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| Iraq |
| UK forces destroy breakaway tank squadron |
| 2003-03-27 |
| Excerpt from a longer al-Guardian article to provide the latest: British forces destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks outside the southern city of Basra early today in what was believed to have been the largest tank battle involving British armour since the second world war. "We beat Rommel, and now we're going to beat Sammy!" Coalition forces first engaged with a larger Iraqi armoured column of about 120 T55 tanks heading south out of Basra towards British lines last night. The Iraqi column was forced to disperse after coalition air and artillery assaults. Then early today British Challenger tanks appear to have encountered a squadron of Iraqi tanks that had been dispersed during the earlier attacks. The British armour, attacking while moving, destroyed all 14 of the Iraqi tanks thought to be a breakaway group. Good shooting, lads! Captain Al Lockwood, the British military spokesman at US central command forward headquarters in Qatar, said this morning's tank battle was a "very quick, short, sharp engagement". "Didn't miss lunch, nope." Four armoured personnel carriers were also destroyed by the Challengers, which fire depleted uranium shells at a rate of up to eight per minute. One British tank officer said it was "like the bicycle against the motor car". Or a Challenger against a T-55. What Iraqi armor officer in his right mind thought he could take on the Brits in the open field? An RAF source said significant numbers of British aircraft were involved in strikes on the main Iraqi convoy which as well as Iraqi tanks, included type 59 artillery pieces and armoured personnel carriers. US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets and RAF Harrier ground attack jets dropped precision-guided munitions and cluster bombs on the Iraqi armour. From the ground, it was pounded by 155mm AS90 heavy British artillery. I think the scrap even bounced. The convoy was heading south-east along roads close to the border with Iran and towards British forces on al-Faw peninsula when it was spotted by coalition helicopters. British military chiefs said it was "madness" for the Iraqis to move in such force on the open desert plains risking air strikes, rather than stay in the relative safety of Basra. The Iraqi convoy was especially vulnerable after it had left the main road and begun to scatter into open countryside, much of which has been turned into a muddy quagmire after 24 hours of torrential rain. Major Mick Green, the officer commanding the battle room of 40 Commando, which has secured the area on al-Faw peninsula, said: "We have no idea why this column has come out at the moment ... to move tanks around in daylight is suicide." But the commander of the UK's forces in Iraq, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, had a theory about the motivation for the move. He claimed Iraqi soldiers in Basra were being forced by Saddam Hussein's security forces to get into their tanks and attack the encircling British forces. Either way, they're dead. They could have turned those T-55s on the Fedayeen and done some good. Air Marshal Burridge said that the Iraqi troops involved appeared to have been coerced by Ba'ath party militias in the city to fight, and added that there was evidence of "exemplar executions" to terrify the conscripts. "They go to their houses and hold a gun to the heads of their families," he told a news conference at central command. He said the militia "put them in their tanks and say 'go that way'". I still don't get it. Once you're in a T-55, if the Fedayeen aren't standing there with multiple RPGs, you're the one in control, not them. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 These t-55 tanks can't be more than a 4 runner with a civil war cannon atop.To go along with the Iraqi navy,a fleet of ski-doos and one boston whaler. |
| Posted by: Brew 2003-03-27 22:44:22 |
| #1 They take the family to a different location. Hostage. Thats why. As for why they moved the tanks like that? Well, the Brits deliberately left them a "hole" in the lines that they could take straight to Umm Qasr and the Al Faw. The rats took the cheese. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2003-03-27 22:21:04 |