With the fundamenmental Fieldcraft skills taken onboard as part of his mental set, the candidate progresses to the the next part of Continuation Training - Combat and survival techniques. This lasts for three weeks and is undertaken on Exmoor. It is comprimised of an intensive course of instruction and examination in all the aspects of surviving as an effective soldier in a hostile environment. The basic elements of the Survival Training Progranne include shelter building, finding food and water, laying traps for small game, and making fire.
The final week of the Combat and Survival Course ends with the famous Escape and Evasion exercise, in which the candidate has to avoid capture by an "enemy" force, which is usually a battalion of locally based infantry. At the end of the exercise all those who have evaded capture must "surrender" themselves at a "compromised rendevouz point", from where they are moved to an interrogation center, undergo perhaps the most mentally gruelling part of an SAS soldier's training, the 24-hour Resistance-to-Interrogation exercise. Throughout this exercise, the candidate is subjected to extremes of both mental and physical stress, through, for example, sleep deprivation, intense questioning and humiliation. All aspects of the course are designed to make men yield information beyond the the permitted maximum of name, number, rank, and date of birth, as with every other part of the programme, any man who fails the test is summarily rejected for further training and is RTU'd. Those who pass can congratulate themselves on completed Continuation Training. |
