Preparing for war: 16 Air Assault Brigade rehearses a no-notice mobilisation
When 16 Air Assault Brigade's Lance Corporal Byron Hickford got a phone call from his boss late one Sunday evening, he thought he was in trouble.
"You're not in trouble!" his boss reassured him. "We're now on Operation Totemic. You need to be ready to move."
The "no-notice" operation saw close to 1,000 troops and more than 300 vehicles mobilised to practise responding to an invasion threat against a Nato ally.
No time to lose
Early the next morning, Byron was down at the med centre sorting his vaccinations.
Across the country, ammunition was being pulled from stores, and vehicles checked as personnel packed up their kit, ready to deploy.
"When we think about conflict and war, most people think about the battles," explained Brigadier Ed Cartwright, the commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team.
"Of course, the reality of getting a soldier into battle is that there is a huge process of preparation that goes on for many, many years before you can put a man or woman into combat.
"So this is about logistics and administration.
"It's not especially glamorous. It's critically important."
16 Air Assault Brigade is the British Army's global response force.
Within it, 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment is currently the brigade's very high readiness battlegroup.
This means the soldiers must be able to mobilise at a moment's notice – complete with attached gunners, engineers, signallers, logisticians, medics and military police.
A volatile world
Totemic is an annual exercise, but this year it was carried out in more detail than ever before.
"We have demanded more this year than we have in the past," Brig Cartwright told BFBS Forces News.
"We don't always bring the ammunition out every year, we don't always do quite the same number of medical documentation checks – several hundred soldiers have all been medically regraded in the course of the last few days.
"And we don't always get all of the vehicles and all of the equipment out on the square. This time, we've done more than previously because we are preparing for war."
"What's the thing you must not forget?" I asked Byron. "You know, the thing that you can't live without when you have no idea how long you're going to be away."
"Probably my phone charger!" he replied. "So I can stay in touch with family."
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