howarth said -10° Celsius in Norway often feels more comfortable than -2° Celsius in the UK, because it is so dry – but it still seeps in and hits you if you are not prepared. With the survival side of things wrapped up, it is time to move on to the business end – working and fighting in C2 (that’s Arctic to you and me).


Which is where Bardufoss really comes into its own, according to Maj Dave West, who in the UK is in charge of all training for the CHF, and is Officer Commanding Clockwork during the winter. A qualified Helicopter


Instructor with experience at the controls of four or five types of aircraft, Maj West is well-placed to reflect on the role of the only British


pilots,


in outstanding facilities, for a very good price.” Maj West added: “C2 is Arctic conditions, ie very cold conditions. “C2 could therefore be the Rockies, the Antarctic, or high in the mountains of Afghanistan in the winter.


“Because little things become more difficult and take longer over here, because of the cold, people go back full of confidence. “For some it is after they go through the ice – they feel they have achieved something, because it was a challenge.


village of Andselv, is not easy on the wallet or purse. Theme nights at Clockwork this winter included a Caribbean night – the stewards from Trinidad and Tobago advised the chefs on food and one provided the music of a steel band from his iPod, as an icy wind whipped up the snow outside.


‘base’ on Norwegian soil (though as it is not actually British, no Union Jack or White Ensign is flown from a flagpole). “The beauty of this place is


that it is just over ten miles from the fjords and five miles from training grounds, and there are ranges where you can fire all kinds of weapons. It is ideal,” said Maj West. “We have land, sea and air training facilities right on the doorstep,


“They are trained to maintain aircraft in the field. “That might mean changing rotor blades, which could mean people on a lorry holding a rotor blade in place while another bolts it on.” The collection of huts which sit on the Royal Norwegian Air Force base are a vital component in the morale of those who pass through the training.


wooden huts and two smaller cabins – there is also an overspill block which can be rented from the Norwegians – giving a maximum bed count of around 250. A well-specified gym was


invited into the camp for a Burns Night celebration, though what the mayor thought of the kilts and haggis, tatties and neeps has not been recorded. Accommodation is in seven


l Clockwork personnel cut a hole in the 3ft-thick ice on a lake to prepare for Cold Weather Survival Course ice-breaking drills (pictured below right)


Local civic dignitaries were


full-spectrum ranges,


the sea and ports, and a local landing facility where you can land a C-17 or a Hercules to get staff and equipment in and out. “There is also fast air capability, and there are not many people living around here, and not many horses and riders, so low-level flying is not a problem. “We train mostly within a 15-mile radius of here, and the ships can get close too, ideal for Cold Response because there is a short flying time and a short drive for vehicles.”


According to Maj West,


Clockwork has three main aims; to support Joint Helicopter Command units deploying on operations by providing environment qualifications and pre-deployment training; generating Fleet


littoral


(amphibious) capability; to train personnel to survive, operate and fight in extreme C2 environment, through


which resilience.


Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral


George Zambellas,


himself a former helicopter pilot, recognises its value – he visited Norway in February and declared: “Clockwork training at Bardufoss is a jewel in our defence crown. “We are training about 700 personnel a year in specialist skills,


APRIL 2012 25: they develop


The three messes – wardroom, senior rates and junior rates, all fashioned from the shells of old railway carriages fixed side-by-side – share the same galley facility, and feature unique home comforts built by the sailors themselves over the years, including bars and wood-burning stoves.


Social life is pretty much confined to the base, as the one local club, down the road in the


l A Commando Helicopter Force Lynx of 847 NAS over the Forward Operating Base at Bardufoss


this year the fiefdom of LPT Joe Thornton, who had already undergone the appropriate training and was on his first Clockwork. As well as the usual fitness


session, circuits, RN fitness tests and football competitions, using local gyms where necessary, LPT Thornton also maintains an impressive ski store (paid for by profits


bars) and has run a successful ‘Clockwork’s Biggest Loser’ competition, the winner of which was expected to have lost 10kg in ten weeks.


from the Clockwork


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