8/6/2019 TACC and Summer Leader

1/3

TACC and Summer Leader

Hopefully the following page or so can help you with a few things. Some of it is general advice and some of it

very specific suitable for various people in certain situations. It is meant as a very informal quick help guide.

Take from it what you will.

Kit

Firstly, on the JIs, there will be a list of optional items. They are not optional you will be fucked withoutthem.

Take a full size ironing board: one each, there will be last minute bullshit ironing to do and if you have to share

with someone else then one of you will get buggered.

Buy your *selvyt* (not sylvette, silvet, silver or any other wrong spelling on the JIs) cloth on ebay a couple of

weeks before. They are not common in shops and you need to shave and wash them (like a beret) so that they

are good for bulling.

Take your laptop and a hefty amount of good dvds. They make bulling and ironing so much easier. Take ones

with plenty of action so theyll keep you awake.

When you get to sandhurst you will be issued with everything. I however found that having most of the stuff inyour car as a back up if some of the stuff is fucked and you cant get it exchanged. Also its v good for if you get

a shitty colour who wants to view your kit the morning after ex looking gleaming as we did.

For summer leader youll be expected to take your own kit. Make sure that youve got everything sorted way in

advance so RQ can get hold of it.

On that note also buy a NI daysack as on my summer leader they didnt get issued but a really very handy so

you dont have to be constantly fucking about with the rocket pouches.

Clothes

Iron EVERYTHINGperfectlybefore you leave and hang it in suit hangers in your car. The first week is pretty

hectic and creased clothes to start with will not help. Itll also reduce the amount of time you have to spend

doing it there so more sleep.

Try and get hold of as many pairs of combats as possible as there arent that many washing machines there so

you wont really have time to wash them. We were told 3 pairs I took 5 and used every pair, including the shit

ones in my bergen.

Ensure you iron your phys rig so that it too has creases down the front of the shorts and on the sleeves (you can

get creases on the sleeves of issue t-shirts if you try hard). Shorts should be short, obviously, mid thigh length

not some of the shit on the knee ones, you will get ripped.

Iron and polish everything before going to bed. So you can literally roll out shave and go to breakfast it

makes things so much easier

Ensure everything you take is well fitting. Having slightly loose fitting combat trousers on an OTC weekend

wont really impair you, however, on longer exercises with a lot of platoon attacks, crawling etc, every little bit

of wrong fittingness tells. They will catch on barbed wire fences and the like making you balls hang out much to

the DS amusement.

You might not get no phone signal inside. If you have to go outside and sit in your car, try not to be seen, the DS

dont like it.

Make sure you dont forget to sign out to go to Tescos. You will get screwed.

Get to dinner, breakfast etc very on time. There often isnt a lot of time to eat. You will learn to eat a 3 course

meal in 5 minutes. Do go to breakfast and dont lie in and eat cerial bars you will miss stuff asthings always

change, also the DS notice, they really do.

Take a couple of tubs of Celebrations; they are a massive morale boost.

8/6/2019 TACC and Summer Leader

2/3

If youre in the same platoon as an OTC mate, try to do your admin etc together most of the time. Its best not to

go to another platoon members room for any real amount of time because it is guaranteed that your platoon

duty student wont be able to find you and youll miss something important (and fuck the plt duty student off)

If youve got time in the evening, go to the bar. If youve got your admin squared then dont be afraid to be

sociable: the senior intake are in Victory College with you and its good to chat to them about their experienceswith regular Sandhurst. That said, dont get smashed or shag that fit girl in your section the DS will know...

they always do.

Timings will be tight throughout the day and are highly flexible. Ensure that you have all your outfits for the

day laid out before you leave for your first lesson so that if you get thrown a 2 minute changeover time you

wont be scrabbling through your drawers for your phys rig. on that check the notice board on the way back

from dinner as it allows you to anticipate whats coming up

The lecture halls are very warm and airless. Take pro plus, lucozade tablets and plent of notes. Most of the

lectures are pointless to be honest so the notes just serve to keep you awake. I slept through them but got caught

out a few times, sit next to one of your mates and prod each other every time you start napping, simple and

effeective.

You may only get 4 hours of sleep a night (sometimes more, sometimes less) so you wont really be massively

awake for the beginning of exercises. Try and be efficient in your admin and get shit sorted out quickly dont do

as some people did and go out to Tescos have a pizza then come back and do it. Get your shit sorted first then

do it so it allows you to get more sleep.

Exercises

Following on from sleep, you get about 1 - 3 hours per night during the exercise. So wont be massively awake.

Find something that you can entertain yourself with when youve stopped and gone prone as you will fall asleep

if you dont. If your mega keen look at the ground and thing where your going to go as the DS may question you

if there bored and you are there.

You do 4 platoon advance to contacts during the day followed by either a recce patrol or a fighting patrol. If you

are the platoon Sgt on the fighting patrols ensure that you count everyone in and out, and generally be on theball, go up and down the column at every RV make sure people are there and count everyone out as its amazing

how quickly people can fall asleep. This should be a doddle compared to MOD 3 as they tend to hound you,

during mine our record was 8, so put effort in. Crawl dont run up to the position, dont storm them do it

properly post the grenade etc.

The way it works is there will be 3 enemy positions normally 2 up one in depth, dont vocally assume that this is

the case, but it is. Be prepared think about the routes so you can adapt quickly, they want to see someone who

can take a moment and formulate a plan coherently and confidently so try to thing one step ahead so your not on

the back foot when they pressure you for information.

They dont like the word guys at the beginning of QBOs and dont waffle. Keep everything to the point. In

QBOs theyve got all the 2up intent, 1up SOM etc etc; just say there is no change, dont go through it all

again if its been smashed in pre-orders.

For those that dont know what a fighting patrol is (Id never done one pre TACC), you patrol out to an enemy

position, put in a deliberate attack then patrol back to the harbour. The differences from a normal attack are

mainly the platoon orbat. Instead of 3 equal sections, you have a just a fire-team in the FRV then either split the

remaining fire team between the FSG and the assaulting section. Alternatively you can whack them all in the

assaulting section (a better idea generally). The assaulting section does all the assaulting (usually 2 positions,

maybe an in depth) with the FSG just giving fire support.

Be flexible with tactics. 90 degrees is good, but better ground should always take precedence. People who are

like this gives us good 90 degrees instead of this is great cover get ripped.

Dont do up your CBA too tight make sure its nice and loose, and fits well, we had a few poeple who suffered

becuase it was too small. The annual-camp exercises we tend to use CBA on arent as active as he TACC

exercises and tight CBA can shit you up. On that, take plenty of t-shirts (if the weather is hot one a day is best)

8/6/2019 TACC and Summer Leader

3/3

and wash each others backs at the end of each day with wet-wipes then rinse with water and towel dry. Most of

my platoon on the first exercise did their CBA up too tight and suffered badly from heat rash: it can be fucking

crippling.

Dont get impatient with DS, especially the platoon sergeant or section commander DS. They will tell you to do

things that you were literally milliseconds from doing then take credit for prompting you and call you shit and it

will really piss you off, but just grin and bear it. Take things with a giggle and smile.

You will be inspected each morning which includes rifles, feet, food (empty rat packs as proof), water bottles,

hair (the girls: ensure that you brush it thoroughly each morning to get all the crap out, it also serves as an

awesome morale boost for the sex-starved lads in the platoon) and that your faces are clean of cam. Dont cut

corners you will get picked up on it if you do.

ALWAYS put yourself forward for command [dis]appointments EVERY time that they ask after EVERY

platoon attack. Cadets who shirk get noticed. Lord Garnet Wolseley always claimed that There is only one way

for a young man to get along in the army. He must try to get killed in every way he can.

Shit loads of people failed TACC103. A few for simple things that you can easily control. One bloke was

deamed to negative and controling, even when not in a position he had to voice his oppinion, do it in a waywhich is helpful, dont be like, we should go this way not that way. Phrase it so the guy in command can take

it and make the final decision, it reflects better on you and the guy in command. That said TACC is a bit like

that as everyone is smart so has their own ideas, that leads on to when in command listen to what people are

saying then make a desicion, quickly. One guy failed as he was deamed to indecisive and was a bit like a

headless chicken.

Also PHYS, dont be unfit as it makes things ten times harder, youll immediately be on the radar if you cant

keep up and are constantly puffing away. Make sure that you can comfortably pass a PFT and CTF. Another

good thing i found to do was lots of fartlek training, google it.

The guy who won the sword of honour was in my section. Absolutely top bloke, ex 23 SAS and PARA guy.

That said it wasnt because of his skills that he one it, admittedly they were good, he got his admin done andwas v effecient. It was he knew when to pipe up, in command, and take control and when to just graft away a

work hard.

Dont ND, trust me, dont call your pointman bullet-catcher, dont have shit VP, dont fall asleep on stag,

dont take a nap when youve finished morning admin, dont have cowboy firing positions, dont sit down when

you should be kneeling, dont have shit grenade drills, dont try to blag sets of orders and dont say wicked (or

other colloquial terms) too much. All of the above seem obvious but all happened. You should try at all times to

be absolutely perfect and keen in every way. You might think that small things like sitting down during a lull in

reserve are fine, but the DS dont.

At the end of the day, its only three weeks: thats not even as long as the hardest bit of regular Sandhurst. Keep

it all in perspective and try to make friends. Remember keep calm and carry on.

Hope it helps,

Jon