Angus Royal Marines have shared an unusual traffic jam on their drive to work in the snow-covered expanse of northern Norway.
The 45 Commando personnel from RM Condor outside Arbroath are preparing for NATO’s biggest Arctic exercise in a generation.
And while motorists in parts of north east Scotland slipped and slithered their way into the office this week the mountain warfare experts experienced a different type of commuter chaos.
They shared an encounter with a large herd of reindeer in the path of their snowmobiles.
UK Commando Force Operations posted a clip on X, formerly Twitter, of the Norwegian ‘traffic jam’.
More than a thousand Commandos will be operating in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments.
Temperatures are known to plummet to -50C and the polar nights mean the sun doesn’t ‘rise’ until the end of January.
Exercise Nordic Response
Camp Viking at Skjold is the Royal Marines’ operations hub at the tip of the Arctic spear.
“Since World War 2 and the first use of Commandos, we have trained and operated from the fjords and inlets, pushing deep into the frozen interior,” said Commando Force spokesperson Major Ric Cole.
Exercise Nordic Response will involve more than 20,000 NATO troops, 50 warships, submarines and other vessels.
The exercise will also include more than 110 fighter jets, helicopters and other aircraft.
The Norwegian hosts will welcome participants from 14 nations.
Before the main punch of the exercise in March, Commandos and their support units will undertake cold weather training.
It includes the Marines’ infamous cold shock ice drill.
That involves being plunged into a hole in the ice and climbing out of the water unassisted using ski poles.
They will then deploy over 200km inside the Arctic Circle to put it all in to practice.
Usually Norway hosts the bi-annual exercise.
However, since Finland joined and Sweden’s expected membership to NATO, the exercise – previously called Cold Response – now encompasses the wider region and has been renamed Nordic Response.
