AIRBORNE gunners were put through their paces in a series of competitions to see who came out on top.

Colchester-based 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery held a gun detachment competition testing the skills as both soldiers and gunners of the six-man teams who each fire the light guns.

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On a gruelling day-long circuit around ranges in Norfolk, the gun detachments were tested on their navigation, radio skills, rigging a vehicle to be carried as an underslung load by a helicopter and the theory and drills of gunnery. The final test saw troops race against the clock to bring their gun into action, carry out a simulated fire mission and then limber the gun up to its Pinzgauer towing vehicle.

The contest took place at the end of Exercise Mercer's Thunder & Lightning which was about refreshing and reinforcing the soldiers' basic skills as 7 Para RHA returns to work after the easing of coronavirus restrictions.

Gazette:

Battery training officer Lte Phil Tombs said: “Running a competition is about building up team cohesion in the gun detachments, putting a bit of pressure on them.

"We want our gunners to be on top of their technical skills and able to deliver at speed - because that’s what they need to do on operations.

“This exercise has been about getting back out into the field.

"While working from home we were able to do a lot of remote learning covering the theoretical side of the job this is about putting our skills into practice again.

"We’ve also had a lot of new soldiers join us in the last few months, and this is helping them to bed in.”

Among the new intake is gunner Harry Dixon, 17 from New Moston in Manchester.

“I came to the unit in March and a few days later we were sent home on lockdown,” he said. “

We did a lot of video lessons and I trained hard to keep my fitness up, but it’s really good to get out on the gun.

"Three of us in my detachment are new, but we’re gelling together well.

"Having a competition has helped - working under pressure almost makes the job easier, because you don’t have time to think about what you’re doing, you just get on with it.”