Question? British Army Training Unit - BATUS

[BellaCoolla]

Hi All,

New Member.

I have a 1985 Series 3 109 that was originally a red top vehicle at BATUS in Canada. I am trying to find out some history or pictures of the vehicles.

It was released in 1997, so I'm hoping that somewhere out there some body took some photos.

I have some info under the history tab on my web site below.

www.freewebs.com/83s3109

Thanks in advance.

 

[John A Silkstone]

Sorry can't help, was at BATUS in 1976 but didn't take any photos. Like your site.

Silky

 

[Bombardier]

I was at BATUS in 1991 after returning from Operation Granby (Gulf War 1991) I was Arty safety and our Call sign was '44A'.

This picture from your website shows Art Safety Red Top '44' although I can say it wasn't me so probably pre 91

Due to age and terrible memory I have forgotten who call sign '77' related to

The British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) is a unit located at the vast training area of Canadian Forces Base Suffield in Alberta, Canada. BATUS is generally regarded as the British Army’s largest armoured training field in the world and it can accommodate live-firing exercises up to the brigade level.As there were no suitably expansive areas to allow the British Army to undertake armoured warfare exercises on a suitably large scale in Europe in 1971, a 10-year lease was signed between the British and Canadian Governments that authorised battle group training to take place in the Suffield area by the British Army. In January 1972 the British Army Training Unit Suffield was formally established. In July the first live rounds were fired by the 4th Royal Tank Regiment Battle Group. In 1981 the lease for Suffield was extended and in 1991, the lease was again extended. In 2006, on the expiration of this lease, the British and Canadian governments concluded an agreement that will allow British forces to maintain their training practices in Canada indefinitely.Just over 30 Challenger 2 tanks, numerous armoured personnel carriers (APC) and 29 (BATUS) Flight Army Air Corps are allocated to BATUS. A single regiment is dispatched to Canada on a 6-month deployment to perform the role of ’enemy’ for the 6 regiments that annually take part in a variety of exercises that last for approximately 6 weeks. It provides invaluable training for the British Army that they would otherwise mostly not experience.

 

[Bombardier]

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[Pretorian]

Range Safety 1975

A Red Top

 

[Bombardier]

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Looking around the web for photos and video of BATUS I was reminded of the size of the training area, I was also reminded of the deaths that have occurred there and the road we called the Rattlesnake that has many a marker along its route where soldiers training have perished.