Helicopter Wars | Duel In The Desert | Season 1 Episode 4 | Full Episode

the war on saddam hussein a british attack helicopter is trapped in the gun sights of an enemy tank the hunter becomes the hunted he's cat and mapped yeah i'm just trying to hide in a featureless terrain where there's nowhere to hide the only chance for survival is to turn the tables if you don't see the enemy you'll be shot down and when the hide and seek is over the final duel in the desert can begin march 20th 2003 the united states lay siege to baghdad and the regime of saddam hussein british forces sweep into iraq from the south their objective the second city of basra 5000 troops and up to 50 iraqi tanks defend the southern suburbs hidden among buildings and palm trees the tanks pose a lethal threat to british ground troops [Music] in the desert south of the city the british are in constant danger of iraqi counterattack but their own heavy tanks rushing across the desert from kuwait are still to reach the front line with fixed wing jets focused on baghdad a single unit provides air support for british troops [Music] 847 naval air squadron just 12 helicopters to stop 50 tanks at camp viking 80 kilometers from basra in the kuwaiti desert senior pilot andrew clark coordinates operations it became quite apparent that we were a bit of a thin red line trying to hold back a threat that we didn't really know the full scale of with british reinforcements on the way march 24th is the last chance for iraqi tanks to counter attack we looked at the numbers we had it didn't seem to be an awful lot to counter a division of armour coming our way the day will see the heaviest fighting in 847 squadron's history [Music] a day of reckoning for one young pilot lieutenant commander jim newton jim newton the the ap aviation patrol commander actually overslept so at about four o'clock in the morning local time i had to go and find him wake him up [Music] mr newton are you joining us i was working by my very friendly senior pilot with a torch and a friendly jolt to say come on scoobs you're airborne in 20 minutes my attack call sign is scooby as in scooby-doo haven't got a clue and i got it rather unfortunately for getting lost in a five ship i was number five in in a formation of five helicopters and i got separated from the lead it's pretty difficult to do with 12 years training newton is a highly capable officer but this will be his first time in combat second i woke up there is the realization that i'm here you can hear rounds in the distance it's baking hot you can see the links over the road with missiles on it 847 squadron's attack helicopter is the westland lynx the fastest helicopter in the world and highly maneuverable thanks to a groundbreaking rotor system it can execute barrel rolls and even loop the loop for the assault on basra it's armed with four armor-piercing anti-tank missiles the lynx flies in tandem with a westland gazelle which has no heavy weapons of its own its two-man crew provide extra eyes to find and identify enemy targets tension is high in the operations tent jim newton leads the first crew into action there is a feeling of um next up to the uh face the firing squad if you like and there were some pretty anxious faces around the uh the camp that walk out to the aircraft was always about thinking about the mission and thinking about what you're about to do just playing out in your head how you'd react to things [Music] newton as mission commander takes the left-hand seat in the links he will navigate operate the radios and locate the enemy in his missile sites yeah okay side's fine if necessary he will launch the attack himself the youthful commander is paired with one of 847's oldest and wisest heads sergeant darby allen is an unflappable pilot [Music] after 28 years in the royal marines he brings combat experience to the cockpit i've been through all the 70s and the 80s in northern ireland so used to a few bombs and bullets going off around us which again doesn't make you immune but i think you know what to expect a little bit more than the guys who probably hadn't experienced it i like to think he left me to get on with the fly and then i left him to get on with the commanding [Music] the machine gunner is marine louis harvey jones aka guns a man of few words big marine very quiet guy um quiet nature just sat in the back and got on with the job basically [Music] with any outfit going to all you need a broad spectrum of characters if you're all steady by the book then nothing will get done if you're all young blades out to get involved then possibly everyone will get killed so there needs to be a balanced truck the crew face danger from the outset every desert takeoff is a blinding sandstorm they could be killed before they even leave the ground on his first foray into combat jim newton is nervous fully fueled the lynx is at maximum fighting weight [Music] there are heavy sand filters to protect the engine a general purpose machine gun and the battery of four missile launchers to get all this weight off the ground the rotors create a huge downwash kicking up a dense cloud of sand with visibility close to zero the pilot can easily become disoriented so in training the modern navy leaves the ocean for the desert this is watts air base just outside tucson arizona jim newton is now one of the navy's senior training officers he's about to show why heat and sand call for special take off in techniques uh dusty desert environment on his first attempt the pilot will try to climb straight upwards until he's clear of the sun cloud but in the searing desert there's a risk of blowing the engine by overheating it on the temperature gauge red for danger begins at 645 celsius two engines on the links if we need to see we need not to go over the maximum limit which today is 645 continuous there's 665 for a couple of minutes and obviously coupled with that we've got the best outside so here we go the engine's about to hit maximum temperature [Music] the pilot must abort the take-off in desert heat the lynx doesn't have enough power to rise straight up and out the solution is to hover just above the ground this slows the vertical speed of the downwash which makes the rotor blades more efficient as if hovering on a cushion of air the pilot moves forward instead of up the horizontal airflow provides extra lift to get airborne using less power as long as you keep that cushion until you get full momentum the aircraft will use less power than what you'd need if you went vertically but flying straight into the cloud takes nerve in simple terms taking off completely blind camp viking kuwait jim newton enters the theater of war it was like the the drawing of curtains on reality in many ways you know when i came through that dust clouder i thought to myself this is it and this is it for real for the first time in my life there's a chance i possibly wouldn't come back they have enough fuel for a 100 minute mission a danger appears after just 15 seconds and it isn't the iraqis every weapon sensor western allies had was trying to see who i was and what i was american radar has locked on the lynx thinks it's under attack so i had all these lights and and noises through my headset telling me that there was these weapon systems locking on to me i've got systems on the aircraft that tell people i'm a friendly aircraft they give all sorts of information about who i am and what i'm up to but for the best will in the world you never believe they're working newton must wait for the americans to give him clearance and it was always in a southern drawl i to remember friendly fire the lynx and gazelle must stay in safe air corridors they move into formation and into iraq jim newton's baptism of fire begins we're not hanging around i remember we crossed the border about 130 knots 240 kilometers an hour pilot derby allen heads for basra skimming the desert of just 10 meters no matter how low you are you just want to be lower because you feel totally exposed it's a flat barren landscape [Music] in jim newton's sites the scorched aftermath of earlier battles smell the oil and you could smell the cordite in the air from explosions i distinctly remember seeing my first dead soldier it's an awful lot to take in in in two minutes your eyes are not big enough the border zone 32 kilometers from basra has seen fierce iraqi resistance iraqi armor or russian armor it wasn't a pretty mix if i'm honest with you newton knows the battle for basra itself will be even more desperate up to 50 iraqi tanks are hiding somewhere in the buildings and palm trees if they break out and counter attack newton's lynx is the only shield for the frontline british troops if a tank comes 30 miles an hour down the road firing 12.7 rounds into royal marines who are lightly armed only in land rovers the whole thing can change on us you know in a moment the iraqis main battle tank is the t-55 built in the former soviet union [Music] crispin swain is a former captain in a british tank regiment trained to fight russian t-55s in the days of the cold war the t-55 is essentially the kalashnikov of tanks it was designed right at the end of the second world war and it still sees service today and that's mainly because it's so effective the t-55 is the ideal vehicle for a fast-moving counter attack its purpose to overwhelm the enemy with sudden massive firepower [Music] the main weapons a heavy caliber machine gun and a turret mounted main gun to launch heavy shells up to 16 kilometers [Music] and every flash of the muzzle can give away the text position a good tank commander plays a deadly game of hide and seek so imagining this is the woods just outside basra and these are the palm trees here that i'm on the edge of looking out across desert and that is flat putting your tanks out there is essentially suicide the enemy's got air superiority you're waiting for the recce screen to arrive which is small tanks supported by helicopters taking on the tanks sure that that's very doable but the helicopters if you're seen it's basically game over in open desert a tank is easy meet for the linksys missiles but iraqi commanders learn their lessons from the 1991 gulf war [Music] a battle-hardened veteran stays out of sight and waits his chance to break out in force the palm trees of southern basra give dense cover the suburban buildings a warren of makeshift hiding places if you're lucky you might have some other kind of structure that you can put over the tank because it puts out quite a big heat signature and of course with the battle beer field being so advanced these days your heat signature can be picked up from a great distance [Music] solid walls give added safety a place for tanks to hunker down before unleashing a devastating counter-attack out in the desert the vulnerable british troops need air support but above them jim newton's two helicopter patrol does not have freedom of movement they must stay inside a battle box of just four square kilometers if they stray outside they risk being shot down by friendly fire newton focuses the hunt for tanks on southern basra dead ahead we at this point we're just maneuvering around our four kilometer box as an aviation patrol scanning in the 12 o'clock up towards basra newton checks his thermal sights looking for a telltale hot engine but the tanks are only six meters long in 40 square kilometers of trees and buildings after 55 minutes more than halfway through the mission there's no sign of any t-55s when you're looking into the heat haze about four kilometers in front of you maybe even more you know they're difficult to spot at the best of time newton's attention is focused ahead so someone has to cover the rear guns is tracking our six o'clock with the gpmg i got the gazelle as well behind me the crew in that the t-55s are too well hidden they know the ground they dig the tanks in all you'll see is just the end of a barrel it's virtually impossible [Music] below the links five british army scimitars join the hunt these are fast highly mobile tanks designed to flush out the enemy from their hiding places but in a head-to-head contest a lightweight scimitar is no match for a t-55 the scimitar is essentially a reconnaissance vehicle it's not meant to engage it has its cannon really as self-defense but essentially it's the eyes and the ears of the commander that's why it's out front of the main part of the army suddenly the scimitars come under fire from a t-55s machine gun one of the guys spoke to me on the radio i could just hear his voice i could hear the rounds hitting his vehicle or at least ricochet now the british soldiers fear a knockout punch from the heavyweight main gun t-55 round hitting the side of her or the front even of a scimitar and there really wouldn't be much left of it at campfire senior pilot andrew clark feels the calls for backup in terms of radio traffic people would like to say they kept it calm and concise and professional but there was an element of panic in some of the early transmissions we received there was rounds landing all around them i could hear his engine revving over the you know the radio is he said to me you need to you need to you need to get here and help newton must find the tank then figure out the best way to destroy it this is the core of 847 squadrons training originally intended for european battlefields the ideal tactic is to hide behind hills or trees then pop up to spy on targets if there are friendly jet fighters nearby the lynx commander can call in an airstrike on a training mission in the arizona desert jim newton shows how effective this can be the fighter is an a10 tank buster the lynx guides the pilot onto the target an abandoned truck the jets inbound now 450 miles an hour coming down from 15 000 feet the jet pilot gets clearance to fire he's been cleared hot all he's got to do now is overflow the lynx helicopter and then he'll continue with the final part of the roof march 2003 the outskirts of basra under attack by an iraqi tank the british troops are desperate for air support at 847 squadron senior pilot andrew clark weighs the options have we got any um fast jet support fast air to attack um these these tanks from the from the air have we got anything on the ground that could help any heavy artillery that wasn't in position at that stage jets were all tied up prosecuting depth targets around baghdad so it was apparent within a minute and a half of arriving there that 847 was it with no jets available newton must find the tank then use his own missiles to take it out but in the desert there's nowhere for a helicopter to hide newton thinks he's the predator in fact he's the prey it scares the hell out of it it really does that's a shell and it's landed you know a couple a couple of meters away as soon as we saw the first explosion i just threw the aircraft off to one side to get it away because obviously after the first one you can expect a few more coming your way and because you don't know where it's coming from and you don't know when the next one's coming from you can't see them you can't hear them and i was sitting there thinking i'm gonna die for the first time in his life jim newton is under fire it's the white flash christ that is just right in front of me a hidden iraqi tank is pounding the links with shells the compression wave would hit the aircraft and it would buck and you'd think to yourself are we still going are we still airborne the first few shells explode on the ground dangerously close get a big geezer of sand then there's like someone throwing stones over the aircraft one moment which i'll take to my grave is the rounds impacting in front of the aircraft and walking towards me to newton's horror the unseen enemy is calmly finding his range when you move the rounds impacting the sand change direction following one round would land in the proximity of the aircraft then the next one would be a lot closer so the guy firing the rounds he was basically bracketing us and he was getting very good at it going for the kill the tank commander switches to air burst a massive mid-air explosion of flank the helicopter itself is not designed to take fire and to take hits built for speed the lynx has no heavy armor the outer skin is just seven millimeters of aluminium you need fuel and weapons you don't need armor our tactics are based around the fact that we were lightly protected if they're shot down the iraqi battle tanks will be free to move out of basra and into open desert the lightly armed british ground troops face carnage with 18 minutes of fuel before they must return to base lynx and gazelle go into a standard evasive maneuver so we were agile around the battlefield and we changed our tactics to make us a smaller target as possible the tactic is called hamster rat and it's supposed to work like this circling the battle box the hamster radios what he sees right of tower low building clump of trees possible target but it's hard to tell when he hits the front of the box the hamster must turn away now the rat half a lap behind picks up the surge tower low building trees tank identified both helicopters keep moving at high speed making difficult targets [Music] or at least that's the theory [Music] the trouble is in real life they can't find the tank focuses on the most likely hiding place the trees and buildings of southern basra the tank keeps up a heavy barrage but in two whole circuits under fire neither hamster nor rat sees any tell-tale muzzle flashes newton switches to an incredibly risky tactic the split maneuver so we joined up as a pair at this point we flew towards on what we thought was a threat line and then when we got to the top of the box we both turned in different directions so we're basically saying to the enemy pick one lynx and gazelle head side by side for the tree line drawing fire when the tank commander fires at one helicopter the other should see his muzzle flash he chooses the links the threat to him was the lynx with tom issac it's an anti-tank weapon and he would know that's the threat he needs to take out first neither helicopter sees a thing i'm trying to observe something that's probably over a mile nearly two miles away with a naked eye never going to happen um jim was in the site frantically trying to find the target set up her our hamster rat technique we've done split maneuvers to try and get him to pick one of us which he did and i just couldn't see where it was coming from they have enough fuel for 12 more minutes before they must turn back that would lead british troops with no air support against rampaging iraqi battle tanks i was just about out of ideas if i'm honest [Music] the mysterious enemy is making full use of his biggest weapon home field advantage former tank commander crispin swain explains a good tank commander will make good use of the ground [Music] he'll have wrecked it beforehand maybe climbed out on foot got his binos out even walked out into the desert to look back and see what the position might look like from out there where the enemy's coming from [Music] if he knows his stuff he will have wrecked routes and other defensive positions from which he can observe and then pull forward and engage the enemy as he wishes [Music] once you've fired a couple of rounds then you'd want to be changing position because otherwise you're going to have everyone looking at you so you pull back off the position hopefully into some kind of dead ground you then move along through the dead ground and tanks will always try and follow dead ground that means ground that's not going to skyline you not going to silhouette you against the sky because that makes a much easier target to see using these tactics the elusive tank commander could be moving undetected all over southern basra he seems to have the helicopters covered wherever they go you're in a big vibrating noisy box that you can't hide from anybody can be heard from miles away so um you're presenting quite a big target open target to the enemy the only advantage you have is to keep low and to keep moving and keep moving fast but derby allen has a problem there's a limit to how fast any helicopter can go with a fixed wing aircraft the fast flow of air over the wings creates the lift it needs to stay airborne but a hovering helicopter creates lift on the spot by spinning its rotors through the air like rotating wings it's not so simple when the helicopter is moving forwards on one side the blades heading into the wind so there's a bigger airflow and more lift but on the other side the blade is moving with the wind so there's much less airflow and much less lift if the helicopter goes too fast the imbalance sends it out of control so the lynx manufacturers came up with a revolutionary rotor design this is built for speed i mean the blades that you've got here are composite main rotor blades they're specifically designed for high-speed flight the blades are advanced composites of carbon and glass fiber tough but highly flexible conventional rotor hubs have hinges allowing the blades to flap up and down on the advancing side where lift is higher the rotors flap up which reduces the lift on the retreating side they flap down increasing the lift so flapping restores the helicopter's balance but the links goes one step further the rotor hub has no hinges the blades are strong enough to flap just by bending so they're highly responsive and the tips are designed to cut through the air with maximum efficiency [Music] the hingeless hub and advanced blades make the links supremely agile you're going to go right up to the envelope of the aircraft i mean we backflip the links you know other people don't do that in 1986 the manufacturers flew a highly modified links in speed trials they fitted specialized high-power engines boosting power by 45 the links clocked an average of just over 400 kilometers an hour a world record that still stands in iraq high-speed technology gives pilot derby allen a fighting chance we move left and right to change height as well if you go from high to low it's very difficult for a guy observing to actually get a range estimation on you so you're just trying to confuse him basically the lynx bugs and swoops in the confines of the battle box low on fuel mission commander jim newton has eight minutes left then he must head back to kuwait you feel this huge responsibility someone's shooting at you they're all over us with rounds and and i can't see them it very quickly you you start running out of options but you can't you've got to keep going you've got to keep trying to find it we were scanning frantically during an engagement the inside of a t-55 would be an extremely busy place hot really cramped there would be the commander trying to locate enemy positions through the dust through the heat through the smoke through the sound of warfare he'd be trying to engage the enemy see where it's at and lay the gun onto that position at which point the gunner takes over and he's got more magnified sights so he'd be able to see more clearly what the what the enemy target is so all the time the commander's thinking have i got enough time to get another round up the spout and fire another round at the enemy or do i move what's the most effective thing to do so from the commander's point of view it's a really really stressful time the t-55 commander fires with everything he's got a shell every eight seconds i got feeling as he adjusted his rate of fires that he figured i had seen him the fact i hadn't meant that my life was becoming ever shorter in the operations tent senior pilot andrew clark briefs the next patrol to protect british ground troops he must keep her links over the battlefield even if newton is shut down so everything is going through your mind at the same time you've got friends on the at the sharp end being fired at they were hit you're going to be you know worried for them but also who would be the next up when would they be ready to go what would we tell them in terms of the threat they had to face newton has fuel to hunt for just five more minutes [Music] you couldn't see the target i couldn't see the target i was too busy trying to avoid the rounds and fly the aircraft the guy in the back he has a little bit of extra and he will probably pick up what's going on outside the aircraft quicker than the guys in the front who are obviously really preoccupied with their jobs and the gunner just said um boss i've just seen a muzzle flash it's like someone's saying jim you've just won the lottery because it felt like that because a muzzle flash is is what it's all about that's what i was looking for but newton has a shock in store the tank commander isn't where he's supposed to be instead he's crawled unseen through dead ground from basra in the north to the town of azubaia in the west the buildings make excellent cover and the lynx makes a perfect side on target in his sights the surprise is very much the element of the game in the desert the tank commander had uh flanked us basically you know i hate to say it but that's what he'd done he obviously got out around through my nine o'clock my left hand side as i was looking facing up towards azra he knew his terrain and he knew how to fight a battle with aircraft my dorgana got eyes on for me he described where he saw the muzzle flash he maneuvered the aircraft turned it through 90 degrees and i'm looking through the sights and he's talking me on from the building [Music] just as he's talking is a little white flash the muzzle flash actually was was a great relief because then i had something to focus on but equally that i could have been that particular muzzle flash might have been the end that muzzle flash means there's a nine kilogram warhead traveling at mach 2 towards you and of course then seconds later there's another explosion probably about 75 meters now [Music] the resourceful tank commander is still one step ahead his hiding place puts newton under immense pressure the guy was good it was a single story building and what gave it away for me was that it was a small playground the tank is in the grounds of a school [Music] he knew our rules of engagement would prevent me firing and he made that opportunity his own he'd reverse the tank through the wall he would then come out of the school fire and then go back into the school newton must make sure there are no children in the area and of course i'm just seeing something huge distances for a fleeting second through smoke and heat haze a muzzle flash you know i'm am i sure he switches to high magnification then the thermal sight there's no sign of life i can pull the trigger now thank god it's finally arrived this moment can come the final duel is about to begin low on fuel newton has just three minutes left to destroy the tank his weapon the tow anti-tank missile designed to penetrate heavy armor maximum range 3.75 kilometers and newton thinks the tank is just within reach before newton can fire pilot darby allen must bring the links to a stable firing position then hold it so that entailed us basically slowing down coming into more or less a static position which isn't a nice position to be missile flew derby starts the clock and he counts as the missile flies it spools out a fine copper filament newton keeps the tank in the crosshairs erecting the missile by wire it takes 24 seconds it's a long time it's a long time when someone's firing at you because i can see him he can see me the lynx is a sitting duck here at that point i saw a muzzle flash and i remember thinking to myself both the rounds are going to be crossing in the air and for a split second i try to think well which one will be quicker it's the shell the missile is still on its way holding the crosshairs on on the front of the tank don't forget he's moved back into the building and then when he said 24 25 and the missile just barely flopped into the sand in front of him there was this feeling of like you know that's it you've blown it you've that's it you've had it and uh i could just feel it around i mean the whole bloody patrol you had this kind of you know christ he's missed newton has misjudged the range and now he's got one minute of fuel left i selected another missile and i said no we're gonna have to go for run and shoot this time he plans to fire on the move distance three kilometers in closing you present a much more difficult target if you're moving so moving towards the target gave him a chance to calm down assess the situation and fall back on the training he'd had the running shot was to short the distance and if i'm honest with you it's just to try and put this all to bed just to get it done to get this resolved at the controls darby allen knows he's flying straight down the barrel of the tank's main gun it's quite disconcerting when you're running in quite a great rate of knots towards the target that's already shooting at you because all you're doing is just making it easier for him basically as you're getting closer the action bar pull the trigger i just held the crosshairs on the tank the whole time and i just waited and waited and waited and just prayed it seemed to take an eternity and it was like frame by frame it's how it felt it could have only been seconds but your senses become incredibly heightened it was just like a little white puff in the sides then catherine wheel sparks coming out from under the turret that's it we didn't have to say anything we just we just i puffed my cheeks out i think and he did the same back to me as if so you know a bit of a close one jimbo he held his hand up for me and it was visibly shaking and he said look at my hands and i just took his hand and i shook it and i said to him you're doing a great job carry on the realisation of what he'd just done was actually starting to sink in then i gave her i looked over my shoulder to to give the look i supposed to guns and he just kind of looked at him saying by the boss as if it was a normal day for him in fact the crew's mission begins the fiercest days fighting in the history of 847 squadron this sort of was a line in the sand for us we we knew we could get through that day as intense as it was so whatever else they could throw at us we could handle just as well after 11 days in total the squadron's helicopters destroy 43 major targets around southern basra the only sense of elation was that we hadn't lost anyone nobody had been shot down nobody been injured and we hadn't lost any aircraft jim newton comes under fire many times as the british finally win control of the city but it's the tank commander he faced on his first combat mission and he can never forget if i could have i probably would have said to him a huge amount of respect because i was so close to getting shot down by him and uh he fought bravely and and well i guess i feel lucky wow you

Channel: DangerTV

Views: 260,396

Keywords: helicopter wars duel in the desert, helicopter wars, helicopter wars season 1 episode 4, helicopter wars full episode, helicopter wars full episodes, helicopter wars full episodes online, danger, dangertv, dangertv special forces, special forces, special forces training, danger tv, Danger, Danger TV, DangerTV, special forces army, army special forces training, helicopters, helicopters at war, helicopter fighting, helicopter, helicopters flying, flying, heli, blackhawk, blackhawk rescue

Id: mGnhUpvGn3M

Length: 50min 24sec (3024 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 13 2021