SAS's Rorke's Drift: The Battle of Mirbat | July 1972

in july 1970 elements of the 22 sas regiment covertly deployed to oman a country that had for the past 15 years being grouped by rebellions that sought national reform and modernization the latest rebellion had started in 1963 in thofar province and by the end of the decade it had grown into a full-scale insurgency thus being supported by multiple communist nations among them the soviet union china and north korea it was against the backdrop of this national turmoil that oman's leader sultan sayed ben tamor was deposed off by his son kabus bin sayed on the 23rd of july 1970 and he subsequently became the new sultan of oman following his accession to power kabu's bin sayed looked to enact change in the country but before he could do so he had to deal with the insurgency being waged in dothar province and for this he turned to close allies for help including iran jordan and britain the latter of whom deployed elements to the sas to the country once in the theater of operations the sas would work in small groups known as british army training teams to help train the omani armed forces and engage in a hearts and minds campaign to subdue the insurgency by july 1972 operations by forces loyal to the sultan but almost brought the insurgency to its knees as they were struggling not only to maintain a hold on its territory but also support from foreign nations and the local civilian population as a result with their backs against the wall the insurgents decided to launch a large-scale offensive to reassert themselves as the dominant force in do far province and restore their credibility amongst their external partners the target selected for this attack was the coastal town of merbaut where a garrison of nine men of the sas and approximately 60 omanis were located in three complexes two forts and a building referred to as bat house all three structures in addition to murbat village itself were surrounded by barbed wire fence whilst a small omani detachment was holding the security outpost about a kilometer to the north the insurgent offensive commenced at around zero 500 on the 19th of july 1972 when a force of just over 215 surgeons began converging on murbat elements of which stormed and overran the security outpost once this position had been seized the attack was pressed just after zero 530 towards the main british omani garrison which was by now fully alert to the unfolding offensive at bat's house the nine-man sas team under the command of captain mike keely had taken up their defensive positions with two men manning the units 81 millimeter mortar six soldiers moving to the roof of the building whilst the ninth sergeant talaysi laba laba virgin serving in the sas relocated 400 meters to the east to man a 25 pounder field gun at the same time the 60-man omani detachment grabbed their equipment and took up positions inside the two forts looking out to their north and east the outnumbered garrison began to receive more to fire as swarms of insurgents advanced on and made gaps in the barbed wire fences after which heavy small arms and rocket fire began to be exchanged between the two sides at the gun pit sergeant la bollaba single-handedly brought the 25-pounder into action a field gun that normally required after six men to operate effectively despite this the sergeant loaded and fired shell off the shell into the enemy's direction until he radioed captain mike keely stating that he had been hit in the draw and was in need of assistance immediately the captain asked for a volunteer to go to the sergeant's aid with trooper sekonier takavesi also from fiji grabbing his rifle and running and the heavy enemy fire from bat's house to the gun pit where as an article documents he found la balabar firing the big gun alone the sergeant gave no indication that he was injured but indicated the need for helm takavesi ran to the fort store and called for help from the omani soldiers located inside he was heard by an omani gunner and takavesi grabbed him and both men raced back to the pit as takavesi cleared the sandbags the omani gunner fell forward as a bullet hit him in the stomach the omani gunner was walid kamis who although seriously wounded stayed in the gun pit and artoni provided assistance to the scs soldiers also engaged the enemy who are now flooding into the perimeter of the garrison and closing up to the defenses the close proximity of the enemy troops forced the two scs soldiers to begin firing the 25-pounder at point-blank range until troop attack of sc was hit in one of his shoulders although both were now wounded the two fijians remained in the pit and fought side by side with one another engaging the enemy with their rifles after a short while sergeant la bollaba broke off to man a nearby mortar but as he did so he was sadly hit for a second time and killed instantly meanwhile back at bat's house captain mike keeley was becoming concerned with the lack of information being received from the gun pit and so he decided to relocate to the position with trooper thomas tobin to check on and if need be reinforce the two fijians leaving bat's house captain keeley and trooper tobin made their way across open ground under enemy fire and eventually reached the gun pit where they found the omani gunner and troop attack of essie propped up against the sandbagged wall still firing on the enemy diving into the position captain keeley joined his fijian and omani counterparts in holding the front line whilst trooper tobin called over to the body of sergeant laba laba in the hopes of tending to his wounds but tragically there was little that could have been done for his colleague realizing this the trooper grabbed his rifle to join the other free at the sandbagged wall when he too was hit by a bullet that shattered his jaw with trooper tobin down captain keely trooper takavesi and the omani gunner remained in place and continued to engage the enemy elsewhere in the garrison the rest of the scs team alongside their romani counterparts were likewise holding the line although it was becoming increasingly clear that if assistance wasn't forthcoming the position would eventually be overrun corporal roger cole one of the scs soldiers position at bat's house recalled afterwards when i got back on the roof with sergeant bob bennett we saw a large troop marching towards us we looked at each other and said bloody hell it was our zulu moment i knew this could be our last half hour i had 17 rounds left bob had 10. and that's when pictures of my wife pauline and daughter natasha only nine months old came into my mind i would never let the enemy take me alive i would have shot myself with my last bullet then from the heavens above the fortunes for the beleaguered garrison drastically changed as a handful bac strikemaster aircraft of the omani air force arrived overhead flying low to the ground the omani pilots strafed the insurgents for cannon fire and air-to-ground rockets thus relieving considerable pressure on the troops below author and former member of the sas chris ryan writes that the arrival of the strike masters changed the outcome of the battle as soon as the insurgents saw those jets coming in they started to run for cover the demoralizing effect of air power on the enemy cannot be overstated directly behind the strike masters ground reinforcements in the form of an additional 22 ses soldiers under the command of captain alastair morrison were airlifted into the combat zone by three helicopters as soon as they touched down these reinforcements joined their colleagues at bat house and the two forts and eventually drove the insurgents back to beyond the barred wire fence from where the enemy withdrew in the direction their attack had materialized from all the while harassed by the strike masters by midday on the 19th of july 1972 the battle was considered over as additional reinforcements were brought in to strengthen the murbat garrison and helicopters were requested to evacuate the wounded among them trooper thomas tobin and trooper circonia takavesi the battle of murbat proved to be a turning point in the no far rebellion with a report noting that the insurgent defeated murbat had three major repercussions first in view of the heavy casualties they suffered it was considered that the insurgents were never able to deploy similar concentrated forces to mount attacks of the same scale and intensity elsewhere from the psychological aspect the insurgents had clearly lost credibility in a warrior society through decisive defeat in open combat where the odds were heavily in their favor thirdly the defeated murbat invoked serious political repercussions for the insurgent cause the faith in the younger fighters in their leaders had been shattered [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Liveth For Evermore

Views: 227,265

Rating: 4.9624028 out of 5

Keywords: British, Military, History, Education, Army, Air Force, Navy, Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, Liveth For Evermore, LFE, Special Forces, Rorke's Drift, SAS, S.A.S., Special Air Service, Chris Ryan, Strikemaster, SAS's Rorke's Drift, Mirbat, Oman, Omani, Qaboos bin Said, Sultan, SAS's Rorke's Drift: The Battle of Mirbat | July 1972, Talaiasi Labalaba, Fiji, Fijian, Battle of Mirbat, UK Special Forces, UKSF, Operation Storm, SAS in Oman, battle of rorkes drift

Id: g8BG6eutvWs

Length: 11min 36sec (696 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Luddite4Change]

Operation Oman on Amazon Prime is a good overview documentary of the British military effort in Oman during the late 60's/early 70s.