Three soldiers from the 1st Battalion Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment (RGBW) were killed in Sep 1994 when their Saxon toppled over and rolled down a hill near Goradze. A soldier from the same battalion was killed in a Saxon 3 days earlier when a road collapsed.
There was an opinion at the time, and after, that the vehicle was not suited to the terrain at all.
I attended a memorial service at the site (of the second accident) in Autumn 1997. I was in the 2nd Battalion (Territorial Army) of the RGBW.
That write up cannot possibly be true. Saxon was withdrawn from the Balkan theatre in the mid-nineties (at the latest) which pre-dated SFOR by quite a while.
Saxon only contributed to the UN effort in Bosnia which was superceded by IFOR in December 1995. SFOR didn’t become an entity until 1996.
I know, as I did a tour of that shi*hole under all three flags.
There was also an incident on route triangle between Church Pond and the RE camp near Prozor Lake (the name eludes me) in late '94 involving a Saxon rolling down a hill. No one was killed but it stopped all Saxon single vehicle movement. That would have been my UNPROFOR tour, I did an IFOR tour in '96 and SFOR in '98.
“Following the hand-over to SFOR in December 1996, the command structure, as directed by the North Atlantic Council (NAC), was broadened to include a deputy SFOR commander, a deputy operational commander and divisional commanders at the head of each Multinational Task Force (MNTF) (1,800 - 2,000 troops).”
“Entering service with the British Army in the mid-80s the Saxon saw service in the Balkans, Iraq and Northern Ireland. It was finally removed from service in 2005.”
“General Richard Dannatt, the former Chief of the General Staff, told the Telegraph newspaper that “My Concern is the inadequate nature of these vehicles which I ordered out of British Army front line service when I was Commander in Chief Land Command 2005-2006.”
“At the beginning of 1990, the British Army had approximately 500 Saxons in service in the UK (including Northern Ireland) and Germany. In 1991, an additional order was placed for 100 more vehicles.”
Thanks Robin for the name and info. Boy, it sure has a love hate relationship with men that were around it. I can see it being top heavy. Center of gravity will give issue with that giant metal box sitting higher for that small wheel base.
A good friend was MO in the US Army when they used to deploy M151 MUTT and to this day he hates that thing. He said it was very easy to flip over if you did not watch your turn. It flipped on him back in Nam and caused back problems.
Let’s hope Takom or someone will do a plastic kit of this thing cause £80-84 ain’t happening.
Any transport is better than no transport and they don’t necessarily have to be used to transport troops, they are quite large inside so would be good for logistics to the frontline. That and the fact they are based off a no frills commercial vehicle design which is easily fixable make them worth having in my mind.
