Posted on 08/23/2006 6:45:57 PM PDT by blam
British to adopt the tactics that beat Rommel
By Oliver Poole in Amarah
(Filed: 24/08/2006)
The soldiers of the Queen's Royal Hussars will today board a fleet of stripped-down Land Rovers, festooned with weapons and equipment, bound for the depths of the Iraqi desert.
Their mission is to adopt tactics pioneered by the Long Range Desert Group, the forerunners of the SAS, more than six decades ago in the campaign against Rommel in North Africa. They will leave Camp Abu Naji, the only permanent base in Maysan province near the local capital of Amarah, and head into the remote region near the border with Iran.
Rather than staying in a fixed spot well known to enemy fighters in the most violent of all the Iraqi provinces under British control, they will live, camp and fight on the move. Roaming through the sparsely populated areas of Maysan, an area as large as Northern Ireland, they will travel without heavy armour that would become bogged down in the sand dunes and sleep under the stars.
advertisement Resupply will come from air drops or transport aircraft landing on temporary runways. Lt Col David Labouchere, the regiment's commander, said that when they needed to act they would "surge" from the wilderness.
"Maysan is and will always be a problem child," he said. "These people are a little like Texans - armed and against anyone who is not one of them. They do not like foreigners and we are a foreign tribe in their midst."
The men are stoical about the prospect of living in gruelling desert conditions. One captain said: "Those who have been on desert training exercise are less keen. They know that after six days, you realise this is not so special after all. But it is good not to be a fixed target any more. Being here is very wearing on the nerves."
The Army stresses that this redeployment is not linked to constant mortar and rocket attacks on the old base of Camp Abu Naji. There, troops have endured a sustained attack, shredding nerves and marking their time with blood and lost limbs.
At least 281 mortars and rockets have hit the camp since the Hussars arrived in April. In the early months of the British presence, attacks were limited to one or two rounds a night. Now the Shia militiamen loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the fiercely anti-western cleric, have taken to firing barrages. One night in May, 54 mortar rounds detonated one after another.
On Tuesday, while the troops worked to pack up the camp, 17 more 122mm mortar shells came in, causing such fires that the camp ran out of fire-suppressant foam. The exact number of injured has not been made public.
Today the Union flag that has fluttered over the camp since the British arrived in April 2003 will be taken down and the base handed over to the local Iraqi authorities.
Brig James Everard, the commander of British forces in south-eastern Iraq, stressed that responsibility for security in Maysan province would not be transferred to Iraqi control.
The adoption of tactics from an older era of British desert warfare would allow proper control of the border area for the first time, he said. America has frequently alleged that weapons and volunteers are being brought in by Iran. One of the first tasks of the Queen's Royal Hussars will be to discover whether this is true.
Yep! Loved that TV series...
Let's hope those Land Rovers don't have Lucas Electric.
OK, Malaysia then -- well, that was Chinese Communists, so not a good fit - plus the Brits fielded some 35,000 military, call it sorta like Vietnam for the Crown, just fewer players. They did finally reach a political settlement.
The Boers? Not so good.
Third phase: Guerrilla war of September 1900 to May 1902 By September 1900 the British were in control of both Republics, except for the northern part of Transvaal. They however found that they only controlled the ground their columns physically occupied. As soon as the columns left a town or district, British control of that area faded away.
The huge territory of the Republics made it impossible for the 250,000 British troops to control it effectively. The vast distances between the columns allowed the Boer commandos considerable freedom to move about. The Boer commanders decided to adopt a guerrilla style of warfare.
The commandos were sent to their own districts with the order to act against the British there whenever possible. Their strategy was to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, and then to move off and vanish when enemy reinforcements arrived.
What to do? Small forces with access to airpower? Pacification? Time will tell - as will politics to a great extent.
Interesting footnote, due to the losses seen by Baden-Powell, he started a uniformed paramilitary youth organization focused on training young men in needed military skills - like map reading, marksmanship, camping and the like. It almost exists today.
Did I miss something?
Bad -- if you're not a Texan, that is... ;-)
I think he means B-26 invader built by douglas aircraft at long beach. The b-25 mitchell was built by north american at the hathorne plant.
great idea loose the landrovers and use hum-vs.
ok
Seen too many westerns.
How about small forces with nukes? That'll stop muzzie.
You need to read a bit more about the hit-and-run tactics that the Brits *very* successfully used to stall the Nazis in North Africa during WW2. They did very well in heavily armed Jeeps against heavy armor - by raiding rear areas and setting ambushes and then disappearing before the enemy could bring their strength to bear.
Basically, it's turning the terrorists' tactics against them. Let's face it, conventional tactics tend to be a bit ponderous.
LOL
How small?
You ARE joking,yes?.
If not,you show an appalling ignorance of history.
Firstly,it was Monty and the British(helped by the Canadians and Poles) who 'ran interference' in Europe.
It was the BRITISH who took on:
75% of all German armour in Normandy...
90% of all SS,SS Panzer or SS Panzer Grenadier units(not to mention crack Wehrmacht units such as the 21st PZ Div and the 'Panzer Lehr')...
ALMOST ALL armoured reserves sent to Normandy by Hitler in the summer of 1944(the Brit-Can-Polish forces even faced troops taken by the Germans FROM THE AMERICAN SECTOR!)
How ANYONE can,then or now,criticise the Anglo-Canadian-Polish forces for being 'slow' is beyond me.And shows utter ungratitude on the American part,then and now....
The Anglo-Canadian-Polish forces SOLE JOB was to tie down the Germans in the east,so as to allow US troops an easier job in the west.
And those forces under Monty did a FANTASTIC JOB under incredible pressure.They DID it.They DID what was asked of them and DEFEATED the cream of German armour in the summer of 1944...
And lets not forget Monty's actions at the Rhine in February during the battle for the Reichswald Forest either:
It was the British AGAIN who took on the reserves meant for the US 9th Army.
Hitler and Von Runstedt withdrew SEVEN inf divisions and THREE Panzer divisions to send north againast the Angko-Canadian forces who were ALREADY facing NINE crack Panzer and Paratroop divisions!....
And lets also remember Sicily shall we?...
AGAIN,Monty and the British and Canucks were the ones who drew the Panzer and the Hermann Goering Luftwaffe Panzer division to their sector,whilst Patton faced mainly Italian troops...
SActually we 'kicked Rommel's arse' in Op Crusader in late 41.
And Auchinleck defeated Rommel in the 'first battle' of Alamein in the summer of 42...
"they will live, camp and fight on the move."
The Mongols practiced this 1200 years before Rommel.
"These people are a little like Texans - armed and against anyone who is not one of them. They do not like foreigners and we are a foreign tribe in their midst."
Thank your lucky starts they AREN'T Texans.
That was my favorite TV series (short lived as it was) when I was a kid. After that it was Time Tunnel.
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