4/73 (Sphinx) Special Observation Post Battery RA

4/73 (Sphinx) Special Observation Post Battery Royal Artillery is the British Army's only regular Surveillance and Reconnaissance Patrol unit. It is part of 5th Regiment Royal Artillery, based at Marne Barracks in Catterick, North Yorkshire.

4/73 (Sphinx) Special OP Battery RA
Active1982 – Present
Country United Kingdom
AllegianceQueen
BranchRoyal Artillery
TypeRegular Army
RoleSurveillance and Reconnaissance
SizeBattery
Part of5th Regiment Royal Artillery
LocationCatterick Garrison
Nickname(s)Sphinx Battery
Motto(s)Lateo
Anniversaries4 (Sphinx) Battery Alexandria Day 1 July
73 (Sphinx) Battery Alexandria Day 10 June
Battle honoursUbique

Organisation

4/73 Battery comprises a Battery Headquarters and four Patrols Troops. It has a strength of six officers and 58 other ranks. Three troops, each of a 3-man Headquarters and two 6-man Patrols provide support to the brigades of 3rd Mechanised Division and others. One troop of a 3-man Headquarters and one 6-man Patrol at high readiness to support 16 Air Assault Brigade.

Role

Special Observers give commanders the ability to deploy a specialist force element at range, in proximity to the enemy and in all weathers, to locate and prosecute targets as required. Working as the ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) group in each of the brigades, the STA Patrols Troop are subject matter experts on Static Covert Surveillance (SCS) and complement the reconnaissance activity conducted by other Ground Manned Reconnaissance (GMR) forces in the Brigade.

4/73 Battery Royal Artillery alert in the Warcop training area, during a two-week exercise in 2017.

The skill set includes:

  • manned observation post (OPs)
  • real time transmission of information
  • comprehensive technical surveillance, through use of: long lens optics, cameras and data transfer systems, to provide imagery of evidential quality
  • deployment of Long Range Electro Optical (LREO) systems: covert remote cameras and sensors
  • initiation of the full spectrum of joint fires
  • conduct of battle damage assessment (BDA)
  • trained in Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract (SERE)

Insignia

Whilst most gunners wear a dark blue beret, since 2008 soldiers of 4/73 Battery have changed to a khaki beret to mark the close working relationship of the battery with the Honourable Artillery Company.[1] Soldiers that have passed the Surveillance Reconnaissance Patrol selection course also wear the Special Observers badge in perpetuity on their arm in all orders of dress.[2]

History

In early 1970s, I Corps General Support Artillery Regiment was based in the foothills of the Harz mountains in the town of Hildersheim close to the Inner German Border. This included 5 Regiment RA whose role as part of the NATO General Development Plan (GDP) in the event of war, was to contribute to imposing delay on the advancing Warsaw Pact forces. Operating deep inside enemy territory, however, required specialist training only then undertaken by the Corps Patrol Unit, consisting of the Territorial Army SAS regiments and the HAC.

By 1980, the Commanding Officer of 5th Regiment Royal Artillery, Lt Colonel A C P Stone, prepared a detailed paper setting out the case that the Regiment required special observation post soldiers.[3] This new unit would dig underground shelters close to the Inner German Border and allow the advancing enemy forces to pass by them. Following this, two pairs of Gunners would emerge from each underground patrol shelter to direct the fire from the Regiment's artillery. In 1989, Captain D B Jones, suggested to his Commanding Officer, that there should only be one Special observation post organisation and that ideally it should be based back in Hildesheim near the operational deployment area. In April 1991, two troops were merged, forming 73 (Sphinx) Special OP Battery RA.[4]

Recent Deployments

The battery deployed on Operation Herrick 7 where two personnel serving with the battery were killed in separate mine strike incidents,[5][6] as well as three seriously injured. The Battery broke the record books during the tour by mounting the longest uninterrupted long-range desert patrol since the Second World War, living off their WMIK vehicles for 7 weeks without any operational pause.[7]

See also

References
  1. "Yorkshire Gunners Honoured For Service in Iraq And Afghanistan". Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Earlier in the day, in what marks a historic change in the history of one of the Batteries from the Regiment - 4/73 (Sphinx) Battery, the traditional dark blue beret of the Royal Artillery was replaced with a khaki-coloured beret.
  2. 358TH ARMY DRESS COMMITTEE RECORD OF OUT OF COMMITTEE DECISIONS, Decision 4425
  3. http://www.debretts.com/people-of-today/profile/9062/Anthony-Charles-Peter-STONE
  4. https://www.orbat85.nl/documents/BAOR-July-1989.pdf see notes: p.13 (& p.12)
  5. http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/CorporalDarrylGardinerKilledInAfghanistan.htm
  6. http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/TrooperJackSadlerKilledInAfghanistan.htm
  7. Mines, Heidi. "Life after Harry". Soldier Magazine (October 2008).
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