TRJE18 ~ NATO Pushes North Force Back

Yesterday, F+1, all three NATO Multi-National Brigades forming the Land component of South (Blue) Force fought back northwards and eastwards in mid-Norway, writes Bob Morrison.

Early in the morning JOINT-FORCES.com headed westwards to meet up with the Italian-led MNB as their vehicles were refuelled on the road north to Kvikne and we also grabbed the opportunity to photograph some of the French engineer company’s vehicles supporting the Italian Paras.

With photos in the can and the South Force vehicles heading off northwards, towards where the teeth elements of their brigade were fighting through the forests to push back the Canadians playing North Force enemy, your humble scribbling snapper then headed out to the easternmost (of three) North-South axis to try to find the Swedish troops acting as North Force enemy against the German-led South Force MNB.

After travelling 80km eastwards from the E3 highway, towards Narbuvoll on Route 28, we encountered a North Force (Swedish) Role 1 field hospital where a steady flow of casualties was arriving as the German-led MNB pushed north-eastwards for Os. A score of kilometres down Route 28 we ran into the main Swedish contingent conducting an orderly rearguard defensive action as Blue Force (in this sector Germans and Dutch) pushed steadily northwards until they were temporarily halted by a downed bridge and extensive (notional) minefields.

As much, though by no means all, of the dismounted action on the TRJE18 (TRIDENT JUNCTURE 2018) counter-attack is not only taking place after dark with troops operating using Night Vision Devices but also happens on mountainous forest terrain away from the roads, it is not easy to photograph the action. However on the easternmost North-South axis the predominantly Swedish North Force and the predominantly German South Force are Mechanised Infantry, rather than the mostly Light Role Infantry facing each other on the other two North-South routes, so there was plenty of armoured vehicle road movement here during daylight hours.

At a later date Carl intends providing an in-depth overview of the German and Dutch formation, which he has worked with over the last couple of days, so yesterday I focussed on the vehicles of the Swedes who were trying to stem the Blue Force counter-attack. Today, F+2, I concentrated on photographing the Norwegian North Force defenders preparing for an expected major push over the next 18 hours, but that is a story for another day. We anticipate that much of this action will take place in darkness, but both Carl and I hope to be on the ground on the centremost axis as soon as there is sufficient light to take photos of anything of interest.

To be continued…

{ images © Bob Morrison }