A soldier who trained at Catterick has deployed on a major military exercise close to the border with Russia.
Now a Kingsman serving with 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment (1 LANCS), Bradley Flemming, aged 26, is part of its Battlegroup to Estonia.
Thousands of British Army troops are taking part in Exercise Hedgehog, a major multinational exercise involving 17,000 troops from 12 nations.
The exercise, running from 9 to 24 May, aims to assess the combat readiness of the Estonian armed forces in the event of an attack by Russia and practice the rapid and large-scale deployment of allied forces to Estonia.
Bradley trained to be a soldier at the Infantry Training Centre before joining 1 LANCS, based at Weston Barracks, Preston. He has served in his regiment for the last 18 months, part of a rifle company and the gunner for his section.
Originally from Streatham in south London, he attended Graveney School in Wandsworth before studying at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he graduated with a degree in Biology, before working as a freelance copywriter.
Bradley said: “I realised this wasn’t what I wanted. It was pretty monotonous, so I wanted a change. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a soldier, so I thought, why not, let’s go for it.
“My dad was in the Army Reserve and my great grandad was in the Parachute Regiment during World War Two. He told me he was on a glider during the Normandy invasions.”
Bradley is one of thousands of British troops that have travelled from the UK to Estonia by road, rail, sea and air in less than 48 hours. The mass transit of troops demonstrated the British Army’s ability to rapidly deploy a large-scale force to support a NATO ally that borders Russia.
He said: “We travelled by coach from Weeton Barracks to Dover for a ferry to France, then a coach to Paderborn in Germany and then a flight to Estonia. I’m a pretty tall guy so it was a bit arduous on the coach, but we got here in the end.”
Bradley explained why he and fellow soldiers are in Estonia, his first overseas deployment:
“It’s important that we’re here to show we can back up our words, we can deploy rapidly and that we’re a force that can deter aggression and support our allies and partner countries.”
Bradley’s regiment, 1 LANCS, formed a Battlegroup in the Nursipalu training area in south-east Estonia where they have carried out urban and woodland combat training.
His platoon built trenches in the Estonian forest, along the same lines as those dug by soldiers in Ukraine to defend against Russia’s invasion. The trenches in Estonia were designed to help the 1 LANCS troops hold their position as soldiers from other NATO nations simulated an attack using drones with simulated pyrotechnic munitions, blank ammunition, simulation grenades and flares.
Exercise Hedgehog serves as a Forward Land Force (FLF) mission rehearsal, providing the opportunity for the FLF and allies and partner nations from across NATO to deploy to Estonia.
The British Army’s 4th Light Brigade Combat Team, also known as ‘The Black Rats’, is leading the deployment.
Comments are closed.
Until they use the experience of long serving Ukrainian or legion soldiers the British military will be in no position to lecture others on Russian conflict tactics. We are repeatedly losing ex UK military soldiers as they are unfamiliar with drone and trench warfare so cannot apply tactics to avoid the battering by FPVs
The British military trench teaching in Interflex is also woefully inadequate as it doesn’t account for hastily built zig zag trench formations with poor drainage and low sides which need rapid movement through them to avoid assault
And why are they not using AKs on a regular basis to match the current dominant Eastern European rifle use and create muscle memory