Main Battle Tank by Niall Edworthy

Author:Niall Edworthy [Edworthy, Niall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141959818
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2010-08-04T21:00:00+00:00

6. Rockets and Raids

‘… after what B Company Black Watch witnessed this afternoon, I don’t think we need any further motivation to give the Fedayeen a bloody nose when we go in, in a few hours’ time.’

It was eleven o’clock at night local time and Major Brown was coming to the end of his ‘O’ group inside the old Iraqi marine base, close to Bridge Four where ‘A’ Squadron had set up camp after moving up from Az Zubayr. His 2iC Charlie MacDermot-Roe, the four troop leaders, Battle Captain James Bishop, Sergeant Major Anderson and Staff Sergeant McKenzie, the SQMS, stared back at him grimly. They had saddled up to mount a similar raid two days earlier, only to be stood down at the last minute, leaving the men deflated and irritable. Now, following the shocking events of the afternoon, the raid was back on and the adrenaline was pumping once again.

‘A’ Squadron were to become the first regular forces of the coalition to cross one of the four main bridges into Basra since the invasion began eight days earlier.

The plan was for a classic in-and-out raid. They were to head over Bridge Four, the principal route into the city from the south, and race up the dual carriageway known as Route Red, stopping just short of Old Basra, a maze of twisting, narrow alleys and streets. They were to destroy three targets: the city’s main TV and radio mast, which was still broadcasting propaganda, the headquarters and main operating base of the Fedayeen, and, in a symbolic gesture, a massive statue of Saddam Hussein situated in the middle of a giant interchange at the ‘Gateway to Basra’. They were to be accompanied by a platoon of the Black Watch, roughly thirty men in four Warriors, whose task was to get out and hold the ground if any of the tanks were to come to grief. There was no reason why all three targets couldn’t be destroyed from the air without inflicting casualties on the civilian population, but the planners were eager to send out a bold message to the Fedayeen. Dispatching a squadron of tanks deep into their territory told them in no uncertain terms that their days were numbered. More crucially, it told the Iraqi people and the watching world that the Fedayeen’s control of the area was loosening.

A few hours earlier, ‘Bravo’ Company Black Watch had returned from VCP duty on the south side of the bridge, visibly shaken by what they had just witnessed. Streams of civilians had been pouring over the bridge all day long to seek refuge in the relatively safe areas now under the control of the British. When they had failed to stem the exodus, the Fedayeen started machine-gunning the crowd, mowing down people indiscriminately, including women and children. As the casualties lay screaming in the road, British troops set about destroying the paramilitary positions and eventually British ambulances were able to get in and tend to the wounded. Throughout the conflict,

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