Infantry Training Centre (British Army) - Infantry Battle School (INFBS) Brecon

Infantry Battle School (INFBS) Brecon

The aim of the Infantry Battle School is to deliver trained officers and soldiers in order to meet the operational requirements of the Infantry, the Army and wider national Defence.

The Infantry Battle School (INFBS) is located in Brecon, Wales. The INFBS conducts realistic battle training for officers who have passed out of Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and for Warrant Officers, SNCOs and JNCOs. This encompasses Phase 2 training for officers (who do not attend the ITC Catterick, but undergo their Phase 1 training at Sandhurst) and Phase 3 training for NCOs and Warrant Officers. The INFBS has a permanent military staff of approximately 250, including a company drawn from the Brigade of Gurkhas which provides realistic opposition for those undergoing training at Brecon.

HISTORY

Slwch Tump, the ‘mini beacon’ which lies some five hundred metres to the North West of this camp has had a military presence on or about it from Roman times. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the mid 1930s a war office contingency plan was conceived to site a temporary training camp, in the event of war, in the lea of the Tump. When it was completed in early 1939 it became known as Dering Lines after Sir Edward Dering who, in 1689, raised the 24th Regiment of Foot to be named the South Wales Borders and more recently, The Royal Regiment of Wales.

From 1939 until 1946 Dering Lines was the home of 21 Infantry Training Centre (ITC) with a capacity of eight hundred troops in training at any single time, crammed into the asbestos and wooden huts. The 27,000 plus men who were trained here reinforced the hundreds of Infantry Battalions throughout the world.

In 1946, 21 ITC was replaced by The Welsh Brigade Training Centre and it remained thus until 1955 turning out an endless stream of National Servicemen. In the early 50s the parade square and roadways rang in the early mornings as the Band led formed drafts of reinforcements in full battle order to Brecon Station to start their journeys to Korea (1 Welch) or Malaya (2 RWF and 1 SWB).

By 1955 Dering Lines was ready for the demolition hammer but it was given a short stay of justice as a very temporary week-end training centre – 83 WETC this lasted for 18 years.

In 1961, very noticeably the year after the RA Practice Camp, Sennybridge, opened its doors to the Infantry as a field firing area. The Parachute Regiment was allowed to locate a battle camp within Dering Lines. Two years later the potential of Brecon as a training area had been realised (again) and with a little money earmarked for minimum maintenance, The Parachute Regiment Battle School was established.

During the major reorganization of the School of Infantry in 1967, part of the NCOs’ Division moved to Dering Lines. The unit then became known as The Parachute Regiment Battle School and Tactical Wing, NCOs’ Division, The School of Infantry (a sign writer’s nightmare.).

In 1973 the title changed again to NCOs’ Tactical Wing, School of Infantry and took the Parachute Regiment Recruit Division (PRD) under its wing. A major rebuild was approved in the 80s as the old camp was almost beyond any more patch repairs. This however was taken over by events.

In 1991 the government laid out its policies entitled “options for change”. This affected the School of Infantry to the degree that tactical and skill at arms training should be centralised in one place and not several as was previously the case. Brecon was selected and once again the fortunes of Dering Lines changed. The rebuild started in the 80s ceased, The Parachute Recruit Division departed and new plans were drawn up to cater for the revised role of the new and autonomous establishment to be called The Infantry Training Centre Wales (ITC Wales). Buildings costing several million (funded from “options” savings) were put up and completed on time for the official opening on 1 April 1995. The centre now has responsibility for instructing Officers and non commissioned officers on specialist and career courses. It has no responsibility for recruit training.

Thus after 60 years nothing (except this old hut maintained for nostalgic purposes) remains of the temporary camp cobbled together in wood, tin and asbestos to meet the needs of a country at war. Strangely, though the original name has been perpetuated and the aim of the Infantry Battle School continues to be the teaching of men and women to a standard of excellence in the profession of arms.