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Defence reporter takes on military training in Arctic Circle

A west country reporter spent a week in minus-29 temperatures learning about Arctic warfare training with the Royal Marines.

Tristan Nichols, defence correspondent at The Herald in Plymouth, was working alongside 2,500 marines and Royal Navy sailors from the Devon city.

During his time working several hundred miles within the Arctic Circle, in Norway, he filed back reports, features and a blog which received 300 views in four days.

Video footage of his trip was also uploaded to the thisisplymouth.co.uk site upon his return.

The marines have been there since early January taking part in Exercise Octans.

Plymouth’s marines are due to head back to Afghanistan in the autumn and Tristan said the training in Norway is perfectly suited given the cool climate they face in an Afghan winter.

While there he observed the commandos practise driving, do close-quarter battles and anti-ambush drills.

  • Tristan wraps up for the Arctic conditions
  • Tristan told holdthefrontpage: “It was an amazing trip and it was really good to see the guys enjoying themselves honing their skills.

    “It’s an incredibly harsh environment and the commandos will be the first to tell you, if you can operate in those conditions, you can operate anywhere in the world.

    “The sub-zero temperatures certainly came as quite a shock to me. It was so cold the ink in my pen froze.”

    The 30-year-old added: “I actually asked to get involved and do some of the training – they thought I was mad for even suggesting it.

    “Unfortunately with the final multi-task exercise happening a few days after our departure, it was difficult to arrange anything.

    “It was a real experience just to be there in that climate.

    “I came back with about eight or nine news features, two hours of footage for the website and dozens of pictures.

    “I’ve been organising it since before Christmas. It was my second time in Norway and follows trips to the Northern Arabian Gulf, the Falklands and Afghanistan last year.”