Recce Prove Their Skills at the MGC

In October the Annual Mounted Gunnery Competition took place in Lulworth Ranges, Dorset. While our CR2 crews came second, the CVR(T) crew excelled themselves with an amazing performance and you can read the report here.

After three weeks of ranges in Wales and a 100% first-time pass rate at the Annual Crew Gunnery Test, Callsign R22 was selected to represent the KRH at the 3 Div Mounted Gunnery Competition. This was, in effect, the top 10% of CVR(T) gunnery crews – the British Army’s own “Top Gun”. Thus it was that, with “Highway to the Danger Zone” playing in his head, former AFV Gunnery School Instructor SSgt Wayne Buglass led his crew of Tpr Tom Longshaw (gunner) and LCpl Steve Mayer (driver) off to Lulworth for two weeks of hard-core shooting and no-doubt woeful bar chat.

At the draw for the running order, the KRH were selected to go first. This was a worrying start as they would be the first through the main battle run for the competition and setting the standard. Longshaw, after a strong level six in Castlemartin, however was confident. Calming his SSgt commander down he carefully warmed up through his practice engagements and then blew away target after target, including hitting every machine gun target dead-on along the way, to produce an excellent 81% level five. The crew then settled in for a nervous wait.

After the KRH a further seven armoured close recce crews and four armoured cavalry (brigade recce) teams shot. None were able to match the KRH’s standard of gunnery and the team were duly crowned the best CVR(T) crew in 3 Div (and consequently the entire British Army), pushing the newly formed Royal Lancers into second place and the QRH Recce Troop into third. This, together with a hard-fought semi-final place in the falling plate competition, was a truly impressive result for SSgt Buglass and his crew, especially considering the fact that Tpr Longshaw only fired his first round on a CVR(T) Scimitar 6 weeks prior to the event!