REME Viking Mechanic

Manchester mechanic keeps armoured vehicles moving in Helmand

Craftsman Matthew Welsby (20) from Middleton, Manchester is a vehicle fitter with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers currently serving with the Viking Group, the Royal Dragoon Guards in the Nahr-e-Sharj province of Helmand. It is his job to ensure that the Viking armoured vehicles are up to the rigorous jobs demanded of them in the rough and varied terrain of the green zone.

"The job involves heavy maintenance. Anything that breaks we fix it -- engine changes, gear box changes, if it comes to it all the hydraulics, bearings, brakes, basically everything to do with the vehicle," said Craftsman Welsby.

The cavalry soldiers of the Viking Group have been providing over-watch and protection to the soldiers from 1 Troop, 1st Armoured Engineer Squadron and Afghan contractors as they work on the new road being built between Lashkar Gah and Gereshk. The soldiers have come under daily attacks from insurgents as well as IED strikes around the build, but have rebutted insurgent offences and continued to make steady progress.

The Viking Group, consists of the soldiers from 1st Troop, D 'The Green Horse' Squadron, the Royal Dragoon Guards. The agility and manoeuvrability of the tracked vehicle combined with its mounted fire power of a 0.50 calibre heavy machine gun or the general purpose machine gun makes it the perfect vehicle to provide force protection to the engineers working on the construction of the road. However the nature of the job means that the Vikings are put through their paces and often require repairing at the end of each day to ensure they are ready for battle. This is in addition to the regular maintenance that is required on the fleet of 10 vehicles which Craftsman Welsby is responsible for.

"The main wear-and-tear is the running gear, tracks, the road wheels, top rollers, sprockets -- the bottom half of the vehicle that gets a hammering on a daily basis," said Craftsman Welsby.

He continued, "Unusual jobs that I have had to do include taking out bullets from the bar armour where we have been hit. It can be quite a difficult task as some of them are really wedged in there, but it needs to be done to check the condition of the armour and make sure it doesn't need replacing. If it does then obviously we replace, if not it will do for another couple of hits."