The oilfields were thick and black with smoke…the dawn sky lit up bright red
Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the ground invasion of Iraq on Monday, the horror and heroism of the eight-year conflict have been vividly brought to life by historian JULIAN WHIPPY. In the first of two exclusive extracts from his new oral history, British personnel recall the intensity of fighting in and around the Iraqi city of Basra which had to fall in the opening days of the invasion to ensure the success of Operation Telic
THOUSANDS of tired eyes stared into the dark desert night. Clouds of dust and grit were being thrown up by the hundreds of vehicles, hampering the view of the drivers. At the same time, an almost inpenetrable sandstorm swirled across the flat plain as Allied ground convoys massed on the Kuwait-Iraq border. Of the tens of thousands of troops taking part, some were quietly caught up in their own thoughts. Many expected to die soon. It was March 20, 2003, and a new Gulf War – the second invasion of Iraq in just 12 years – was underway. ■ Guiding convoys into the danger zone on a 350cc Harley Davidson motorcycle over sand, Marine Steve Penney of the Royal Marine Police Troop suddenly saw a bright flash and fireball in the sky. “I thought something big had been hit by our artillery but found out later it was an American Sea Knight CH-46 helicopter carrying our Marines that had crashed, killing everyone aboard,” he recalled.
“After dawn, we moved up into Iraq and passed the crash site of the helicopter next to the road. There was a patch of scorched ground and twisted metal. I can see why no one would have survived the crash.”
Marine Penney and colleagues were later intelligence-gathering around the port city of Umm Qasr when they came under fire.
“We were in our vehicles when the driver saw some muzzle flashes ahead and we heard the crack of the rounds passing the Land Rover,” he said. “We dismounted and assaulted toward the last-known positions but they had gone.”
Tasked with picking up Iraqi prisoners near Basra, Marine Penney and colleagues found themselves in a minefield.
“All around us we could see land mines sitting on the surface of the road and the marshy grass alongside us,” he said. “My thoughts were, ‘Oh f***, how did we get here without getting blown up?’We then extricated by means of the co-driver climbing into the back, looking over the tailgate, and giving directions to the drivers to reverse out of the minefield very carefully.
“When we got back, we asked why we were sent off along a route with a known mine threat. Some silly b ****** s had nearly got us all killed.”
■ Jim Colonel Tanner of 7 Armoured Brigade had bagged a ride in a Warrior armoured vehicle in Az
Zubayr, south of Basra, when it came under fire. “I saw a very calmlooking Iraqi with a rocket launcher walk into the middle of the street,” he recalled. “I adjusted my eyes on to the gunner’s sights and started to line up the crosshairs on the man.
“He raised the rocket launcher and aimed straight at me. I was on target too but needed to activate the chain gun first before it would fire. In that instant he fired first.
“At no more than 50 metres, the impact was almost instantaneous.A boom, and a shower of sparks followed... but no penetration. By the time I got the firing mechanism set, the man had walked away as calmly as he had arrived.”
■
Sergeant D Clarke, 1 Royal Irish, recalled: “We crossed the border on four-ton trucks which the lads found hilarious. Nevertheless the guys were switched on and ready to go.
“As we advanced into the unknown all we knew was that the Americans were ahead of us, and we were to relieve them. It was clear the Iraqis were retreating with little resistance.
“As they went, they managed to sabotage some of the pipelines and GOSPs [gas-oil separation plants]. We approached the oilfields with the air thick and black with smoke as the burning GOSPs lit up the dawn horizon bright red.”
■ Ordnance and unexploded bomb expert Sergeant Rey Fadil was kept busy at Basra Airport. “The departing Iraqis had totally trashed the place,” he recalls. “Just about every window and door was broken and furniture removed. In the control tower the radio consoles were smashed and there was human excrement and urine everywhere.”
■ Lieutenant Zoe Ferry of the Royal Logistics Corps followed the leading columns into Iraq 10 hours after the start of the invasion. She recalled: “The first stop we made was near Az Zubayr. We slept by our vehicles in a disused industrial complex and I remember waking up with a rat on my chest…
“I controlled the ambulance matrix, rather like a 999 ambulance service control room does, despatching ambulances where they were needed most.
“Fortunately, British casualties were very few and most of our evacuees were wounded Iraqis, either soldiers or civilians.
“We took most back to 202 Field Hospital. If I wasn’t too busy, I would go in and see the staff at work or visit my sister (Gayle, a hospital emergency nurse in England but part of the Territorial Army) on the ward at 202 Field Hospital. While I was there early in the campaign, I did see one dead British soldier who was very waxy coloured and had a large hole in his chest. I remember hearing he had kids and thought how terrible it would be for them.”
■ Major Gareth Davies of the JNBC Regiment, trained in the detection, identification and monitoring of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, recalled: “Having crossed the border, I watched US Huey Cobra gunships over Safwan Hill to my east, like a scene from a movie.They were pouring fire on the hill like a fire-power demonstration.
“Next to me stood this real character who was an ex-US Navy SEAL... He never wore conventional uniform and carried over his shoulder a Vietnam-era M79 ‘Blooper’ grenade launcher with the strange wooden stock.”
■ BSM Leigh Sharpe recalled: “We had several vehicles in our troop, mainly Land Rovers, but I drove the four-tonner with the regiment quartermasters and a guy on top cover with a GPMG [general purpose machine gun] – but virtually no ammo.
“We slowly assembled with 30 other vehicles and moved up towards the border crossing in the dark, with just pinprick convoy lights on. It was slow, stop-start for hours. I
could feel my eyelids getting heavy and did what I could to stay awake as it was now about 4am. After yet another halt I told the top cover guy to come down inside as it was cold, and we were still inside Kuwait.
“We crossed into Iraq through the 30ft-high embankments and over a newly laid bridge and stopped again.
“We notched up the heating and then the next thing I knew, I woke up with a jolt, blinked my eyes looking in front of me and saw that the convoy in front had gone!
“The instant dump of adrenaline surged through me and I thought, ‘Oh s***.’”
■ Troops from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers found themselves defending a bridge over the Basra Canal from Iraqi counterattacks. Major Duncan McSporran recalled: “We absorbed five counter-attacks at the bridge in the 24 hours after its capture, including with armoured vehicles, and we inflicted very high casualties on the soldiers and militia trying to retake the bridge.
“Civilians were never far away and my guys were incredibly disciplined in maintaining the difference between the two groups and not opening fire on them.
“As we sat on the far ramp of the bridge after the assaults died down, I was hit with a wave of relief and an enormous sense of gratitude. There was immense pride across all ranks.”
■ Corporal Freddie Kruyer of 3 PARA remembers: “Our first stop inside Iraq was to first relieve someAmericans.We were a ragtag bunch wearing a mixture of desert and green uniforms, travelling in old Bedford lorries and stripped-down Land Rovers.
“The Americans we were meeting arrived next to us in one of their armoured vehicles. The rear hydraulic ramp powered down smoothly and out stepped a cross between Robocop and a Starship Trooper.
“The Yank was bristling with equipment, body armour and radios.We must have looked like Fred Karno’s Army to them. On the other hand, I thought how difficult it would be to conduct a section attack wearing all that gear.
“As we moved north towards Rumaila Bridge we saw a lot of destroyed Iraqi fighting positions, trenches and knockedout armour but no enemy. There were some dead and there was discarded kit and uniforms, but I hardly saw a soldier. The condition of the vehicles and dugouts suggested a complete lack of care
or maintenance.”
■ There was tragedy later when a Challenger tank on the eastern bank of a canal outside Basra was hit by friendly fire from another tank. For Corporal Scott Blaney of the REME, it brought back memories of the first Gulf War in 1991 when Allied forces forced Iraqi fighters out of Kuwait.
“I helped clear the 1991 Highway of Death out of Kuwait City where hundreds of tanks, APCs and trucks had been hit by air power as they tried to escape north back to Baghdad.
“We were tasked back then to clear the road and bury everything, including burned corpses and scattered pieces of torso. It was an unholy mess, the images of which are still with me. I knew therefore that blue on blue was probably going to be nasty.
“I was still surprised by the mess the Challenger was in. It was still smouldering and had clearly suffered a catastrophic fire. It was not a nice day. We dismounted, hooked up the Challenger for recovery and took it back to Umm Qasr.”
● Extracted by James Murray from Burning Horizon: BritishVeteran Accounts Of The Iraq War 2003 by JulianWhippy (Casemate, £29.95). For free UK P&P, visit expressbookshop.com or call Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832