Guy Martin heads 200 miles above the Arctic Circle to embed with the Royal Marines, the UK’s winter warfare experts, and find out if he’s good enough to become one of these special operations commandos whose job it is to operate in the harshest environments and deter an attack from an increasingly belligerent Russia.

 

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, security concerns have been heightened across the so-called “Northern Flank” - the Arctic region where Russia borders northern Europe. Guy embeds at Camp Viking, the Royal Marines’ hub of operations in Norway where the average temperature is -20, living alongside commandos in their barracks and training with them on the annual Cold Weather Warfare Course.

 

He must first survive being dunked into a frozen lake and then will spend a night with fellow new recruits in the wilderness, before getting the chance to drive an all-terrain vehicle using night vision goggles and then working with the Commando Helicopter Force to call in live fire from a helicopter gunship. Guy will also find out why exactly Russia values the Arctic so highly and the kind of weaponry they would use in an Arctic war.

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Guy Martin’s Arctic adventure continues as he trains alongside the Royal Marines, the UK’s winter warfare experts, to find out if he’s good enough to become one of these special operations commandos whose job it is to operate in the harshest environments and deter an attack from an increasingly belligerent Russia.

 

This time, Guy’s training focuses on combat. He starts with an amphibious raid, departing on a specialist landing craft deployed from the rear of a larger assault ship, before stealthily storming a beach with 30 other commandos. Guy then works with the snipers whose job it is to stay hidden on the side of a mountain for two weeks at a time, before being entrusted with the command of a £1 million all-terrain attack vehicle.

 

After intensive weapons training and a crash course in battlefield first aid, Guy is given the unprecedented honour of being attached to an experienced strike group training to operate behind enemy lines. Armed with a rifle, three magazines of bullets and his snowshoes, Guy must fight in deep snow and temperatures averaging -20, overcome an enemy sniper, save a casualty and arrange an emergency helicopter evacuation.