Prince William was in Estonia for two days. I was surprised by how little news he made outside of the most devoted royalist media, and even then, the coverage was almost entirely rote. “William did this, yawn.” What’s crazy is that this trip was actually important from an optics standpoint. Russia is still waging war against Ukraine, and William was just a hundred miles or so from Estonia’s border with Russia. The whole reason he went to Estonia was to oversee the handover of British troops on NATO’s northeastern flank – the Royal Dragoon Guards handed over their base to the Mercian Regiment (William is colonel-in-chief). William played some dress-up games and took a short ride in a tank, then he played pool and foosball with the men. Instead of actually emphasizing the political sensitivities around Russia and NATO, they just let William play dress up and play pool. Just as well, honestly.
During his second day of engagements in Estonia, William spoke to soldiers about what it was like to be deployed in the country, saying: “It must focus the mind a little bit coming out here, knowing what’s going on the rest of the world, the context.
And in fact, the Russian border is only a few hundred miles from here. It does feel like it’s a bit more of an operational environment rather than just training.”During his second day of engagements in Estonia, William took part in an exercise where he joined a convoy of Warrior vehicles that opened fire on an enemy trench with machineguns, before throwing in smoke grenades and then entering on foot to capture a “high-value target”. Speaking to soldiers, William said that the Challenger 2 tank “packs quite a punch”.
“I’ve probably churned up quite a lot of the mud here in the Challenger 2 and the Warrior, I made a bit more of a mess. We were saying it’s quite a useful exercise in itself, just viewing what’s gone on in Ukraine, seeing all the kinds of terrain they’re operating in and understanding the pros and cons of what’s gone on before. It’s quite a lot of things to be thinking about while you’re operating out here and does focus the mind a little bit . . . what the challenges are coming up”.
Staff Sergeant Amy-Jane Hale, in charge of welfare across Operation Cabrit in Estonia and Poland, welcomed the Prince to the welfare area at Tapa camp. The Prince appeared surprised to learn that Hale was the one welfare officer on the base. “One?” he said. When the Prince asked Hale what she would wish for that would allow her to be more effective if she could “wave a magic wand” she said another welfare worker to make the job less lonely.
In the cinema room, the Prince asked whether they got to watch the latest films. When he was told that Bridget Jones was due to arrive soon, he said: “Oh that’s pretty good, not bad.” However, when he was told there was no fridge, he said: “You’re joking? You do need a fridge. I’m definitely getting you a fridge.”
It will be interesting to see if there’s any follow-up – do you think William will actually send a fridge to Estonia? Would he actually demand a second wellness officer at the outpost? We’ll probably never know.
Incidentally, some people found it odd that William would be in Estonia for two days and his trip coincided with King Charles and Queen Camilla’s multi-day visit to Northern Ireland. The thing is… all of the Windsors move quietly whenever they’re going to NI. They don’t announce anything, they just show up with the royal rota in tow. So, it’s likely William didn’t even know that his father was going to be out of England too.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
