KOYLI photos History, Remembrance
Les :
This is so funny, A lovely little dog called Pippin, It starts with pippin just being weaned from his mum and brought up by his new mum Pauline.
He is the star of this video created by my mate Eric, The song brings it all together
Les :
Bikers are often denigrated due to bad press in the past, But surely on this occasion they will be praised
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Crowds gather to show their support as bikers take part in a mass motorcycle ride through Wootton BassettAround 15,000 bikers have roared through a market town on Mothering Sunday to honour troops killed in Afghanistan in the biggest ride of its kind.
Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire has come to represent the nation in paying respect to fallen soldiers as they are repatriated back to the UK.
Hundreds line the high street in silence for each funeral cortege that passes through the town on its way from RAF Lyneham to the coroner in Oxford.
Crowds gathered along the High Street to hear the roar of over 10,000 motor bikers with about 5,000 pillion passengers pass the war memorial on route.
The ride, believed to the biggest of its kind, has raised more than £100,000 so far for the charity Afghan Heroes.
Wootton Bassett Mayor Steve Bucknell said: “The vast majority of the people of the town fully support what the bikers are doing today.
“Too many times the town has had to stand still in silence but today is all about noise and movement.”
Laurence Phillips from Afghan Heroes said the event gathered pace after being posted on social networking site Facebook.
“It’s quite a staggering spectacle and an unbelievable show of support for the troops in Afghanistan and a mark of respect for the town of Wootton Bassett,” he said
Les :
I hope this rifleman get’s a medal, He deserves one -
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The MoD give more details of the rifleman’s actions in
throwing a live Taliban granade back at the enemy, saving the
lives of his Platoon Commander and onother soldier.
While under fire from the enemy, a soldier from 3 RIFLES
recently picked up a live Taliban hand grenade and threw it
back at them in an attempt to save himself and his comrades.
Rifleman James McKie from Recce Platoon, 3rd Battalion The
Rifles (3 RIFLES), was under fire from three directions when
the hand grenade hit his Platoon Commander and landed at his
feet. He said:
“My first thought was I hope this doesn’t hurt too much. That,
and I’ve really only got one chance to do this. If it fails,
either way, doing nothing, I’m going to get the same amount of
hurt. So I picked it up and threw it off the roof.”
The actions of Rifleman McKie helped to save the lives of his
commander and one other soldier who were engaging the enemy in
a fire fight from a compound roof in the Sangin area of
Helmand province. He continued:
“The fire was disciplined and accurate. I managed to spot one
of the firing points and I engaged with my GPMG [general
purpose machine gun] to suppress the enemy.
“After a few minutes they stopped firing and we continued
observing to the east. It must have been no more than five
minutes and then I heard what sounded like a mini-flare come
from our right where I knew there were none of our guys, so I
thought this was really unusual.
“It was actually the fly-off lever of a grenade that had been
thrown from the alleyway below.”
Rifleman McKie sustained fragmentation injuries to his right
arm and face as the grenade exploded mid-air, close to where
he stood.
Fragmentation also hit his Platoon Commander, Captain Graeme
Kerr, who sustained injuries to his leg and is recovering at
Selly Oak Hospital in the UK:
“We were in a high position on a compound roof. There was no
way you could throw yourself off and not get injured, so I
made a decision to pick up the grenade and throw it off the
roof,” said Rifleman McKie.
“And I threw it quite deliberately. I tried to throw it
properly, to clear the roof. I didn’t want to do it half-arsed
and have them throw it back at us or anything like that.
“I remember thinking that if I didn’t pull this off, it was
going to hurt. But at that stage I was pretty much committed.
“My platoon has taken a lot of casualties. I really didn’t
want to see anyone else get hurt. So I committed to that
course of action.
“It was dropping down into the alleyway before it detonated.
As I continued to watch it, as you are trained to, I received
fragmentation in my face and right arm. Because of the way
Captain Kerr was positioned, he got a larger piece of
fragmentation in his left leg, but otherwise no-one else was
seriously hurt.”
Rifleman McKie then threw smoke to cover their withdrawal and
with Captain Kerr and his section, withdrew, firing and
manoeuvring until they reached the safety of another compound.
Captain Kerr was immediately evacuated by helicopter, but
Rifleman McKie was able to continue in his duties until the
following day when he was evacuated to Camp Bastion, despite
his protests to stay:
“In retrospect, people keep telling me how brave I am, which
I’m slightly embarrassed about,” he said.
“I’d like to think that anyone in that situation would have
done the same or something similar because you can’t just sit
there and let yourself or other people get hurt.
“I don’t feel particularly brave. I thought, ‘I have to do
this to survive’. Not just for myself but for the guys around
me as well. I’m not expecting anything from them, I don’t want
any thanks from them, I just don’t want them to get hurt.”
Rifleman McKie joined the British Army only recently, having
previously served in the New Zealand Army:
“I love soldiering,” he said. “I love being here in
Afghanistan. Obviously bad things happen and I can’t go back
and change it, but what I can do is try and stop things
happening around me.
“As far as the military experience goes, this is the ultimate
for a career soldier.”
Control of a key town in southern Afghanistan, twice captured by British troops and where 23 were killed, is to be handed over to the US marines, it has been announced.
Five hundred British soldiers based in Musa Qala, in northern Helmand, will be redeployed further south to join most of the UK’s remaining 10,000 troops in the province, Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, told MPs.
However, 800 British troops will remain in Sangin, described by British commanders today as one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan. Six British soldiers have been killed there since the beginning of March, some as a result of what military sources called “increasing accuracy” in small arms fire by Taliban fighters.
Military spokesman Major General Gordon Messenger described Sangin as a place which “matters to the Taliban” as an important transit route, near a major poppy route and a narcotics region.
He described the district as “one of the most enduring problems in Helmand”. The Taliban were intimidating the population at night and British and Afghan troops are manning 30 patrol bases and checkpoints.
Messenger said it was possible that responsibility for Sangin could also be handed over to the US, though defence sources said that was extremely unlikely.
Musa Qala was taken by British forces in early 2006. In October that year, the British moved out after an agreement, pressed on them by the Karzai government in Kabul, with tribal elders. In February 2007 the Taliban took over the town. In December that year it was reclaimed by British troops, supported by Afghan forces, after a fierce battle.
Defence officials said today that the 500 British troops still there will be redeployed to “thicken and deepen” the British presence in central Helmand, closer to areas where thousands have been engaged in Operation Moshtarak with US and Afghan troops.
British troops currently make up 30% of the military force in Helmand, but are responsible for the security of 70% of the region’s population, a state of affairs that has been described by British commanders as nonsensical. The 10,000 British troops in the province include some 500 special forces.
Lieutenant Colonel Harry Fullerton, commander of a Household Cavalry-led battlegroup, said today “We didn’t take over a disaster at the beginning, we took over a market system which was starting to be successful. We have seen the market enlarge. We have about 1,200 stall holders in the bazaar. It hasn’t been without its cost but it has been a cost worth making.”
Messenger said British troops were handing over “a going concern, a success story”. He said Nato commanders were considering transferring other parts of Helmand, including Kajaki, to US forces.
Monday, March 08, 2010
The soldier husband of a heavily pregnant woman who was seriously injured in a “car bomb” attack in a Kent village has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Nicholas Fabian, 32, a former army bomb expert in the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment, was being questioned on suspicion over the incident in which Victoria Fabian is believed to have suffered horrendous leg injuries, in Vigo, near Meopham.
The couple’s two sons Charlie, 10, and Harry, four, were in a nearby car, but escaped unharmed. Army bomb disposal experts examined two cars at the scene of the blast, which occurred on Friday lunchtime. Residents were evacuated from 40 nearby homes.
Victoria Fabian, aged in her 30s, was last night understood to be receiving treatment in Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford, and is expected to be transferred to the Royal London Hospital for specialist skin graft treatment.
Doctors believe her unborn child, due in three months, is unharmed. Residents described hearing a loud thud, feeling the ground shudder and seeing smoke rising from the communal car park where Victoria Fabian’s vehicle was parked.
A spokesman for Kent police said the bomb disposal team had been brought in as a “precautionary measure”, to check there was no hazard before forensics teams moved in. An emergency shelter was set up at the village hall for people evacuated from their homes.
The police cordon had last night been reduced and all but eight houses could be accessed. A stretch of Highview, a road in Vigo, remained sealed off, together with adjoining alleyways. Police forensic examiners were carrying out a detailed investigation of the car, and a thorough examination of the scene.
The temporary shelter was manned by staff from Kent county council, Gravesham borough council and voluntary organisations including the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
Kent police said it wanted to thank the community of Vigo for its “patience and support”. Nicholas Fabian left the army in 2003, but is thought to have been recently recalled for service in Afghanistan. Witnesses described how he pulled his wife from the blazing wreckage of her car.
Onlookers tried to staunch the bleeding from her wounds with T-shirts and towels. Vincent Redman, 17, said: “The explosion was massive. It was so loud – it almost blew my windows out.”
Les Say’s :
I first met Sjt Dougie Blake in the early 1962 in Terendak camp, where The KOYLI were stationed, He kindly gave me and my mate Reg Pott’s a lift to Singapore in his car, Which was a large open topped chrysler, never seen a car like it, Very expensive and very luxurious.
Reg and I were looking forward to our two week stay in Singapore, We were young wanting to enjoy the Asian experience in a city which we were told had many wonderful experiences ??
I have completed a simple page for Dougie KOYLI friend’s and his family, here is Dougie in a photograph taken in the late 50’s in Hilden, Germany
To see the Remembrance obituary click on this link
Take Care
Les
Hi
A mate of mine was saying how much he enjoyed reading the KOYLI Bugle journals which brought back memories, As I was selected by the Bugle platoon to be the scribe arghh
Here I am in Brunei in the early 60s 22 yrs of age, All innocence
I wrote back to my mate a laugh i had recalling those times
” The bugle journals are great – i remember writing in them for the buglers in the 60s, I was called in once or twice by the cantankerous KOYLI editor the of the bugle, he was the Regiments padre, if any bits were related to sex (lads enjoying the fruits of the local towns ‘perempuan jahat’s’ in borneo / brunei) i would be given an earful and a red pen marker through my initial draft)”
Ah Well — When you are young, We enjoyed our KOYLI life abroad
Cede Nullis
Hi
Let’s HOPE this is NOT typical — Arhh, ‘Without his rifle’ ?
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The hero who became the 261st Brit soldier killed in Afghanistan complained about being sent on patrol with no rifle, The Sun shockingly reveals.
Sapper Guy Mellors, 20 – blown up as he searched for Taliban roadside bombs – told pals back in the UK just days earlier he wanted to quit the Army because of kit shortages.
Grief-stricken best mate Gio Dainty, 20, said: “He told me he never had enough equipment like other units who had better kit and were better protected.
“On one occasion they even sent him out without a rifle. He told me he was always looking for bombs with his hands.
“He said he never felt valued and people above him didn’t care. By the end of it he just wanted to come home.”
Guy, who was in 36 Engineer Regiment, was serving with the Counter-Improvised Explosives Device Taskforce when he died.
His commanding officer Lt Col Gareth Bex hailed him as “fearless”.
Devastated mum Linda said: “He will always be our hero.” Guy, of Coventry, and Gio were planning to get digs together when he left the Army to train as a fitness instructor.
Gio, a semi-pro footballer, said: “The last time I heard from him was on Facebook the day he died.
“He wanted to serve his country but once he got out there reality hit home.
“When one of his best mates died a couple of weeks ago I think that made up his mind.
“Once he stood on a landmine but it didn’t go off. He couldn’t move. As you can imagine he was absolutely cr***ing it. When he was doing the job he just got his head down and did it. But after that he said, ‘I’m getting out of here’.” The rifle scandal comes after The Sun told this month how soldiers were being sent to the frontline with outdated body armour.
They had already been left short of sand-coloured camouflage shirts – forcing them to wear green. A scathing report by MPs only months ago slammed the supply chain of military kit as “creaking”.
Last night the MoD insisted: “Service personnel cannot deploy to theatre without a personal weapon and would never be sent on patrol without it.”
RAF experts eavesdropped on radio traffic in Afghanistan — and heard Taliban fighters speaking in Brummie and Yorkshire accents.
The voices were detected during top secret spy-in-the-sky surveillance missions over lawless Helmand province.
The revelation proves that growing numbers of British-born Muslims are moving to Afghanistan to fight along side the Taliban.
The conversations were overheard and recorded recently by RAF radio operator linguists on board Nimrod planes in the region, it was revealed yesterday.
The Taliban spoke mainly in Afghan Persian or Pashto — but occasionally lapsed into their home language.
Senior RAF sources said that at those points they spoke in “plain English” with distinctive “Bradford and West Bromwich accents”.
A source said: “The mission specialists could easily jam the Taliban transmissions — but the RAF believes listening in to their plans is much more productive.
“It was quite startling to hear English being spoken with clear Bradford and West Brom accents.
“They reverted to English when they couldn’t remember the Afghan Persian or Pashto — the two local languages — for certain words.”
Three specially-converted Nimrods normally based at RAF Waddington, Lincs, with 51 Squadron, are being used as radio snoopers.
The unit is manned by hand-picked specialists who speak numerous languages and fly in the planes at more than 40,000ft.
They are also trained to operate the highly sensitive electronic surveillance kit, known as “The Package”.
The Nimrods can not only detect and record radio messages, but often listen in to other conversations too.
General Sir Antony Walker, former deputy chief of the defence staff, said: “We seem to have confirmation that fanatical jihadists from Britain are working on the frontline of the war in Afghanistan.
“Eavesdropping seldom has a good image.
“But let’s hope the perseverance and dedication of our listeners-in-the-sky continues to save the lives of our men and women.”
The Ministry of Defence said in a statement: “The Nimrod R1 operated by No 51 Squadron has a highly sophisticated and sensitive suite of systems used for reconnaissance and gathering electronic intelligence.
“However, due to operational security, we are unable to discuss its operations.”
JOHOR BARU: Unlike previous Valentine’s Days when couples would get themselves hitched in mass weddings, many Chinese are avoiding marriage this coming Year of the Tiger.
Most Chinese couples believe that Valentine’s Day, which coincides with the first day of the lunar new year on Feb 14, will not be a good date for marriage as it represents anger, argument and conflict.
Johor Baru Tiong Hua Association manager Eric Ku said it would usually have 30 couples registered to be married in a mass wedding three weeks before Valentine’s Day on other years but time, it only had 12 couples.
“Last year, 40 couples were married in our mass wedding.
“We are only targeting 20 couples this year and it will be a small ceremony due to the dwindling number and the Chinese New Year celebrations,” he told The Star here yesterday.
Ku said most Chinese believed that marrying on Feb 14 this year would doom the union due to the Tiger taking over from the Ox in the zodiac.
“Some also believe that it is not good Feng Shui to be married on that day,” he said, adding that the association would instead organise a mass wedding on Oct 10 this year to take advantage of the auspicious date of 10-10-10.
“According to the lunar calendar, other months besides February are good for marriage.
“We expect at least 50 couples to be involved in the October ceremony,” he said.
Tan Clan Association assistant registrar Angelyn Tan Lian said it had no plan to hold a mass wedding for Valentine’s Day.
“Some 10 couples would usually register their marriage through our association every Valentine’s Day.
“However, there has been no enquiries this year,” she said, adding that the year seemed bleak for marriage and represented a stark contrast to the association’s mass wedding last year, when 99 couples were married on Sept 9.
“Valentine’s Day may be a day for lovers but this year, it seems not to be for weddings,” she said.
