Features � As Real As It Gets
[Image - Crossing a river]
The weather conditions we experienced have since gone on record as being the worst winter for 50 years. This 'wadi' 12 hours earlier had been a dried out river bed. With one heavy downpour it came close to being uncrossable. We crossed into Iraq with just the clothes we stood up in, weight was critical on our fighting vehicles and this was shared between spare fuel, ammunition, water & food. Spare & warm clothing was a luxury we couldn't afford. Rain, very cold temperatures and sleet were the order of the day, not the sort of weather you would normally associate with a desert environment.
[Image - 'Lying up position']
This shot shows a good LUP (lying up position) with our camo nets over our vehicles. This was our 'modus of operandi' during the early phase of the war. when we crossed over into Iraq we were 30 strong, at the time we were operating against the 6th largest standing army in the world - surprise was always going to be our greatest asset. We drove & patrolled deeper into Iraq by night, come first light we would look for a small depression and hide our vehicles and wait till darkness returned, concealing our progress deeper into Iraq.
[Image - First contact with the enemy]
First contact with the enemy, this took place mid afternoon on the 2nd day. We were in our LUP when an Iraqi Artillery reconnaissance unit drove across our front about 500m away & clocked our position. They drove straight towards us, thinking we were an Iraqi position. They dismounted from their vehicle and walked into our hide. The exchange of gunfire was close, very close and fast. Within a few minutes it was all over, 2 Iraqis dead and one captured. The patrol was in deep trouble, we still had 4-5 hour before darkness returned giving us that extra edge. Somehow we had to get away and work our way around a very large Iraqi position and get the captured prisoner airlifted back to the intelligence guys in Saudi. Somehow we had managed to infiltrate a large Iraqi artillery position during the night drive. "Needless to say we were fighting for our lives exchanging bullet for bullet, grenade for grenade..."
The weather conditions we experienced have since gone on record as being the worst winter for 50 years. This 'wadi' 12 hours earlier had been a dried out river bed. With one heavy downpour it came close to being uncrossable. We crossed into Iraq with just the clothes we stood up in, weight was critical on our fighting vehicles and this was shared between spare fuel, ammunition, water & food. Spare & warm clothing was a luxury we couldn't afford. Rain, very cold temperatures and sleet were the order of the day, not the sort of weather you would normally associate with a desert environment.
[Image - 'Lying up position']
This shot shows a good LUP (lying up position) with our camo nets over our vehicles. This was our 'modus of operandi' during the early phase of the war. when we crossed over into Iraq we were 30 strong, at the time we were operating against the 6th largest standing army in the world - surprise was always going to be our greatest asset. We drove & patrolled deeper into Iraq by night, come first light we would look for a small depression and hide our vehicles and wait till darkness returned, concealing our progress deeper into Iraq.
[Image - First contact with the enemy]
First contact with the enemy, this took place mid afternoon on the 2nd day. We were in our LUP when an Iraqi Artillery reconnaissance unit drove across our front about 500m away & clocked our position. They drove straight towards us, thinking we were an Iraqi position. They dismounted from their vehicle and walked into our hide. The exchange of gunfire was close, very close and fast. Within a few minutes it was all over, 2 Iraqis dead and one captured. The patrol was in deep trouble, we still had 4-5 hour before darkness returned giving us that extra edge. Somehow we had to get away and work our way around a very large Iraqi position and get the captured prisoner airlifted back to the intelligence guys in Saudi. Somehow we had managed to infiltrate a large Iraqi artillery position during the night drive. "Needless to say we were fighting for our lives exchanging bullet for bullet, grenade for grenade..."
Page: [< PREV] [1] [2] [3] [NEXT >]