What was the best training you ever had while in the military?

I really enjoyed the French Commando course. It wasn't as “tough” as the German “Einzelkämpfer”, which I attended only six months later, but it was way more interesting and you could learn a lot more things.

A commando in the French Army is a platoon-sized unit that is fighting behind enemy lines. A lot of things we did there reminded me of the old French “resistance” movies: marching at night, sleeping in the forest, setting up ambushes, and blowing up stuff.

One of my comrades during the French Commando training. You had to let the tank roll near you, then touch its track with your hand and roll away from it. This was meant to let you get used to being near an armored vehicle.

In addition to this, there was a lot of anti-tank training for the infantry. You let a tank roll over you, then got up, climbed on it, and activated a (training) mine. Or, you learned how to make an effective hollow-charge with a champagne bottle and some plastic explosives.

My badges from the French Commando course.

We also did a lot of hand-to-hand combat training and many, many obstacle courses. Every day, there was a new obstacle course where you had to climb up walls, rappel down with a rope, climb up again, and so on. While during the first course, you were only about two meters from the ground, the last one we did was high in the tree-tops, and at night!

It was really a great experience and the badge you got also looked cool.