Coalition forces began their invasion of Saddam Hussain’s Iraq 20 years ago. Craig Allen, attached to 3 Para, recalls the huge amounts of abandoned armour and weaponr y left discarded in the wake of the Iraqi defeat
Twenty years have now passed since Coalition forces, including the UK Armed Services and the United States military, confronted Saddam Hussain’s Iraq in the Second Gulf War of 2003. As a reservist at the time, I found myself re-joining my regiment, the Paras, and accompanying the 16 Air Assault Brigade as a media escort and photographer. The campaign itself, although arduous in many respects, saw little hard fighting with Iraqi troops, most being reluctant to confront the might of the forces arrayed against them.
The shock and awe of US air power meant that many Iraqi tanks and armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) were simply abandoned on the battlefield. Likewise, the assault on Basra saw one of the biggest tank battles of the campaign, but the Iraqi T-55s and T-62s proved no match for British Challengers.
I accompanied 3 Para into the city and the Iraqi tanks we saw were either destroyed or abandoned, mostly in ‘hull down’ positions on the outskirts of town. On April 25, a so-called ‘Thun…
