IRON STORM 23 Utilises Europe’s Largest Urban Warfare Site
British troops have been training in Germany as part of Exercise IRON STORM 23. The 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Battle Group are the first full British battalion to train at the German Gefechtsübungszentrum Heer (Army Combat Training Center). Abbreviated to GÜZ H, the centre is located in Schnöggersburg, East Germany and has been an active training facility since 2021.
Alongside the Royal Welsh phase 3 of IRON STORM 23 also brings together elements of the 26 Engineer Regiment, 19 Royal Artillery with support from Challenger 2 tanks from Ajax Squadron of the Royal Tank Regiment. The OPFOR consists of B Company, 1st battalion Mercian Regiment from the UK and a German Attack Force.
The 900 man battlegroup has been conducting a series of live fire exercises and manoeuvres at several sites across Germany in order to ensure that the British Army can continue to integrate with its NATO allies. Their task is to liberate and then defend GÜZ H from its occupiers. The German training centre is built to mimic typical German towns and surrounding areas.
Lance Corporal Toby Kearns of Ajax Squadron told BFBS News: ‘They’ve even built like a river going through it, bridges to cross. Apparently, they have an underground as well, which is just fantastic,” he continued “there are tall buildings, some of them six storeys high, and you’re looking up at these buildings wondering if someone’s going to be there with an anti-tank weapon.’
GÜZ H, part of the German Army’s Altmark Training Area, covers 2.5 square miles, comprises over 500 buildings and has a permanent OPFOR consisting of a armoured infantry company equipped with Leopard 2 tanks. The commander of the UK’s Combat Ready Training Center (Germany), Lieutenant Colonel Andy Husband, said this of the centre:
‘If you remember the television programme The Crystal Maze it’s a bit like that.The size of the village plus that everything from an airport to rural communities to new and old German villages. All that combined into one allows you then really to be tested.’
IRON STORM has been underway since late August and concludes this month.