With around 50,000 personnel deployable at any one time, it looks increasingly like Exercise Lionheart might be the last time the British Army ever trains on such scale. The British Armed Forces don’t have the numbers to replicate something on this scale today. It was the same size as if the entire population of Gloucester packed their bags and decided to invade Europe.Īnd, as you can imagine, with anything of this scale, accidents did happen, three British soldiers died and seven were seriously injured. The logistics were unlike anything seen today from the British Military. Providing the opposition, there was a force of more than 10,000 – made up of German, Dutch, American and Commonwealth personnel. The RAF deployed Harriers into the field and operated the newly introduced Tornado aircraft – which only retired from active service this year. The exercise also involved 13,000 Royal Air Force personnel. This was then followed up with 150 sailings across the North Sea and the English Channel using civilian ferries - these carried 23,600 personnel with 14,000 vehicles and trailers. The total of 290 flights left the UK transporting 32,000 personnel. The MOD chartered civilian aircraft and ferries to move over 50,000 personnel into Germany. In fact, Exercise Lionheart involved a massive 131,565 UK personnel - regular, reserve and Territorial Army. It was known as Exercise Lionheart and was the biggest ever British Army exercise and biggest mobilisation since the Second World War.
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