MALTA ARMED FORCES - PASSOUT PARADE

[Gil Boyd]

SLR's - British drill and music...............now thats the way to keep nostalgia going and recognise the best way forward with the right training kept alive, with the best rifle money can buy. Great memories of the island

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[Peter Laidler]

Could almost be a passing out parade in Britain in the 1980's without the No2 dress - but with the plain lightweight trousers, shirts, green etc etc. Are the Maltese a National Service Army I wonder? Do they have any military allegiance with the UK? To think that after we left the Island, they went socialist and sided with the Comblock armies in the Med area. The Royal Malta Artillery served in BAOR in the 70's(?)

[BruceHMX]

Interesting clip. Was that also the UK drill for fixing and unfixing a bayonet to an SLR? Never seen a weapon placed between the legs in that fashion.

[Gil Boyd]

Peter,
Yes. It was Dom Mintoff who got rid of all UK forces in 1971 finally, with 57 Sqn RAF the Canberrras being the last to leave I understand, who eventually came back to RAF Wyton.
Once he allowed the Russian Fleet in and others across the way like Ghaddafi etc it spolied the island, and the damage was done.

I went back with a Parachute Regiment delegation in 2015 to have a gravestone re done by the CWWG Commission for one of the 3 PARA lads who died of Meningitis in 1969 when 3 PARA were stationed there for 3 years, and the original grave stone was a right mess and needed sorting under GRAVEWATCH.
The reason I mention that is I asked for Maltese Armed Forces assistance, and Colonel Borg and two trumpeters came along to the re commemoration of the new Portland stone. He told me they have a very strong allegiance to the UK, and still pride themselves in keeping their standards up from what they were taught many years ago by us.

Bruce HMX,
Yes exactly the same as SLR drills used by UK Forces back in the day. They send SNCO's over to the UK who were attached to the Drill and Duties Cadre at Pirbright.

[Peter Laidler]

Looking at another cap badge on another video, it looks as though their Artillery badge is just ours - with the crown chopped off! I suppose that with Cyprus and Italy available, Malta had no serious strategic importance in the Med area. Many years ago my friend Charlie Witcher was an R-Navy diver based in Malta. They used to use sunken German ships for their training exercises including a couple loaded with tanks as deck and hold cargo for the Afrika Corps. Even then, during the 60's the ship decks were collapsing and dangerous places

[BruceHMX]

They use a very strange assortment of weapons. SLR's are for parade use only. Primary weapon is the AK-47. It pretty much looks like they are armed by NATO, Russia and China. Weird has to make the logistics folks crazy. Pulled another clip of them on the rifle range with AK's. You could tell the range was very old with concrete firing positions. Which I would assume were built by the UK. Uniforms were also an odd assortment of UK and US with the US rip stop cammies from the late 90's.

[browningautorifle]

There were a couple things though...goose stepping, point the toes...butts back...waddling...(slow time)

That sequential drill is too ragged. Better to do the move as one man.

[Gil Boyd]

Sadly, thats what happens when there are so many outside influences. I lived on the island from 66-69 when John Frost of Arnhem fame was the GOC Maltese Army.
Their artillery cap badge was an offshoot of anti air batteries during WW2, but now without the crown.

They were using 25 pounders during my stay there and I did see them and the SLR on guard duty outside Government House in 2015, so you may be right SLR's and drill UK style, and AK47's for ops jobs.......I'll have to ask when I go back as I often do. If there was ever a place for me to live away from England, it would be Malta

[browningautorifle]

John Frost

I'll bet you sat chatting for hours and listened very closely, then imagined what that exit must have been like. "Hold until relieved..."

[Peter Laidler]

That was the FIX and UNFIX bayonet drill Bruce. I was taught it when I was a 'real' recruit at the end of my 3 year apprenticeship at Carlisle - and never had to use it thereafter, even at Sandhurst. Except for one solitary instance......... And that was as a member of the Quarter Guard during a royal visit in 1970. But we were all different units and all trained to an equally low standard. I think after the full dress rehearsal the day before, it looked such a shambles that we marched on and off with bayonets fixed. The problem was that UNfix bayonets was done without looking down, with the rifle between your legs - as you see and say. Our bayonets had a recessed catch and it was touch and go whether you even managed it.......... But at least it gave the RSM and a couple of CSM's a chance to really bawl and shout at everyone.