ENG-1987 — Page 290

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THE ARMED SERVICES

The 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards are the current United Kingdom Battalion but will hand over to the 1st Battalion The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire) in February 1988. The 2nd Battalion the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles replaced the 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles. The 1st Battalion the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles and the 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles were resident in Hong Kong throughout the year. The 2nd Battalion King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles was disbanded early in 1987.

Support is provided by a number of units permanently based in Hong Kong. These include the Queen's Gurkha Engineers, the Queen's Gurkha Signals, the Gurkha Transport Regiment, 660 Squadron Army Air Corps, the Composite Ordnance Depot, the British Military Hospital, and 50 Hong Kong Workshops, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

Hong Kong people play an important role through their support of the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) – a locally enlisted regiment of part-time soldiers – and the Hong Kong Military Service Corps, which is also locally enlisted but forms part of the British Army. The latter corps is staffed by full-time regular soldiers and numbers 1 272 Chinese officers and men who serve throughout Hong Kong as guards, military policemen, interpreters, dog-handlers, drivers, cooks, clerks, seamen and storemen. The Hong Kong Military Service Corps provides a valuable contribution to the garrison and has played an important role in operations against illegal immigrants.

The primary role of the Army is to support the Police Force in maintaining internal security, and to be responsible for preserving the integrity of the border. In recent years, its major task has been to help with the control of illegal immigration, with individual battalions spending an average of three months a year on border duties. A high level of border vigilance was maintained throughout the year. Improvements to border security are constantly being made and anti-illegal immigration operations continue to play a major part in the daily life of the Army.

Owing to limited space and the unsuitability of much of Hong Kong's terrain for training, a series of overseas exercises was mounted to maintain high standards of military skills, and, as a contribution to stability in the region, participation in a Five Power Defence Agreement exercise in Malaysia. Units of 48 Gurkha Infantry Brigade also played host to visiting detachments from the 6th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, the Royal Brunei Armed Forces, and New Zealand Forces based in Singapore. The garrison participated in disaster relief operations during 1987 in the Cook Islands and Vanuatu.

The high standard of shooting of Hong Kong-based units was demonstrated at the 1987 Regular Skill at Arms Meeting held at Bisley, England. The 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles won the Major Units Championship while the four other Gurkha Regiments were placed in the top 11 shooting teams throughout the British Army. The team from the Depot Hong Kong Military Service Corps came sixth out of 30 minor units but the teams finishing first to fourth were using the new SA80 rifle with optical sights. The Depot team won the sub-machine gun match while the Defence Animal Support Unit, made up of Chinese soldiers, won the pistol match.

Royal Air Force

The main element of the Royal Air Force in Hong Kong is based at Sek Kong in the New Territories. The No. 28 (Army Co-operation) Squadron operates eight Wessex helicopters from Sek Kong airfield supported by engineering and administrative squadrons. Included in the supporting element is an Air Traffic Control Unit, which also provides an advisory