{"id":13202,"date":"2013-05-24T16:15:55","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T16:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=5faecf3887eae46f7f1b087d8536281f"},"modified":"2013-05-24T16:15:55","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T16:15:55","slug":"news-story-regular-and-reserve-soldiers-train-together-in-cyprus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=13202","title":{"rendered":"News story: Regular and Reserve soldiers train together in Cyprus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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During their visit, some soldiers took time to lay wreaths at the graves of those lost in an almost forgotten colonial conflict. <\/p>\n

Exercise Lion Star involved 120 troops from The Royal Welsh\u2019s Regular 1st Battalion (1 R WELSH<\/abbr>) and the reservist 3rd Battalion (3 R WELSH<\/abbr>) split into 3 platoons. The soldiers had to negotiate and deal with enemy fire while manoeuvring over 2 kilometres of undulating hillside near the Episkopi coast.<\/p>\n

A few injuries<\/h3>\n

Lieutenant Colonel Rob Manuel, Commanding Officer 3 R Welsh, said the 2-week tour was an illustration of future exercises when Regular and Reserve troops become more closely integrated:<\/p>\n

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This has been a hugely successful overseas exercise in testing climatic conditions which has stretched the soldiers and officers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

They have had to use all their basic skills in the field to make the most of the build-up to the final battle attack, especially when faced with vastly changeable weather which has gone from temperatures in the mid-30 degrees to heavy rain and forceful winds.<\/p>\n

I have seen a distinct progression in the level of our training which will be built upon later in the autumn with our live-firing exercise in Sennybridge. Our time in Brecon will further enhance this training and sharpen the soldiers\u2019 skills.<\/p>\n

The smooth integration of the Regular and Reserve soldiers has been of particular note. We had one platoon from 1 R Welsh joining a company of Reservists. There has been a flow, both ways, of knowledge and the collective experience has been to benefit of both.<\/p>\n

We had a few injuries in the testing conditions and over the difficult terrain which accounted for a small number of soldiers being treated for damaged ankles, but nothing serious.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"A<\/div>
A soldier from The Royal Welsh Regiment during Exercise Lion Star 3 in Cyprus [Picture: Sergeant Russ Nolan, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fusilier Vivian Uphill KIA<\/h3>\n

Once the final battle attack had been completed, Lieutenant Colonel Manuel and Regimental Sergeant Major Vic Hughes travelled up to Nicosia to visit Wayne\u2019s Keep \u2013 the British military cemetery.<\/p>\n

Wayne\u2019s Keep is situated just to the north of the old Nicosia International Airport which, since 1974 and the Turkish military action, has been a United Nations Protected Area in the buffer zone that divides the island. Visitors need UN permission and have to be escorted.<\/p>\n

The cemetery not only contains the graves of casualties of the Second World War, but also the graves of some of those who died during the EOKA<\/abbr> campaign of the 1950s, and Service personnel and their dependents who died while serving with the British garrison. There are nearly 800 graves in the cemetery<\/p>\n

One such soldier buried there is Fusilier Vivian Uphill, aged 20, who was killed in an ambush in 1958 during the Cyprus Emergency (1955-59) when Greek Cypriot fighters from EOKA<\/abbr> (which is a Greek acronym translated as the National Organisation of Cypriot Struggle) launched attacks on the British Army and military bases and targets in a bid to force it from the Mediterranean island.<\/p>\n

Fusilier Uphill was from Flintshire and served in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, which preceded The Royal Welsh.<\/p>\n

Sergeant Major Hughes, aged 44, from Penmaenmawr in North Wales, has a personal link to Fusilier Uphill. He said:<\/p>\n

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I have a family connection as my father (also named Vic) served with and knew Fusilier Uphill.<\/p>\n

He was in the firing party at his funeral, and I feel there is a duty to lay a wreath at the grave of a North Wales soldier killed in action.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"Warrant<\/div>
Regimental Sergeant Major Warrant Officer Class 1 Vic Hughes lays a wreath at the grave of Fusilier Vivian Uphill at Wayne’s Keep cemetery [Picture: Sergeant Russ Nolan, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pay our respects<\/h3>\n

The father-of-two has twice before visited the fusilier\u2019s grave on previous Royal Welsh exercises in Cyprus, on the first occasion alongside his father in 2008. He said:<\/p>\n

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I think it is important that if we have cap badges in this cemetery that we go and pay our respects to the fallen.<\/p>\n

I have arranged the repatriation of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and I know what it means to the men to ensure they do their duty because it means so much to their families.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A wreath was also laid at the graves of 2 other Welsh soldiers whose remains are buried there \u2013 Private James Gould, aged 22, of The Welch Regiment, who was also killed in the EOKA<\/abbr> campaign, and Private JT Northcote, aged 19, of the South Wales Borderers, who died in 1947 from injuries he suffered during the Second World War.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soldiers from The Royal Welsh Regiment’s Regular and Reserve battalions have been in Cyprus on a major 2-week training exercise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}