Page 42 - ABA Salvoes 1999-2024

Mick Cane’s air hostess’ party? In true tradition I should end by giving lessons learned. I won’t because there never will be, from the NGS point of view, another war like it. Everything we did was ad hoc and the best made of what was available. The skipper of the USS Missouri
said to me when I gave him a Battery Shield, on leaving at the end of the war; “When we go to war with you Brits we always seem to win.” We all enjoyed a fascinating and worthwhile experience and would not have missed this opportunity for the world.
148 BTY IN OP TELIC 1 – BC’S RECOLLECTION
By Lt Col P Shepheard-Walwyn MBE RA
Christmas 2002 and Iraq began to appear in the national news and initial indications regarding a potential Operation against Saddam Hussein’s regime reached the Battery. Four Fire Support Teams (FSTs) could be produced less for team commanders so, with only one in- role FST Comd (Capt Wiseman) available, Sgt Hehir was re-called from the RALONGS team, Sgt Godley from 79 Bty and Sgt Cole from the RA Equipment Sales Team. Capt Wiseman and Sgt Hehir led the two teams that formed part of the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF), Sgt Cole’s team was attached to K Coy, 42 Cdo and Sgt Godley’s to D Coy, 40 Cdo. Additionally, Bde ISTAR, BRF HQ and BRF G4 were augmented with Bty personnel. A small rear party headed up by the BK, Capt Underhill, remained in Poole to provide essential welfare support to the families of those that deployed as well as planning the training to be conducted on the Bty’s return.
The various elements of the Bty deployed by sea and air to Kuwait at different times and linked up with their supported callsigns. The FSTs deployed into desert camps to commence familiarisation, environmental and force integration training. Mission planning took place within Bde, BRF and Cdo HQ’s as the plan developed and the BC, rerolled as SO2 ISTAR, deployed to fly reconnaissance missions in support of the Brigade ISTAR Collection Plan. Rehearsals followed rehearsals and UOR equipment dribbled in. The tented camps were blown down by the desert winds, sand-storms were intense and cooking facilities non-existent, with the men cooking over open fires in rock shelters assembled at the edge of accommodation tents. The Bty’s establishment of hard top Land Rovers were totally inappropriate for the task and were swapped for stripped down soft top Land Rovers and Pinzgauers. GPMGs were borrowed and UGL, L110 A2 Para Minimi and pistols enhanced the FSTs’ firepower. With the attachment of ANGLICO and MFCs and six weeks of intensive integration training with BRF and Cdo Coys, formidable FSTs were created.
TLAM and air strikes on Saddam Hussein’s regime resulted in Iraqi missiles being launched into Kuwait and Israel. With the risk of regional escalation and the Iraqi threat of deliberate release of crude oil into the Northern Arabian Gulf with its associated ecological disaster, the planned assault was brought forward 24 hours and commenced on the 20th March 2003. Sgt Hehir, with OMC Seymour and LBdr Evans were to get eyes on the approach from
40 | Amphibious Bombardment Association
Basrah to the Southern Al Faw as part of a BRF screen, with the other half team, Bdr Law, LBdr Clarke and Gnr Smith covering one of the Eastern approaches to Al Faw town. Capt Wiseman’s team, initially with 40 Cdo, would observe the Al Faw military installation from a vantage point to cover the Cdo’s clearance operation to the Southeast. Sgt Godley and Sgt Cole would lead their FSTs during the assaults by 40 Cdo and 42 Cdo respectively.
By 20:00 hrs teams were lined out in their sticks ready to embark, excited and nervous at the reception that awaited. After some delays, just prior to midnight on 20 March 2003, the long-awaited commando assault into the Al Faw Peninsula in Southern Iraq began. Tragedy struck minutes into the operation when a CH46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed soon after take-off with the loss of all hands. Sgt Hehir, OM(C) Seymour and LBdr Evans were killed outright along with the four-man US crew and 5 colleagues from BRF HQ, Maj Ward (OC BRF), Capt Guy, WO2 Stratford, CSgt Cecil and Mne Hedenskog. After a short postponement, the insertion continued. At this time the BC was in a P3 ORION aircraft covering the initial insertions and observing for mine-laying Iraqi patrol boats. One such craft was detected and a request for AC130 or AH passed to the FSCC. The request was denied by the CO, with the craft being attacked by fire from 7 and 8 Bty’s guns under the control of a Phoenix UAV. The fire was ineffective, alerting the patrol boat crew and causing the it to depart, returning a few minutes later to its mooring alongside the wreck of an oil tanker. This time AC130 was requested on US circuits via the Tactical Controller on board the P3 Orion, and the patrol boat was sunk using the AC130’s 105mm gun.
Soon after landing, Capt Wiseman called in NGS from HMS Chatham, HMS Marlborough, HMS Richmond and HMAS Anzac (Maj Peter Boyce as the embarked NGLO). AH, CAS and 8 Bty’s guns were employed in support of 40 Cdo, initially focused onto an Iraqi military complex and then their clearance of a date plantation and the advance to Al Faw town. Seventeen NGS missions were fired by the time the last ship left the FSA on 23 March. As a result of the helicopter crash, Bdr Law’s half of FST 2 was split to cover Sgt Hehir’s task and his own, with LBdr Clarke and LBdr Tatum covering the Eastern approach and Bdr Law and Gnr Smith moving to cover the Southern approach to Al Faw town. OC BPT took over an adhoc BRF HQ with Sgt Skerritt moving to act as BRF Sigs Sgt. Unwisely, WO2