The Gulf Conflict Part 1 - Defensive Operations

[Music] [Music] so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] on the 2nd of august 1990 at 2 a.m local time iraqi forces invade kuwait in overwhelming numbers the emir escape to saudi arabia by helicopter his brother is killed amid heavy fighting around the palace in kuwait city iraqi troops have invaded kuwait and are reported to have taken over the capital kuwait city on the main gulf road either side of the hotel there are 280 the military success of the iraqi invasion was never in doubt for the kuwaiti armed forces were no match for the might of the iraqi army the fourth largest and among the best equipped in the world [Music] [Music] but why did the iraqi leader saddam hussein decide to invade the small oil rich shakedom on his southern border iraq itself has massive oil reserves second only to those of its huge southern neighbor saudi arabia and with oil representing over 90 percent of its exports the immediate source of conflict with kuwait lay in the falling price of oil kuwait the iraqis claimed was pumping oil at a rate which was directly contributing to the slump in world oil prices in addition while saudi arabia had agreed to write off the billions of dollars it had loaned iraq during the eight years of war with iran but had ground to an inconclusive halt in 1988 kuwait refused to write off its loans also running into billions of dollars other long-standing areas of dispute with kuwait included the shared wealth of the huge rumalia oil field straddling the border between the two nations and the sovereignty of the two kuwaiti islands warba and bubiyan which effectively control access to iraq's only major seaport um underlying all of these issues however was the desire of saddam hussein to enhance his standing in the arab world he saw the prospect of swift and certain victory over a small and vulnerable neighbor as a means of demonstrating his domination of the gulf region and he banked on the conflicting interests of the soviet union and the western powers blocking any effective action by the united nations as they had done so often in the past instead of staging their coup d'etat this proves to be a serious miscalculation the polarized policies of the cold war years are no more and even as saddam's troops are pouring into kuwait on day one of the invasion president gorbachev joins president bush in a mutual condemnation of iraqi aggression on that same day august the second with unprecedented unanimity the united nations security council passes resolution 660 condemning the invasion and demanding the withdrawal of all iraqi forces the prime minister mrs thatcher is at this time on a visit to the usa she lends her full support to the president's uncompromising response to the iraqi invasion prime minister thatcher and i are looking at it on exactly the same wavelength concerned about this naked aggression condemning it and hoping that a peaceful solution will be found the arab league too is swift in its condemnation of iraq but the strong leadership necessary for a swift arab solution to the iraqi aggression does not materialize the united states meanwhile urges the saudi and turkish governments to cut off the pipelines by which iraq exports the bulk of her oil turkey acts quickly but the saudi pipeline remains open during the confusion and uncertainty of the next few days all the time however iraq's hold on kuwait is being rapidly consolidated by its hundred thousand strong invasion force the spearhead of which are the elite republican guard divisions well equipped with modern armor and artillery largely supplied like the iraqi air force by the soviet union which through the years of the cold war had fostered iraq as a client state crucial to its influence in the region [Music] in addition to soviet-made arms and aircraft iraq also possesses over a hundred mirage f-ones capable of launching exo-set missiles posing a particular threat to shipping in the gulf iraq's capability to manufacture and deliver chemical weapons had been demonstrated only too clearly by their use against the kurdish civilian population in the north of the country and the development by iraq of long-range variants of the soviet-made scud missile raised the possibility of such weapons armed with chemical warheads being deployed in kuwait and threatening the civilian population of saudi arabia's northern towns and cities i want to see the arab states august the 5th four days into the invasion president bush voices his concern that no positive action had yet been proposed by the arab nations i am disappointed to find any comment by anyone that apologizes or appears to condone what's taken place mrs thatcher speaking in aspen colorado underlines the british government's desire for concerted international action against stand iraq and be counted because a vital principle is at stake an aggressor must never be allowed to get his way the following day august the 6th u n resolution 661 imposes an embargo on all trade with iraq except for medicine and humanitarian food supplies the only abstentions come from cuba and the republic of yemen iraq's immediate response is an announcement that the bulk of its oil exports will henceforth be rooted via the pipeline crossing saudi arabia in a further effort to intimidate king fahd meanwhile u.s defense secretary richard cheney flies into riyadh for urgent talks with the king two days later on august the 8th as iraq declares its annexation of kuwait the first us troops and aircraft begin arriving on saudi soil [Applause] four thousand men at the 82nd airborne division and with them f-15 long-range strike aircraft flying non-stop from their bases in the united states refueling in flight from tanker aircraft based in spain and sicily america does not seek conflict nor do we seek to chart the destiny of other nations but america will stand by her friends the mission of our troops is wholly defensive hopefully they will not be needed long they will not initiate hostilities but they will defend themselves the kingdom of saudi arabia and other friends in the persian gulf planning for the possible deployment of british troops in saudi arabia is centered on the headquarters of the first british corps in baor after i talked to the commander-in-chief we and core headquarters did look very carefully to see what we had available in the first british corps at that time we did a stock a stock check and then later at the 7th of august again after i talked to commander-in-chief within core headquarters only we looked at the implications of sending first an armored division secondly an armored division minus an armored division consisting of two brigades and also of an armored grip brigade however we still didn't have any clear direction about what was required we again having looked at those three options looked at a number of others for instance a medium reconnaissance brigade an artillery brigade an aviation regiment so that if we were going to be suddenly asked to send something we we knew exactly what we could and couldn't do in fact when it comes the british government's initial response stops short of sending ground troops i've given instructions today for one squadron of tornado air defense fighters to move shortly to assist with the air defense of saudi arabia this squadron is already in cyprus and together with its necessary air transport and tanker support we'll move forward to saudi arabia as soon as possible within 24 hours tactical communications are established in riyadh for the british contribution to the defense of saudi arabia codenamed operation granby operating from headquarters raf strike command at high wycombe air chief marshal sir patrick hein is appointed uk joint commander in overall command of all british forces sent to the gulf area his commanders in the region commodore paul haddocks senior naval officer middle east and air vice marshal sandy wilson commander british forces arabian peninsula yes on arrival at dharan uh where arrived first of all there was an immense amount of activity i mean this was the 12th uh of august two days after the americans have arrived our own contribution of a tornado f3 squadron had arrived the day before and this enormous base which is difficult for many people to grasp unless they've seen saudi arabian bases but a general air force airfield we could fit seven air raf airfields into this sort of size of airfield we had there absolutely covered with airplanes i think there was something like 14 wide-bodied aircraft american air force already in their unloading hercules enormous activity and already the americans were mounting combat air patrols when i moved on to riyadh where i set up my headquarters with the american forces um matters were a little cooler but i think there was some considerable confusion amongst the saudis who really bewildered with what was going on and quite amazed at the pace of the american buildup and of course our own swift response had taken them quite by surprise i think when i took up my command the forces in the gulf were the armilla patrol and the armilla patrol's function for many years had been to provide direct support to uk flag merchant shipping operating in the gulf and in the very initial days of the crisis that did remain my main concern to ensure that british shipping within the gulf area was going to be safe and we therefore gave both close and distant support to uk flag shipping within the gulf as the un resolutions to do with the embargo began to be formulated our focus started to change from protection of shipping to enforcement of the embargo and we in conjunction with our with our allied navies um set up a mechanism of of challenge identification and board and search if required which had his concept of sort of layered defense and we had shipping outside the gulf and at various choke points coming through the gulf uh so that any ship coming in would find itself identified as early as possible a hundred thousand ton tanker determined to go somewhere it's a very hard beast to stop so we did have a real concern there as to how we were going to do that the earlier we identified the likely blockade runners and got people on board them to inspect them the better and our aim for inward bound ships was always to try to do this in the gulf of oman where there was lots of sea room and for outward bound ships from iraq to identify them as early as possible before they had got very far down the gulf itself crucial to the political credibility of the coalition now rapidly taking shape is the decision on august the 10th at the arab league summit in cairo in which 12 member states including both egypt and syria vote to send military forces in support of saudi arabia meanwhile just two hours after their arrival at dahran from cyprus on the 11th of august raf tornadoes are participating in combat air patrols with the united states air force and within a further 48 hours a squadron of ground attack jaguars with vc 10k tanker support is operational at thumb rate air base in oman we went out there in a very uncertain situation and we really didn't know whether we'd be going to war the next day so we most important that we had to put up that air defense guard and of course it was backed up under the saudi ground environment of ground radars and everything else but also of course aywax was there 24 hours a day i was responsible for negotiating firstly with the americans and then with the saudis to come up with a command and control arrangement uh that would stand the test obviously of both the um lead into any war and of course war itself and we quite clearly identified the benefits of going under american command because of our common training common equipment and everything else and basically it was an american show it's american infrastructure and so on because it was desperately important um during the stage that we didn't have an accident shooting down of iraqi aircraft that of course could precipitate the conflict for years we've been dealing with a with a european enemy that operated very discreet soviet type aircraft here we are operating against the enemy that had both french and western and other aircraft as well as soviet so we had a tremendous problem in this identification area but happily we didn't root any aircraft down throughout august the coalition forces steadily grow and take on a truly multinational character in terms of manpower and equipment however it is the military might of the united states that underwrites the credibility of operation desert shield by the third week of august american ground forces are arriving in saudi arabia at the rate of a thousand per day [Music] the build-up of coalition forces is given added momentum by continuing iraqi intransigence on august 15 saddam hussein sues for peace with iran acceding to all iranian claims arising out of the enormously costly and inconclusive eight-year iran-iraq war thus reducing his military commitment on his eastern border fears for the safety of western nationals held in kuwait and iraq deepen as the iraqi regime announces its human shield policy of dispersing foreigners to key military and industrial sites throughout iraq but when saddam hussein specifically offers to trade the freedom of those citizens of many nations he holds against their will in return for concessions there can be little doubt that whatever these innocent people are called they are in fact hostages saddam hussein is now trying in his tactics to hide behind western women and children and use them as human shields and use them as part of his negotiations we do not enter into such negotiations these people are entitled to certain fundamental human rights which are being totally flouted to the repugnance of the whole of the civilized world on august 22nd china deals a body blow to any last hope that saddam hussein might have of a split in world opinion by announcing that there would be no chinese veto of any security council resolution approving military action the isolation of iraq becomes virtually complete when on august 24th president raf sanjani of iran says he has no objection to iraq being forcibly ejected from kuwait august the twenty fifth u n resolution six six five formally endorses the use of measures commensurate with the enforcement of the trade embargo against iraq the activity of the occupying iraqi forces is carefully monitored by late august the construction of extensive fortifications and bunkers along the entire length of the border between kuwait and saudi arabia is clearly visible and the prospect of a prolonged military standoff punctuated by inconclusive peace talks while sanctions take their gradual toll on the iraqi economy begins to emerge as a distinct possibility september begins with the welcome departure from iraq of 200 british women and children held there as part of saddam's human shield policy the house will be familiar september parliament is recalled from its summer recess to debate the crisis in the gulf we have deployed a squadron of tornado f3 air defense aircraft a squadron of tornado ground attack aircraft and a squadron of jaguar aircraft for ground support they're stationed in saudi arabia bahrain and oman they are backed up by vc-10 tanker aircraft and nimrod maritime patrol aircraft one royal navy destroyer and two frigates are in the gulf a second destroyer is on its way as our three mine clearance vessels there are also a number of support ships in attendance a limited number of ground forces are deployed to defend airfields and provide security generally this is already a valuable contribution to the defense of saudi arabia and the gulf but we believe some additional forces will be needed and their composition is under consideration when we were told we would set a brigade it wasn't difficult to choose seven farm brigade they weren't chosen as some people suggested because they were famous desert rats they were chosen because they were the right people in the right place at the right time they had the best equipment they had challenger they had warrior they were well led they had also nearly all of them been able to go to canada during the summer so they were in a high state of training so i didn't find it at all difficult to point towards 7th album brigade and save it basically people who should go training in bar was uh was a problem because we had a period of about seven to ten days when we had the equipment but uh thereafter we had a period of three weeks while the equipment was on the seas when we could only really carry out individual training so we had a almost reverse cycle where we had collective low-level collective training typically crew training or crew firing of the weapon systems and platoon and maybe company level activities then the equipment was put on ships then we went into an individual cycle where people brushed up their individual skills weapon firing nbc um all of those sort of things we had to take a lot of extra people um into all our regiments to bring them up to the war establishment i mean forty field had some 500 on peace establishment went up to a thousand for instance and the staffords took over 100 men in from various different battalions throughout germany and elsewhere and of course they all came at a different level of training which did pose us with problems but the strength of the regimental system played a part here and if you got for instance a grenadier guardsman joining the staffords he would be absolutely determined that he wasn't going to let staffords down equally at the same time he wasn't going to let the grenadier guards down so he worked exceptionally hard to make certain that his level was exactly the same standard [Music] we were determined and were directed only to send the best equipment challenger and warrior and it wasn't all in the right place so we had to do a certain amount of moving equipment around this meant robbing peter to pay paul we had to take spares away and unfortunately we were very short of spares and the reliability of some of our equipment particularly challenger uh was very worrying but we did get there but there was a big price to pay ju bail with its modern port and airport facilities already being extensively used by the u s marine corps for the deployment of its forces to defend the saudi border area with kuwait is also the favored port of entry for the seventh armored brigade but did it have the capacity to accommodate a british armored brigade group as well as the u s marines the initial record was not a tactical recce it was an operational record and i and the team were out there to make certain that there was ports and and outfields that were capable of taking us and also that was the infrastructure there to look after what at that stage was likely to be 8 000 men but of course rose later to some twelve thousand men and it was a fascinating period because as soon as you arrived you realized that the americans were up and running and were there and there was a vast amount of equipment already in the ports in our fields which was going to actually make our entry quite difficult and then we had to find out whether we could feed 8 000 men in the water and so on and so forth and you must remember too that temperatures when our soldiers were going to arrive was going to be up into 120 degrees and that was going to be difficult too and how are we going to cope with that as the intensive training program continues in baor the brigade equipment is transported to bremerhaven from where the first ships depart for the gulf on september twenty eighth bound for al jubail [Music] the deployment of seven armored brigade effectively doubles the number of british personnel committed to the multinational force it was appropriate therefore that a new post be created that of british forces commander middle east commanding the units of all services in the gulf and reporting to the uk joint commander at high wycombe on october the first the appointment of lieutenant general sir peter de la billiere is announced we were intent at that stage to protect saudi territory from any further aggression by iraq and therefore when they came out they came under command of the marines on the east coast because uh that was first of all the uh probably the the the area that was most threatened by the iraqis uh because their logistics were suited to the lengths of the lfc in that particular area and because they had a empathy with the marines which they very quickly built up and and they the marines were in american terms at that stage the most significant force in theater although later that was not to be the case so the significance really was that we were making a major ground contribution to the defense of saudi arabia and it enabled us to break in to the coalition complexities in a fairly gentle way the other vital and most important change that this brought about was that for the first time we were involved in operations involving the air force the navy and the army and that of course meant that the joints to try service they caught it had to come out and it was therefore for that reason that i eventually came out in my appointment as british forces command the middle east as general de la billiere takes command and troops of seven brigade begin departing for the gulf the un security council agrees resolution 670 imposing an air embargo on iraq this enables further international action to be taken to deny iraq the means to sidestep un sanctions by importing spare parts and other strategic supplies by air the latest in a growing list of security council resolutions demonstrating the resolve of the international community not to allow iraqi aggression to succeed the planning in saudi arabia in those early days was really under saudi overall control but american detailed guidance i think that would be the right way to put it and the plans were very simple they were to defend saudi arabia there were no complexities about how we were going to carry out an attack or not very much about combining the plans of the navy air force and the army at that stage because we were waiting for an initiative from the iraqis is not taking the initiative ourselves so it's purely straightforward simple defensive operation and this was brought about by me being involved with norman schwarzkopf in daily discussions and briefings as far as the raf was concerned they were working as is normal in air operations under the central control of the americans who were the largest users air force wise and their operations were coordinated by them and as far as the navy is concerned at that stage not very much changed we in the american navy in the gulf had for a long time had a close working relationship but in no time during my tenure of office was i under any american command we had very close liaison with the americans and i offered my forces to the americans in support of various board and search operations to do with the embargo but this was done by mutual agreement and not by any delegation of authority and we had good relations too with the small but quite potent gulf navies but we were aware that other navies were on their way um the french were there almost as soon as we were the canadians the australians the dutch they were all coming and we heard rumblings that from further afield such as argentina naval forces were coming as well so getting those forces to present a cohesive and united front outwardly at least was very important and was an important part of our of our political resolve in those early days [Applause] [Music] in the air saudi and american a-wax aircraft monitor the activities of the iraqi air force around the clock while the coalition air forces mount continuous combat air patrols to counter the ever-present threat of an iraqi airstrike we of course knew that he had a capable air force he had some good aircraft from soviet mig-29s mirages he didn't have a lot in that category but nevertheless he had a lot of other aircraft that were very capable and we didn't know of course what his intentions were had he decided that he wished to move into saudi arabia he had a disposal and air force caused us considerable difficulty i don't think it was until about the middle september that we felt we had the level of force to to cope with any contingency at that time though we were watching his flying on a daily basis he was not doing a great deal of flying he was not doing much night flying he was not doing a lot of large formation flying the sort of thing you'd need to do if you were going to throw pose a serious threat to one of the saudi airfields and so on but my perception changed because as he saw the build-up of the coalition forces he decided to change his tactics and we did see us start to see an increase in night flying we did see some aircraft moving in the sort of profiles that would indicate that they could attack saudi airfields and so on and uh i think it was right that we never underestimated the threat i don't think any of us guessed at that stage that uh he wouldn't come out and fight on the day by mid-october the total numbers of ships combat aircraft tanks and manpower committed by the coalition partners have grown very significantly in manpower terms the uk contribution including the seventh armored brigade group totals twelve thousand while us forces now number in excess of a hundred and seventy thousand the chief architects of the military planning which underpins this rapid and continuing build-up of military force are general colin powell chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and general norman schwarzkopf commanding general central command and now commander u.s forces in the gulf my gut's told me the same thing ever since i've been here and that's we've got a big job to do and every every night when i go to bed at night i think what i'm going to do the next morning when i get up and every morning when i get up i think what i'm going to do every hour after that you know where this is a big enterprise over here and a lot of responsibility and i take it very very seriously and i and frankly half the night i think about it too general schwarzkopf's mission has two main objectives first to ensure that saudi arabia and the other gulf states are secure from the threat of further iraqi aggression and second to demonstrate that the member nations of the coalition are in deadly earnest in support of u n resolution 660 to the effect that iraq must withdraw from kuwait unconditionally united nations moves swiftly and decisively condemning iraqi aggression demanding an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of iraqi forces from kuwaiti soil the five permanent members of the security council spoke with one voice and at the request of saudi arabia we the united states moved quickly to put into effect the defense plans we at central command had prepared to enable us to respond to just such a crisis the british were right there with us shoulder to shoulder like us you had warships already there on station in the gulf you sent aircraft to help defend saudi air space and when we wanted the support of your ground troops they too were sent early in october the royal naval presence in the gulf is augmented by the arrival of three hunt class mine countermeasure vessels urgently required to combat the ever-present threat from iraqi mines this is a vital part of the protection provided by the royal navy to the steady flow of ships into and out of al-jubail that are henceforth to constitute britain's sea tale with four frigates albeit with some more on the way i was clearly hard pushed in terms of my own national forces to do this and we looked after their safety through that transit of the red sea really through distant support and through the cooperation with our allies the americans had major naval forces in the red sea itself they were well aware through us of the daily movements of our shipping and kept a weather eye open for us as they came into the gulf uh clearly we were able to do something more direct in their support and indeed we provided both distant and close support to those ships as they came up we had also been very conscious of the threat from mines once more to the approaches to al-jabail where they were going to offload and we had arranged to mount a mine sweeping operation to secure the approaches to al jabal and this was completed just before the first ships arrived when we arrived in javale clearly time was not on our side we were under pressure to set up the logistic base quickly because the operational picture was fairly unclear and we had a great deal of stock and equipment to receive marriott and send out into the desert the port operators were busy unloading ships 10 regiment rct were moving stocks away from the from the docks and putting them into the force maintenance area supply areas and some of which were 20 kilometers out into the desert 33 field hospital was setting up our field hospital in the jabal area and indeed 24 field ambulance see my own field ambulance in the forced maintenance area was providing medical cover for the thousands of soldiers who were waiting to deploy out into the desert at this stage on arrival in algebra i find myself with a lot of eager soldiers nowhere to live and operate from and initially no equipment to to carry out any tasks the the biggest problem for us on arrival in algebra was to uh was was to assess the many tasks we'd been given allocate manpower and indeed vehicles as they began to arrive across the jetty i had been sent there initially to receive my vehicles and then assist with the with the uh the outlook of the ships coming into the port but i was also given the responsibility of running reception the reception of seven brigade group through the port of algebra to my surprise also we were given the responsibility to run the 2000 man tented camp which eventually became affectionately known as baldrick lines that in itself was a massive task the tented camp wasn't completed by the time we got there it had there was no infrastructure no facilities and therefore i had to detach a large element of the regiment quartermasters department essentially to running the tented cabins and setting it up for two thousand men all the while of course uh equipment uh was arriving on the jetty seven brigade were arriving day and night into the sheds and we had all that to cope with as my vehicles arrived we organized them into sections troops and squadrons and began began the task of moving equipment away from the dockside there's a feeling of excitement buzzing around which i'm sure you can feel the boys in the sheds woke up this morning with a purpose going to get the kit unloaded and really looking forward to getting out into the desert and working alongside the american marines it's very exciting we took over a dockside warehouse which was just a huge building about the size of a football field and we set up in there to carry out a modification program on the challenger tanks we were also doing some work modification work on the warriors but we did those outside on the keysight itself there was a problem with the air filtration system of the challenger tanks which was known about in germany but because the conditions were such it wasn't dusty and sandy except on saltill we could get away with it and there was no urgency for the modifications to be fitted in the desert sand would become a real problem and therefore it was vital that that modification was fitted we were under great pressure we had to do a squadron a day initially each tank took us 18 hours and therefore to produce 16 or 17 tanks which we were doing um we were under great time pressure we started at seven in the morning and the first day we'd actually finished about three in the morning ready for the next lot to come in at seven that same morning the setting up of the jabua range where we had chosen to do our fire maneuver to make certain first of all the guns were firing correctly and then to do the absolutely essential training that was going to get us ready for war was a very complicated business i got heavily involved in this because when you're dealing with the emir of al jabel for instance israeli commander has got to go and see him and so of the first thing that was necessary was to get the ml's permission to move bedouin settlements from off the area that we've been given to do this maneuvering in and he was extremely cooperative then with his staff we sent our own staff out to ask the bedrooms to move and then to move their camera herds off was what was clearly prime camel grazing area now that of course wasn't the end of it because we then had to mark and survey the entire range in which was a complicated performance but having marked it we then had to patrol the borders each day before we fired but again once you've done that and remembering that there were patrolling aircraft overhead the whole time there were hundreds of sorties going up towards the kuwaiti border from dakhran and al-jabail that our space above the range had to be cleared we were in opposition to the americans in a way at that stage because they were setting up really what i would call just straightforward gallery type ranges for tanks and artillery at which they merely fired their weapons we wanted a very different approach uh we wanted a live firing range with movement uh up to squadron uh indeed to squadron level so we we had a bit of a problem getting that idea over the americans to get our range cleared but we did manage it eventually and our first round went down the range at about 8 30 on the 2nd of november the problem that we faced in getting a brigade ready for war was how do you get away from the normal safety regulations that exist say in batters and persuade them that the maneuver is free and open to them and they can far under war type conditions while in training if you like and for the first time we realized that it might be possible that we'd kill people during training once we reduced the safety levels now that may seem a very obvious comment when you're preparing for war but until you're actually put into that position it doesn't really come home to you and of course general peter lillabilia was quite clear as to how we had to go about it and and made my job much easier as a result by you know backing me up and and making um quite clear that he understood about the reduction of safety standards as well we were extremely well trained because of batters um so we had a good base to start on uh though of course even when we got out to the desert there were still new faces amongst us and i had two new company commanders but the first bit of live firing we did was really up to companies squadron group level and no higher on the lower side of life so to speak that we did a platoon level to an assault sorting of trenches and then we gradually moved up to the company squadron group attack using all our weapons systems so we gradually brought it up and a lot of this was education because some of our weapon systems were not functioning as well as perhaps we'd like in the desert so there's an educational process in the live firing package that we did initially the straightforward tank firing itself wonderful to have an open piece of desert with marked out by ourselves complete freedom to fire within that at such territories could be arranged and then when the fire maneuver side of life came on we had the engineers there with us some obstacles across the artillery live fire being incorporated into our exercise and of course the infantry mortars as well that was quite exciting many of the peacetime safety restrictions and distances were dramatically reduced and so we had bigger bangs much closer to us and of course for once we had a real sense of purpose there was an enemy we'd known about we read about we could hear uh hear about on the radios and realism was actually very easy to achieve and of course we actually had the all arms aspect forever present with us rather than having to try and arrange it rather artificially in germany well the irish desires were in an interesting position because having just returned from england in a split role in in the uk um we had never been to the great batters in fact we had only done one short exercise as a regiment on soltow and we hadn't had infantry on that either so in terms of training as a regiment or as a combined arms group we had done very little we have plenty of enthusiasm i can tell you that and of course our spell on the ranges prior to going immediately prior to gang was very successful we deployed into the desert and our priority was to really finish off the individual training that had been conducted in baor our emphasis had been on individual training in germany because it was felt that if we could perfect all those individual skills such as tank gunnery um firing 94 millimeter law then we had some really good building blocks on which to work up the rest of the training there were some things that we couldn't do like find 50 caliber machine guns which we then possessed but we didn't have the ammunition or arranged space but that was soon overcome when we got to algebra and were able to train up with the u.s marines the early days were very crucial to us in particular having not done a lot before and i issued a very short directive which was that we had to learn to live and fight in the desert by the middle of november we lived under a pretty strict routine although we were a long way from the enemy at that stage but it was important to start training for war right away and it was no longer just training we had to learn how to use and maintain our equipment very quickly there'd been a lot of criticism about the equipment before we went we wanted to prove them wrong we had to learn how to maneuver in what was a much bigger space than we'd ever maneuvered in before and we had to learn how to do it in combination with the infantry and with the artillery and therefore the first three weeks of training was crucial it was very very intense a lot of it done at night because of the heat but by the end of it i reckoned that we could have gone to war the culmination of the firing on jaber range was an exercise called exercise for rosa sharp which took in an armored infantry company an armored squadron guns and mortars all all firing us in it took a certain amount of planning but as we crossed the start line when we put the very first company in squadron in i realized at the time that we just hadn't prepared for the exercise as they would prepare for such an exercise at batters and although recce that we must assume the um safety staff participate in we had had one recce and has seen the ground that once only we crossed the start line everything was firing the warriors were firing us in the tanks were firing us in and the guns were coming down and about 300 meters short of the objective you realize that it was all still firing even the guns were firing on the objective and i as a principal safety man had my head out of the turret and i didn't think anything was going to stop firing i felt right at that moment and with a chap sitting in the tummy next to me that we had completely lost control but it was at that moment when i really felt i ought to stop the whole thing that you realize that the state of the training of the soldiers was so good that they were controlling themselves and the safety staff were there to act to stop any horrendous safety error but that we could allow the margin to go down in this training for war to see all that firing going on to see those guns firing infantry right onto the objective and then lifting was a sobering experience and i think in the first period of firing we wounded five people mostly through grenade firing but the message was rammed home that you were responsible for your own safety that is a message that we've got to work on i think in the future as well and so once that had happened we then did this week's firing period with extremely um fluid movement and i felt very confident the end with the level of knowledge because of batus in 1990 that we were ready for war by the 16th of november after consultation with king fodd and our other allies i have today directed the secretary of defense to increase the size of s forces committed to desert shield to ensure that the coalition has an adequate offensive military option should that be necessary to achieve our common goals the increase in ground forces announced by president bush is by any definition a very substantial one it includes two further armored divisions an armored brigade and two mechanized divisions in addition another marine corps amphibious group three u.s navy carrier battle groups another battleship and yet more combat and support aircraft are to be sent to the gulf so by the time the defense secretary mr tom king visits seven armored brigade to witness the completion of their fire and maneuver exercise the decision has been taken to give the coalition forces the capability to plan for offensive action it is now three and a half months since iraq invaded kuwait and has continued to defy the united nations demand to withdraw sanctions have left iraq increasingly isolated the royal navy has played an important part in this embargo but saddam hussein shows no sign yet of complying with un resolutions it remains the government's firm objective to resolve this crisis as soon as possible and by peaceful means the government has today decided to deploy an extra brigade a divisional headquarters and supporting arms they will join seven armored brigade in saudi arabia to form the first armored division you

Channel: British Army Documentaries

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Id: pyKbV-tCLi4

Length: 51min 54sec (3114 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 28 2020