Operation Palliser: British Military Intervention in Sierra Leone | May - June 2000

foreign in March of 1991 the West African country of Sierra Leone descended into Civil War as Rebel forces operating under the banner of the Revolutionary united front launched a series of attacks in the east of the country with the aim of toppling the national government led by President Joseph Momo moving with speed and aggression the rebels quickly secured a number of towns and Villages near the border with Liberia and by the end of the year the Revolutionary united front has seized largest waves of Eastern Sierra Leone within these areas the rebels took control of numerous diamond mines which they used to purchase more weapons and vehicles and fund their expansion for me a few hundred fighters to well over a thousand in contrast the Sierra leonean Army which formed the backbone of the resistance to the Rebellion struggled to put up an effective defense of the east of the country as it only like the Manpower and equipment needed to fight the war but it also lacked a defined strategy to defeat the Ruf instead Army units were deployed piecemeal to the front line with to no Supply or Communications and with little means to support one another as a result these units became isolated and overrun by the fast-moving Rebel forces an article published by the Australian Army adds that it appears to have been government policy to under-invest in the Army over the previous two decades in order to reduce the threat of coups many soldiers had not fired their rifles in years many rifles were initially bolt action from the colonial era rather than the automatics used by the Ruf units had less than 30 percent of the vehicle establishment and less than 20 percent of the support weapons Logistics support was very poor deployed units had to make do of whatever ammunition they had lacking both the communications to ask for resupply and the vehicles to move it the situation facing the Sierra leonean Army was such that on the 29th of April 1992 a group of officers led by Captain Valentine Strasser marched on the capital Freetown and overthrew the government to president Momo Captain Strasser was subsequently declared the head of state of Sierra Leone and a new government was formed thanks to this new government the Army was greatly expanded and properly supplied so that by November of 1993 the Revolutionary united front had been driven out from its Holdings in Eastern Sierra Leone and had effectively ceased to exist as a fighting formation however the rapid decline of the Ruf marked the start of a new phase of the war as the remaining Rebels changed their strategy from conventional fighting to that to guerrilla warfare it was in this way that the Civil War escalated in its brutality as the Army struggled to transition into a counter-insurgency force and the Ruf began to regather its strength and systematically Target the local civilian population further the failure of the national on government to go to grip or the situation that's Captain Strasser being removed from office in 1996 and in the three years following his removal Sierra Leone saw no less than four new governments come to power all of which failed to improve the situation and bring a peaceful end to the Civil War instead during that time the rebels continued looting and burning Villages towns and cities and committing Mass atrocities against innocent civilians a report from the Human Rights Watch documents that the war has been characterized by the systematic and widespread perpetration of all classes of gross human rights abuses against the civilian population the rebels made little distinction between civilian and Military targets some of the atrocities committed by the Ruf Rebels were unthinkable infants and children were thrown into burning buildings the hands of toddlers as young as two were severed from machetes civilians were gunned down within their houses thrown from the upper floors of buildings and used as human Shields the arbitrary nature of these attacks served to create an atmosphere a complete Terror given the worsening situation in Sierra Leone the United Nations authorized in October of 1999 the deployment of a six thousand man strong peacekeeping mission to the West African country with the aims of strengthening the national government enforcing Law and Order and protecting the local population from Rebel attacks however by April of 2000 just six months after it was established this un mission was on the brink of collapsing over 490 peacekeepers have been taken prisoner by the rebels a further 27 had been killed none of the U.N objectives have been enforced and most alarmingly of all the Revolutionary united front has seized the initiative and are closed within 30 kilometers of the Sierra leonean capital or Freetown with these developments the U.N Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed to Britain France and America to intervene in Sierra Leone to ensure that the country didn't fall into Rebel hands given that Sierra Leone was part of the Commonwealth and had formerly been a part of the British Empire it was felt that Britain was best suited to lead the military intervention and it was on the 5th of May 2000 that the British government authorized the launching of operation palaceo our first duty is to protect the lives of British citizens in Sierra Leone and of others for whom we have Consular responsibility in view of the limited commercial opportunities for to citizens to leave Sierra Leone and the current insecurity we have taken the precautionary measure of deployments of a number of British military assets to West Africa I want to make it clear to the house and to the people of Sierra Leone that Britain were not abandon its commitments to Sierra Leone we shall continue to take the lead at the UN and elsewhere to restore the peace process we must not allow a few thousand Rebels to prevent the end to violence under the overall command of Brigadier David Richards the first British troops to deploy to Sierra Leone was an operational liaison and reconnaissance team of eight officers who deployed a free town on the 6th of May and met with Sierra Leone and U.N commanders to get a better understanding of the situation on the ground based off these meetings Brigadier Richards learned just how precarious the Allied position was and later that day he requested that A dispatch of British military assets be expedited otherwise Freetown would fall to the rebels within a matter of days accordingly on the 7th of May around 600 British paratroopers from the first Battalion the parachute regiment were deployed from their Garrison in Southern England to a forward staging area in Dakar Senegal the next morning the Battalion SEA company reinforced by the Detachment of men from the 22 SES regiment was flown into the Lungi International Airport with orders to secure the immediate area and prepare the airport to receive additional British troops and reinforcements for the U.N mission flying in on board an RAF C-130 Transport Aircraft SEA company quickly secured the runway and the adjacent terminal and by midday on the 8th of May the paratroopers were setting up defensive positions around the airport the signal was then sent out regarding the successful operation and by Nightfall the remainder of the first Battalion had been airlifted in from the car to reinforce C company meanwhile in conjunction with these operations a further 200 British paratroopers from the company of the second Battalion the parachute regiment had likewise been deployed from their barracks in England to the staging area of Dakar on the 7th of May off the news was received of first battalion's success at Lungi D company was flown into the airport in the evening of the 8th of May after which they were redeployed to the Aberdeen peninsula in the northern outskirts of Freetown that night here the company set up a small base of operations and began evacuating British citizens and other key individuals who sought to flee from the country within just three days their arrival the paratroopers have successfully evacuated over 400 civilians and established the firm British presence in Western free town on top of the army deployments the Royal Navy was also heavily committed to operation palacer for the Navy their role in the operation began on the 7th of May 2000 when orders were received for a naval task group to be assembled and deployed off the coast of Sierra Leone to provide administrative and fire support to the ground operations at the center of this task group will be the aircraft carrier HMS illustrious and the helicopter carrier HMS ocean both of which were then engaged in training in the Mediterranean and fielded a combined total of 25 aircraft in support of the two carriers would be the type 22 frigate HMS Chatham and the type 23 frigate HMS Argyle whilst the Royal Fleet auxiliary provided five logistic vessels to ensure that the task group was well supplied and able to remain at sea for an indefinite amount of time and finally embarked on HMS ocean where the Royal Marines of 4-2 Commando sailing around the coast of West Africa this Naval task group started arriving in theater on the 11th of May when HMS celestrius appeared off the coast of Freetown there are 13 harriers on board the next day she was joined by HMS Argyle and HMS Chatham and then on the 14th of May the task group was completed with the arrival of HMS ocean and her 10 helicopters once fully assembled in theater the naval task group began undertaking a multitude of tasks to support the conductor ground operations these included launching Harrier fighter jets to fly low over Ruf positions in a show of force conducting aerial reconnaissance flights and providing a much-needed airlift capability to un and Sierra Leone forces on top of these tasks Brigadier Richards instructed the Navy to make their presence physically known to the Ruf and to achieve this HMS Chatham and HMS Argyle made multiple trips up the Sierra Leone River and conducted live fire demonstrations to intimidate the rebel forces as see the two carriers also made their presence known by frequently sailing up close to Freetown which when a considerable way in ease and the tensions within the city and reassuring the local population as a result of this the number of civilians seeking to evacuate the country began to steadily decline throughout the remainder of May however whilst the British ground Naval operations were developing satisfactorily behind the scenes the British High command was experiencing difficulties for working with U.N forces who showed no urge to actually engage with and drive back that are UF to try and solve this issue Brigadier Richards embedded a number of British liaison officers into each U.N infantry battalion that was operating near Freetown but has the Brigadier later recalled the biggest problem was persuading them at least temporarily to move from a peacekeeping to a conventional defensive posture and convincing them that the Ruf were not Superman but were UN forces unwilling to move out of their defensive positions the key to pushing back the Ruf was to turn the Sierra leonean Army into a basic maneuver Force this we set about doing liaison officers were exchanged and key meetings were organized on a daily basis in SLA headquarters we provided a team to sort out their appalling logistic and Communications problems we also built them in operations room we found ourselves de facto directing the SLA campaign and heavily influencing the un's under British Direction the Sierra leonean Army was reorganized into a new force with a better supply chain improved Communications and a new structure centered around free infantry brigades these changes not only increased the morale of the Sierra leonean soldiers but also enabled them to better coordinate their actions so that by the 15th of May 2000 they had halted the iuf advance and the capital and driven the rebels back from the city of Waterloo to the vicinity of songo with this defeat the Revolutionary united front lost the initiative in the war and began to experience the vision within its ranks and high command and So within just 10 days of operation Palace are commencing the tide of the war in Sierra Leone had swung back into the favor of the Sierra leonean government and army without a doubt the intervention of British forces was crucial in achieving this success and on the 15th of May the British Secretary of State for defense Jeffrey Hoon explained to the House of Commons that the deployment to UK forces to see Sierra Leone has been an outstanding success the presidency UK troops on the ground has helped stabilize the situation in Sierra Leone and we are providing technical advice to the UN as to how matters might be further improved for the moment the rebels appear to be on the back foot the governments are Sierra Leone and the UN forces have retaken the initiative the first Battalion the parachute regiment is currently shouldering the main burden in Lungi airport however the maritime forces we have deployed provide vital flexibility for The Joint Force Commander Brigadier Richards in what remains a volatile and potentially dangerous situation if attacked our forces have the Rules of Engagement and Firepower to allow them to respond robustly just two days after secretary hoon's statement British troops did in fact find themselves in combat with Ruf Rebels for the first and only time during operation palisar the engagement took place on the 17th of May at a small Hamlet called Lungi LOL which sits around 23 kilometers east of Lungi airport in the wake of his Insurgent onto the airport on the 8th of May the first Battalion the parachute regiment I Consolidated this position in the surrounding area with the bulk of the Battalion digging in in a defensive premature around the airport itself whilst a 26-man Pathfinder platoon reinforced by a handful of 81 millimeter mortars was posted to Lungi LOL on the 16th of May with orders to guard the only road that linked the airport with the rest of Sierra Leone deploying into the Hamlet sometime that day the Pathfinders were soon notified by local civilians that's a large Ruf Force have been spotted forming up in the Woodland to the east after a tense night in their hastily dope fighting positions the British Pathfinders eventually got Ties on this Force at around 0-45 on the morning on the 17th of May when a group of 40 Rebels launched an attack down the main road towards Lungi LOL as soon as the rebels commenced their assault the British troops fired a number of Illumination rounds into the sky before unleashing a devastating volley of small arms and machine gun fire onto the enemy after just 10 minutes the iuf advance had been halted with 14 Rebels killed and a dozen more wounded whilst no British casualties were sustained fighting on a reduced scale then continued to the east of Lungi LOL until the late morning of the 17th of May when the Ruf finally disengaged and withdrew in the direction they had come from by then elements of the first Battalion SEA company in addition to a gazelle and two China helicopters had arrived from Lungi airport as reinforcements for the Pathfinders a contingent to Nigerian U.N peacekeepers had also been deployed to protect the rear of the British position in the aftermath the Battle of Lungi LOL and with a situation in Sierra Leone having stabilized Brigadier Richards and the rest of the British command in theater began preparing for the next phase of operations under this next phase operation palacer was to be terminated and replaced by a new Mission codenamed operation Basilica which would see the British forces reduce their presence in Sierra Leone and prioritize the training and modernization of the Sierra leonean Army as a first step towards this operational change the first Battalion the parachute regiments was withdrawn from Sierra Leone and replaced by the Royal Marines a 4-2 Commando who Moved ashore from HMS Ocean on the 25th of May 2000 immediately on their arrival the Royal Marines took over responsibility for the security of Lungi airport and for maintaining a visible British presence in Freetown and in the surrounding area simultaneously the Marines began laying the foundations for operation Basilica namely through the construction of a training center at Waterloo that could hold over 1 1200 military personnel after this Center was built the Marines likewise began to be withdrawn and in mid-juna 2000 4-2 Commando was replaced by a new unit designated as a short-term training team numbering around 300 British troops principally drawn from the 2nd battalion the Royal anglian regiment this team was intended to become the main British president since Sierra Leone and was tasked with training Sierra Leone and soldiers at the news center in Waterloo on the departure of the last Royal Marines on the 15th of June the short-term training team became operational and on that same day operation palacer officially ended an operation Basilica commenced in assessing the impact operation palacer had on the Civil War in Sierra Leone a U.S army report States the intervention of British troops as part of operation palaceo in May of 2000 managed to set the UN on the path to success the obvious professionalism audacious leadership and overwhelming military power of British soldiers intimidated the iuf and others while inspiring the UN and the governments are Sierra Leone operation palacer was also conducted with great speed troops were notified in one day and deployed to a holding area in Senegal the next they were in Sierra Leone in less than 36 hours and at maximum battle group strength within 64 hours the remarkable speed at which the British conducted operations also contrasted very favorably with the delays and differing of the UN and forced all factions and forces in Sierra Leone to fall winter line with UK objectives operation palacer was stunningly successful [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you for watching this video If you enjoyed it please be sure to leave a like And subscribe so that you never miss one of my future videos

Channel: Liveth For Evermore

Views: 273,812

Keywords: British, Military, History, Education, Army, Air Force, Navy, Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, Liveth For Evermore, LFE, Special Forces, Operation Palliser, Operation Silkman, Operation Basilica, Sierra Leone, Civil war, Operation Palliser: British Military Intervention in Sierra Leone | May - June 2000, 1 PARA, Freetown, HMS Illustrious, HMS Ocean, Royal Navy, Royal Marines, 42 Commando, UN, United Nations, UN Peacekeepers, Battle of Lungi Lol, British paratroopers

Id: tMLG5d_J8Oc

Length: 18min 55sec (1135 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 25 2023