Op MAKARA 2B

The undulating terrain kept the Recovery Mechanics busy

Scribe: Cpl Bacon

Given just two weeks to turn the fleet around following Op MAKARA 2, it was always going to be a challenge to get the vehicles ready for Op MAKARA 2B and meeting the deadline was always going to be tight; so much so that just minutes prior to deploying, repairs were still being carried out on the FOXHOUNDS. But thanks to the tireless efforts of the LAD, the vehicles were ready to deploy as planned. Except it didn’t go quite to plan. This Op would promise to be more exciting when just hours after arriving at its designated area of interest, C Sqn detained a suspected ISGS insurgent, and found an RPG and ammunition. This led to A Coy Gp, Fitter Section included, being crashed out 24 hours early to provide support and protection to the Task Group.

The main objective of Op MAKARA 2B was to provide an escort and protection for the UN Human Rights Investigation Team, allowing them to carry out an assessment of the area following a recent atrocity in which over 50 people were murdered in a mass shooting carried out by insurgents in the ANSONGO circle.

After achieving this we were to push around 30km off-road to an area called TinAzir, a former home of an ISGS Commander and a suspected location for weapon caches. On completion of this phase the C Sqn and a small contingent from A1 Echelon were to recce a route in preparation for our final Op. Sounds easy enough but given the extreme heat and undulating terrain, the LAD, VMs in particular, would end up doing an incredible amount of work in the 12 days that we were out on the ground for.

After a 120km road move through the night, we finally arrived at the location of the A1 Echelon Leaguer, but any hopes of getting in and going to sleep were immediately dashed when we were met by the Fitter Section IC, Sgt Wakerley, who informed us that a FOXHOUND needed a new steering box and a COYOTE needed a final drive replacing. Both jobs which would have been challenging enough back in camp, never mind in the middle of the desert. But without complaint the VMs from both A1 Echelon and A Coy Fitter Section, with support of the Recovery Mechanics, got to work, spannering through most of the night and the following day, enduring the extreme heat and lack of sleep to get both vehicles back on the road just in time for the next phase, a road move South to the border town of LABBEZENGA.

After a hectic and challenging start to the op, the Fitter Section, LCpls Yates, McKernan and I were looking forward to getting back into the routine of heading out each day to provide support to A Coy and their temperamental FOXHOUNDS. Though this would prove to be wishful thinking, as on arrival to the Leaguer location just outside of LABBEZENGA we were told that one of the C Sqn’s JACKALS required a final drive replacing. It would again prove to be a late night, though at least this time there would be more help on hand, with VMs being dropped off from C Sqn to assist with the repair, making this a joint effort between all three sub-unit Fitter Sections and after almost three days of relentless effort from the LAD, the JACKAL was back in, with the VMs once again proving their worth as an invaluable asset to the Task Group.

The next day would see us back to our normal routine of pushing out with the Coy, this time we were heading right down to Mali’s Southern border with Niger, some 200km away from camp, it felt like the Long Range Reconnaissance Group was really earning its name. With the everpresent threat of young officer map reading causing an accidental invasion Niger, we risked a quick photo on the border and then made our way back to LABBAZENGA. We escorted the Human Rights Team around the local police station before heading back to the leaguer. Fortunately, the FOXHOUNDs managed to make it through the day without any serious issues which meant we had plenty of time to rest when we got back in.

The next morning the Human Rights Team were flown back to camp,

Spannering throughout the night

A combined effort from the A1, A Coy and C Sqn Fitter Section to repair a final drive on a JACKAL

All leaguered up and ready to deploy again

Vehicle repairs in the desert often see multiple trades working together to fix the problem

concluding the second phase of the Op. This allowed the Task Group to conduct a 24hr maintenance period, the objective being to get the vehicles in as good a state as possible prior to the third phase, a 30km off-road journey to an area called TIN-AZIR, a suspected hotbed for terrorist activity. After some more impressive work by the LAD, the fleet was back in good order and ready to begin the journey, with some of us even making the bold statement that the vehicles would all get there in one piece, though we would soon be proven wrong. Just an hour into the journey A Coy Fitter Section were called on to try and assist with the recovery of a COYOTE that had managed to get stuck in the soft sand in the middle of a 50ft wide wadi. On initial assessment we assumed it would be a relatively straight forward recovery, not too dissimilar to the recoveries we had conducted on previous Ops, but on closer inspection we discovered that the COYOTE had snapped its final drive, meaning no power was getting to the wheels. This fault was quickly becoming the bane of the VMs’ lives. Around four hours and multiple recovery attempts later, the decision was made to leave it to the Recovery Mechanics and the SVR, which made light work of pulling the COYOTE to solid ground. Much to the delight of the VMs, the choice was made to recover the COYOTE back to camp and repair it there, sparing the VMs another gruelling final drive change out in the field. Luckily the rest of the journey went according to plan, this being an indication of just how good the Task Group had become at negotiating the difficult terrain, as opposed to the first Op where there seemed to be a recovery task every ten minutes. We arrived just before last light and moved straight into a sub-unit leaguer, and with only eight vehicles in the leaguer, there was plenty of stags to go around!

The next couple of days would prove to be mostly uneventful, with the Fitter Section only being called into action a couple of times to repair minor faults on the FOXHOUNDS and the Coy being unsuccessful in their search for weapon caches. The only thing worth mentioning would be the weather. Despite being told that rainy season had ended and that there would be no more rain, we were hit by probably the worst rainstorm we had seen so far, and with the Fitter Section working from a COYOTE, we had no escape and we were in for a wet night’s sleep on sodden camp cots, not that this dampened spirits too much as the next day we were embarking on the long journey back to camp and to the relative comfort of air con, showers and fresh food!

Over the twelve days that we were deployed, the LAD, VMs especially, did an exceptional amount of work to keep the vehicles moving, working all hours of the day in the blistering heat on minimal sleep, they commanded the respect of the entire Task Group and proved themselves to be a battle-winning asset.