2,000 back campaign to save Mercian Regiment

A campaign has been launched to save the former Staffordshire Regiment amid fears it could be facing the axe.

A Facebook group called Yes We Are Worth Saving has been set up and joined by almost 2,000 supporters.

The 3rd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (3Mercian), the former Staffords, is believed to be in the firing line as the strength of the regular British Army is cut by around 20,000 troops.

Steve Sturge, now 57, who served with The Staffords for 15 years, was horrified by the suggestion that it could be axed in the shake up and turned to the social networking site.

He said: "I felt that I had got to do something to help after hearing the rumours.

"It is like a second family to me and if it goes, a lot of military history will go with it.

"I could not just sit there and was amazed by the initial reaction to the Facebook campaign. We should all be doing everything we can to ensure that the proud military history of the Staffords and 3Mercian is allowed to continue."

Details of the the regiments that will suffer as a result of the cuts in troops are expected to be officially announced within the next few weeks

3Mercian is thought to be vulnerable because it is now part of a far larger regiment and is poised for a move from its present base in Germany back to a new home in the UK that has still to be selected.

It has been rumoured that around 650 posts could be lost from within the Mercian Regiment and 3Mercian, an armoured infantry battalion, is around that size.

"It is also the youngest of the three former regiments that merged to form the Mercians in 2007.

The battalion returned from a six-month tour on the front line in Afghanistan last year during which one of its soldiers was shot dead while on patrol and several others were wounded. It is due to return to trouble-torn Helmand Province before the scheduled withdrawal of British troops at the end of 2014.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has predicted that "difficult" decisions would have to be made as the regular British Army was reduced from 102,000 soldiers to 82,000 by 2020.

He warned that whole units could disappear as greater emphasis is put on Territorial Army units such as 4Mercian that is based at Fallings Park in Wolverhampton.

It has been predicted that both the Mercian and Yorkshire Regiments could each lose a battalion of approximately 650 men.