#268441 - 03/21/14 05:28 PM
Norway too cold for Brits?
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Veteran
Registered: 08/31/11
Posts: 1233
Loc: Alaska
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Brrrr! Norway Is Too Cold for British Troops“British officers have said that they do not want to train with large divisions in Porsanger, where the temperature drops to 25 degrees below zero,” said Lt. Col. Trond Thomassen, commander of Norway’s Allied Training Centre in Porsangmoen, told Norwegian-language Finnmarks Dagblad.
That’s minus 25 degrees Celsius, or minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The British have rules for health and safety,” Thomassen told Finnmarks Dagblad, whose article was translated by the English-language Norwegian paper The Local.
--------------snip----------------
The U.S. Army does not appear quite so delicate. The Army conducts Arctic training at the Northern Warfare Training Center at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska.
“The winter temps in November to February average around minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit, with lows around minus 45. But minus 65 not uncommon,” an officer at the school told War is Boring. “We train our students throughout the winter outside.”
_________________________
"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more."
-Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz
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#268443 - 03/21/14 05:34 PM
Re: Norway too cold for Brits?
[Re: AKSAR]
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Enthusiast
Registered: 02/01/14
Posts: 310
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It might put a damper on their tea time, don't you know?
Edited by Deathwind (03/21/14 05:35 PM)
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#268450 - 03/21/14 06:58 PM
Re: Norway too cold for Brits?
[Re: AKSAR]
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Old Hand
Registered: 09/12/01
Posts: 960
Loc: Saskatchewan, Canada
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Brrrr! Norway Is Too Cold for British Troops“British officers have said that they do not want to train with large divisions in Porsanger, where the temperature drops to 25 degrees below zero,” said Lt. Col. Trond Thomassen, commander of Norway’s Allied Training Centre in Porsangmoen, told Norwegian-language Finnmarks Dagblad.
That’s minus 25 degrees Celsius, or minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The British have rules for health and safety,” Thomassen told Finnmarks Dagblad, whose article was translated by the English-language Norwegian paper The Local.
--------------snip----------------
The U.S. Army does not appear quite so delicate. The Army conducts Arctic training at the Northern Warfare Training Center at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska.
“The winter temps in November to February average around minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit, with lows around minus 45. But minus 65 not uncommon,” an officer at the school told War is Boring. “We train our students throughout the winter outside.”
Interesting, since the Brits regularily come to Canada to train at CFB Suffield (outside Medicine Hat, Alberta). They've been coming for years. Even Prince Harry trained there a few years back with his chopter because it was good prep for Afgahnistan.
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#268454 - 03/21/14 07:35 PM
Re: Norway too cold for Brits?
[Re: AKSAR]
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Old Hand
Registered: 03/03/09
Posts: 745
Loc: NC
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As previously stated -
Jan, 1980, -69 degrees F, Fort Greeley, AK. And we trained in it. Of course, daylight was from about 0900 to 1500, more or less. The average temp for the two weeks we spent out in the field was -20 something. We came in, refitted and did a shorter field exercise and it almost broke 0. Coming back to NC was fun, we were in shorts and t-shirts doing PT while the rest of the division was in sweats.
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#268464 - 03/21/14 09:26 PM
Re: Norway too cold for Brits?
[Re: AKSAR]
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Veteran
Registered: 03/31/06
Posts: 1355
Loc: United Kingdom.
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Nonsense.
Oh and by the way:
At minus 20 you can fight.
At minus 25 it is becoming iffy.
At minus 30 all fighting stops because your too busy trying to survive.
Also, unlike some I could name, the British Army has a Duty of Care when it comes to the lives of its Men and British Health & Safety Legislation is there for a reason. It's there to make an Employer, which the British Army is, exercise due caution and keeps them accountable. If a British Soldier dies on exercise in peace time we want to know who, what and why.
British Officers are not Cowards, or soft, which is what you seem to be implying.
_________________________
I don't do dumb & helpless.
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#268465 - 03/21/14 10:00 PM
Re: Norway too cold for Brits?
[Re: AKSAR]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 11/09/06
Posts: 2851
Loc: La-USA
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I've never known a Brit to be cowardly or soft in my limited experience with the Brits, or any member of the Common Wealth. The quote did come off that way to me though.
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like the Chief's Mess on Her Majesty's Ships.
_________________________
QMC, USCG (Ret)
The best luck is what you make yourself!
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#268466 - 03/21/14 10:21 PM
Re: Norway too cold for Brits?
[Re: Leigh_Ratcliffe]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/03/07
Posts: 3078
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British Officers are not Cowards, or soft, which is what you seem to be implying Seeing Officer Harvard ((might have been someone else), with a paper cut on his finger after catching it on a ration pack screaming for a Medic, whilst training in the field at Sandhurst, well you can't really make across the board statements.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5njAp0-zN4Officer Harvard at the end of the video, I can't find the paper cut incident clip.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTdlU0rAIFg  Today, these 'born leaders' seem to have gone soft and they are not exactly the sharpest tools in the box.
Edited by Am_Fear_Liath_Mor (03/21/14 11:04 PM)
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#268476 - 03/22/14 01:54 PM
Re: Norway too cold for Brits?
[Re: AKSAR]
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Veteran
Registered: 10/14/08
Posts: 1517
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I have done some very good cold weather training with the British Army, and they were good at it, but that was a long time ago. They believe in wool, as do I, but it was a time before polypro was so common.
When in the U.S. Army, we did training in Alaska in -50 F, no training was cancelled. That is also when I learned that bears do not truly hibernate!
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#268478 - 03/22/14 03:01 PM
Re: Norway too cold for Brits?
[Re: AKSAR]
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Veteran
Registered: 08/31/11
Posts: 1233
Loc: Alaska
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I wasn't trying to imply that Brits are wimps (well OK, maybe a little, only in jest  ). I was a bit surprised by the article, and posted the link for comment.
_________________________
"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more."
-Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz
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#268481 - 03/22/14 10:33 PM
Re: Norway too cold for Brits?
[Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
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Veteran
Registered: 03/31/06
Posts: 1355
Loc: United Kingdom.
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British Officers are not Cowards, or soft, which is what you seem to be implying Seeing Officer Harvard ((might have been someone else), with a paper cut on his finger after catching it on a ration pack screaming for a Medic, whilst training in the field at Sandhurst, well you can't really make across the board statements. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5njAp0-zN4Officer Harvard at the end of the video, I can't find the paper cut incident clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTdlU0rAIFg Today, these 'born leaders' seem to have gone soft and they are not exactly the sharpest tools in the box. See you don't have much experience with papercuts. They can be disproportionately painful relative to the actual damage they inflict. I've had PC's that have made it difficult to impossible to hold things. One other point worth considering is that a cut in the field needs to be dealt with immediately. Unless you really want to experience sepicemia or tetanus up close and personal.
_________________________
I don't do dumb & helpless.
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