Posted on 09/06/2003 9:43:45 AM PDT by knighthawk
THE Sunday Times today is able to tell the full story of the incredible impact that 80 or so Australian soldiers from the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment had on the war in Iraq.
The newspaper's Iraqi war team correspondent Ian McPhedran and photographer John Feder were granted exclusive access to the SAS at its base in Perth to interview soldiers who fought for 42 days in Iraq.
The SAS soldiers revealed how they captured the massive Iraqi "temple of doom" cement works 160km northwest of Baghdad, plus 40 prisoners, without firing a single shot.
And for the first time an Australian army officer used a jet fighter's harmless, but noisy, sonic boom as a shock-and-awe tactic to frighten opposing forces into submission and avoid collateral damage.
The cement works at Kubaysah, about 60km north of Highway One between Baghdad and Amman and 20km south of the huge Al Asad air base, was the biggest piece of civilian infrastructure in the area.
After the first 24 hours of the campaign, the SAS troops, who were called Ma Rung, or phantoms, by the enemy in Vietnam, had sent a message to the Iraqi leadership in Baghdad that one-third of their country was virtually gone. And during 42 days of at times intense fighting they did not suffer a single casualty, deployed 46,000kg of missiles and bombs in the first week alone and "neutralised" scores of Iraqi soldiers.
Along the way the Diggers treated wounded enemy, fed and watered prisoners and sent them home with a simple message: "The war is over."
The highly trained soldiers helped Russian diplomats, intercepted dirty Iraqi money and overwhelmingly won every fight they engaged in.
They also watched over this reporter during my forced departure from Baghdad down Highway One on day 13 of the war.
The primary mission of the SAS squadron, mostly veterans of Timor and Afghanistan, was to stop weapons of mass destruction from being launched from the 1991 "Scud line" in the western Iraqi desert.
They found no Scuds, but the 80 Australians took on and defeated more than 2000 Iraqis, including elite Republican Guard troops and counter special forces troops.
"We made the assessment that they were Iraqi secret intelligence service type people, very similar in mind set to ourselves. They were older, very hard-minded people, very determined," Squadron Commander Paul B told The Sunday Times. In many battles, SAS soldiers were outnumbered by 10 to one or more.
The head of the newly formed Special Operation Command, Major-General Duncan Lewis, said the cement works operation was a classic example of what the SAS could do.
"Minimum force was used, a bloodbath was prevented and the works was undamaged and back in operation hours later," Maj-Gen Lewis said.
The overwhelming success of the SAS mission to deny the enemy any ballistic missile launches was due to technology, training and superior communications, he said.
The fact that the squadron suffered no casualties did not surprise its commanding officer Rick B. Like all operational SAS personnel, he cannot be named or identified.
"We minimised the risks to our own people and to the Iraqis," he said.
Despite the lack of casualties and the string of victories, the CO said it was never easy.
"It was one on one and it was tough," he said.
The first SAS patrol to cross into Iraq by night spent 96 hours in open desert terrain without being spotted by anyone, including local Bedouin herdsmen and enemy forces.
"For them not to get compromised in that dead flat terrain was a significant effort," Paul said.
The primary aim of the SAS was to seek out Scud launchers and direct coalition aircraft to them or to destroy them as they went.
It is called manoeuvre warfare and is designed to put pressure on the enemy and to unmask them.
Shock and surprise and being completely unpredictable were the key components of the SAS tactics.
"We were a small-force element creating quite a disproportionate effect," Paul said.
The Diggers also had to deal with an unpredictable enemy.
Some Iraqi soldiers would put up their hands to surrender and then resume firing.
The Diggers even found one white flag with Iraqi bullet holes and enemy powder burns from being fired through.
Adding to the hardship of the special forces soldiers were temperatures ranging from -5C to 43C.
To top it off, the 100-plus SAS soldiers involved in the mission, both inside and outside Iraq, had no contact with their families for almost four months.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.