266 (GVA) O.P. Bty R.A. (V)
Competitions - KGV, UKLF OP, and more

In 1971, 266 (Gloucestershire Volunteer Artillery) Observation Post Battery was formed as an independent Observation Post unit as a reinforcement unit for the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) supplying observation post teams. The battery had a four gun troop of 25pdr field guns. In time of war the battery would provide 18 Observation Post Parties to regular army units

King George Fifth Cup (KGV)

In 1981, an Observation Post (OP) Battery competition was devised for the 3 existing OP Batteries undertaking this role – 266 (Gloucestershire) Battery, 269 (West Riding) Battery and 307 (South Notts Hussars) Battery.

The competition rules were:

• The Competition will take the form of a fire and movement exercise lasing about four hours. The emphasis will be on shooting skills and the tactical deployment of OPs.
• The Gun Troop will be required, initially, to be organised into two separate fire units, each with two guns and a CP to represent a Field Battery. A further command vehicle is required to act as a FDC.
• Each fire unit requires radio facilities for:
• A regimental net.
• An independent Battery net with three unauthorised OPs.
• A fire orders net, which is to be line.
• For ease of deployment the two fire units will be co-located. Gun Troop redeployment will be as a whole unit in a deliberate occupation.
• The Competition will take place for each OP Battery at a time and place of their choosing.
• CRA (South) will set, run and judge the competition.
• Each Battery is to deploy a BC’s party tactically.
• Each Battery will deploy 6 OP parties. Each party is to have:
• OPO, OPA, Dvr and 2 Sigs.
• Vehicle, VRC 353 and PRC 351. 3 OP parties are to have a second PRC 351.
• Those who competed in the UKLF OP Party Competition are NOT eligible to compete in this Competition in an OP party.
• OP parties are to be capable of deploying tactically and of being camouflaged.
• The Gun Troop is to deploy at least 3, and if possible 4, 25 pdr guns.
• There must be the ability to deploy two sections, each with a CP, and to simulate a FDC.
• All personnel are to be on the posted strength of the competing Battery.
• NBC equipment and small arms are to be carried by all personnel throughout the Competition.

Winners

1981 - 269 (West Riding) OP Bty RA (V). Battery Commander: Major R A N Irvine TD RA (V)
1982 - 266 (Gloucestershire Volunteers Artillery) OP Bty RA (V). Battery Commander: Major D. R. Bray RA
1983 - 307 (South Notts Hussaars Yeomanry RHA) OP Bty RA (V). Battery Commander: Major T. S. Richmond TD RA (V)
1984 - 307 (South Notts Hussars Yeomanry RHA) OP Bty RA (V). Battery Commander: Major T. S. Richmond TD RA (V)
1985 - 266 (Gloucestershire Volunteer Artillery) OP Bty RA (V). Battery Commander: Major D. G. Griffiths RA (V)
1986
1987 - 266 (Gloucestershire Volunteer Artillery) OP Bty RA (V). Battery Commander: Major R. G. McKenna RA (V)
1988 - 307 (South Notts Hussars Yeomanry RHA) OP Bty RA (V). Battery Commander: Major R. L. Watson RA (V)
1989 - 266 (Gloucestershire Volunteer Artillery) OP Bty RA (V). Battery Commander: Major P. T. Doughty RA (V)
1990 - 269 (West Riding) OP Bty RA (V). Battery Commander: Major (TIG) A. J. Porter RA
1991 - 269 (West Riding) OP Bty RA (V). Battery Commander: Major (TIG) A. J. Porter RA

Derek Driscoll on the pages this site is based on and who was Battery Sergeant Major (BSM) at the time, wrote that the 1982 competition that the battery won, was held on Salisbury Plain Training Area (SPTA). The KGV Cup, along with £100 for the Battery was awarded to the Battery Commander (BC), Major David Bray R.A. at the Guildhall, London.

Derek also recalled that:

We went afterwards to the tower of London, the Yeoman of the guard seeing us queuing, opened the gate for us to enter and we did not have to pay, at the Jewel House it was the same, the uniform opened many doors for us that day. Some months later the Bty, had to have the cup valued for insurance purposes, it was valued at about £1,000.

Derek also wrote that the silver cup was lost by the next winners, 307 (South Notts Hussars) Bty R. A. (V).

On the 1986 Battery history page, Derek wrote that:

The trip to Otterburn was long but we made good time and only one vehicle got lost but turned up later under his own steam. The competition was a little different from those we had took part in previously, more emphasis's was put on the actual deployment and tactical awareness of the guns, i.e. the use of camouflage nets and the speed in which we could put them up were much to the fore as never before. These competitions, were the start of our preparation to be not only proficient in our O.P. drills but also to be a recognized gun battery those members would in future equip themselves very well when called upon to support the regular forces.

The usual disciplines were also tested AFV recognition, NBC, medical and radio procedures, the gun's also had a anti tank/direct shoot to do, which in the competition Sgt Manning of the bty came a close second.

We did not win the competition but we all thought that it was a fix anyway, as winning gave a unit confidence and self belief, as I remember some of the marking decisions were to say a little dubious.

United Kingdom Land Forces Observation Post (UKLF OP)

The UKLF OP Competition is a two or three day exercise for OP troops (6 to 8 men). I did this for a number of years, but it was tough. The competition tests your strength, endurance, stamina and technical ability in a number of military areas such as first aid, navigation, mine clearance, the rules of war, aircraft and vehicle identification, military doctrine of various armies, and survival techniques. Once the two or three day competition starts sleep is a thing of the past. You'll go over obstacle courses, run miles in full kit over orienteering courses, fire unfamiliar weapons, set booby traps and try and find those which the people in front have left for you, go on forced marches with 5 gallon jerry cans - full of course - strapped to your back and then be asked to identify what type of tank is in the woods 200 yards in front of you, when all you can see is the first couple of feet of its gun barrel.

An instructor there exlined it to me one year. The only real pressure they can put on you is time, so everything is timed. An artillery fire plan could take hours to plan proerply, they limit the time the team is allowed to produce one to less than half an hour in Invertron. Somone on Arse summed it up prefectly:

A favourite of the UKLF OP competition, OP parties would be forced to crawl into a 'hole' constructed solely from classroom desks and be forced to conduct their Fire Mission by staring out a small letter box whilst a SMIG would jump up and down on the desk, letting off the odd Smoke Grenade and playing old WW2 soundtracks whilst white blobs representing the Russian Third Shock Army would slowly approach you on the screen.

Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race

I joined 266 (GVA) Bty (V) on 31 August 1982, shortly after I was sat in "The Gunner's Arms" when Sergeant Dyer asked if anyone present would like to try their hand at the Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race. Not many people volunteered, but I did. When asked why, I said it was just to see if I could. We trained hard all through that winter and Easter 1983 saw myself as the "front man" and Lt. Peter Randall as my partner, on the Kennet and Avon Canal at Devizes ready to go. The training was hard but the race was harder. By the time we reached the first portage, 15 miles from the start, I could no longer feel my fingers, and my arms felt as if they were about to fall off. I began to wonder how we were going to cope with the rest of the race, all 110 miles and 75 locks of it. We were about to find out. Our support crew was great, they fed us, gave us encouragement, shouted at and bullied us. Exactly what a good support team should do.

Fifty four miles after we started we were at Reading and on the Thames. The support team were worried, we had to be at Teddington Lock and be on the tidal part of the Thames with the ebbing tide, that was another fifty four miles away and time was running out. More bullying. All we wanted to do was sleep. We reached Teddington, and I've got to admit we were knackered. We'd started out paddling hard, enjoying the scenery and nattering. By now we were hardly speaking, except to say "Paddle harder you stupid, lazy ****" to each other.

Most of the race is a blur but a couple of incidents stand out vividly about that first race. At one of the locks Peter fell heavily down the hard concrete steps. Luckily it was one of the ones where our support crew were able to get to us. I remember standing exhausted on the steps while a crowd of people gathered around Peter making sure he hadn't hurt himself. One of the support crew, a Captain, arrived and shouted at Peter to get back up and into the canoe. The looks on the people's faces were a sight to see. They couldn't believe that someone could be that heartless. As for me, I really was hoping that Peter had either badly injured himself or was dead, that way I wouldn't have had to get back into the canoe and it wouldn't be my fault if we couldn't continue.

At one of the longer portages we saw a crowd of people standing around on the towpath. As we got up to them we could see that they were gathered around someone who looked unconscious. Not stopping, we asked what was wrong with him, they said that it was probably exhaustion. We just said "Oh, that's unlucky" and carried on running with that dead weight of a canoe on our shoulders. A couple of times later in the race I think we were pretty close to being in the same state ourselves.

Once over Teddington Lock we knew we only had seventeen miles left to go. Those seventeen miles were all a daze to me. Peter and I went all out to reach Westminster Bridge, we wanted out of the canoe and to be on land. We charged down the Thames whooping, shouting and charging past anything and everything. Westminster Bridge loomed into view through the night and we used the last of our strength and paddled even faster. I still remember Peter saying that if I steered us past the proper area, near the steps, where people were waiting to help us he'd overturn the canoe and we'd have to swim to shore. After we crashed into the steps it was such a relief to get out of the canoe. A couple of people reached down to get the canoe out of the water and I warned them it was bit smelly. We had after all, been in the stupid thing for over a day and there was all sorts of liquids in it. They just looked up, said it was all right as they were used to it, and we stumbled up the steps to the competitors area.

Our support crew were already there to greet us. Someone produced a bottle of champagne, and even though I really was too tired to care I took a drink. Next came the unpleasant business of getting out of our wet clothes and into something dry and warm. I think it was probably then that I realised I could hardly move my arms and my fingers not at all. Looking around I saw that Peter was having the same trouble at undressing as I was. In the end we had to be undressed and redressed by our support crew, something that they probably didn't dream that they'd end up doing. We were bundled into sleeping bags in the back of an army four ton lorry and headed for home.

I can't remember when we were told our time for the race. Out of all the senior canoe teams that had started, a third had to pull out of the race and never finished. That's about average for the DW. Over the course we'd eaten several thousand calories, mostly in the form of glucose. It was a week before I could even feel my hands and nearly a month before I could feel my fingertips. I was beginning to get a bit worried about that, I thought I'd permanently damaged them. Our time for the race? A very respectful, exact 37 hours, which meant our average speed was a measly 3.38 miles an hour. Our support crew had timed us and for short spurts we were able to get up to a fast 8 miles an hour.

That first race was hard, and I've no idea why I competed in subsequent years. Competed is too strong a word, in the half dozen or so races I took part in, we stood no chance whatsoever of being front runners. The race has been described as the "hardest regularly held endurance canoe race in the world" and anyone who knows anything about it knows that even finishing is an achievement in itself. The races I did manage to finish I never did in less than 30 hours. Twice we had to pull out of the competition. Once when we hit something under the water and holed the canoe so badly it couldn't be repaired and and once when the steering mechanism fell apart and couldn't be fixed within the rules of the race. Although it's a long hard race, both times I ended up leaping around in frustration.

Most of our training took place through the winter. Here's what happened during one training session. We'd being paddling along for a couple of hours. Looking at my hands on the paddle I could see that where the water had run down the shaft my little and ring fingers of both hands were covered in ice. I'd long since lost any feeling in my hands, but that wasn't anything new to me anyway, It was something that seemed peculiar to me and something that I had gotten used to. A few miles further on I realised that the canoe was covered in white stuff and so was all my clothing. I remember thinking that it was alright and that it was only salt. It took several more miles of paddling before it struck me that we were on a canal and that canal's are full of fresh water, not brine. Several miles further on we reached a lock, as soon as I got out of the canoe I fell over and stayed there. My team mate dragged me to my feet and made me run around. Something that I really didn't want to do. Shortly after the support team turned up, wrapped me up in a space blanket, put me in a sleeping bag and took me away suffering with mild hypothermia.

Some lock and weir systems are pretty confusing and we carry diagrams of some of the trickier ones so we can get through them. One night we got out at one on the wrong bank. Stumbling around we realised we were on an island, so we dragged ourselves to the other side and got back in. If there's a lock keeper reading this who remembers his garden being wrecked one night in 1986 or 1987, I'm sorry to say that it was probably me and my mate.

Even with the help of the diagrams we managed to mess ourselves up a couple of times during the training sessions, especially in the dark. Like the time we got back in at the wrong place and ended up paddling around, miles from where we were supposed to be in a two foot deep stream. Or the time we got ourselves onto the wrong waterway. Paddling away I could see a low tunnel, we pass through a couple of them on the race and so weren't too worried. As the front of the canoe entered I could see something stretched across from wall to wall. Shouting out a warning I ducked, luckily so did my team mate, which was just as well as some lunatic had stretched barbed wire across the tunnel.

It was because of the DW that I learnt to swim. That first race I was in I neglected to tell anybody that I couldn't. The year after we were required to do a swimming test which I failed miserably. I got both my 100 and 800 metre certificates in time for the next race. But little did they know that the only reason I managed to pass both tests was because I swallowed so much water I walked most of the way.

Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race

When I startd the canoe racing I had no idea the Bty had been competing in the race for years.

Sources and Resources

Derek Driscoll's original pages

King George the Fifth Cup
King George Fifth Cup, Otterburn ranges, Northumberland

Other Information

Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race
Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race Results
Devizes-Westminster Canoe Race 1978
Devizes-Westminster Canoe Race 1979
Invertron (Arse)
The National Artillery Association 1863–2014
The National Artillery Association: An abridged history 1963 to 2023