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BATUS - British Army Training Unit Suffield
The British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) is a unit located at
the vast training area of Canadian Forces Base Suffield in Alberta, Canada.
BATUS is generally regarded as the British Army's largest armoured training
field in the world and it can accommodate live-firing exercises up to the
brigade level.
The Suffield area was first used by British troops during World War II.
A British chemical weapons testing facility was located in French-controlled
Algeria, however, upon the conquest of France by Germany, the facility was lost.
The British could find no suitable location in the UK and thus an agreement was
signed between Canada and the UK to allow the Suffield area to become available
to British scientists for testing. Consequently, British and Canadian forces
employed the area for a variety of experiments. |
Chieftains sporting the camouflage unique at the time to units operating at
BATUS.
© The Queens Own Hussars
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© The Queens Own Hussars
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At the end of WWII, the
British departed the Suffield area and it was formally taken over by the
Canadian Defence Research Board.
In 1969, Colonel Gaddafi orchestrated a coup in Libya, took
control of the country and closed down British military installations located at
El Adem and Tobruk. This presented the UK with quite a dilemma as there was no
suitably expansive areas to allow the British Army to undertake armoured warfare
exercises on a suitably large-scale in Europe. Thus, in 1971, a 10-year lease
was signed between the British and Canadian Governments that authorised battle
group training to take place in the Suffield area by the British Army. In
January 1972 the British Army Training Unit Suffield was formally established.
In July the first live rounds were fired by the 4th Royal Tank Regiment Battle
Group. In 1981 the lease for Suffield was extended and in 1991, the lease was
again extended. In 2006, on the expiration of this lease, the British and
Canadian governments concluded an agreement that will allow British forces to
maintain their training practices in Canada indefinitely. |
BATUS 
