Kriegsgeschichten Einstellungen

[Dave76]

So, ich dachte mir mal ich mache einen Kriegsgeschichtenthread auf. Es geht darum interessante, spannende, unglaubliche, haarsträubende, wagemutige, lustige oder was auch immer Berichte von Einsätzen zu posten.

Ich fange einfach mal an:

The Pebble Island raid

During the Falklands War, the airstrip on Pebble
Island was used by the Argentinians as base for
several of their ground The island itself, a small
stretch of land some 35 km long, is a desolate,
windswept place. At the time of the Falklands
conflict it was home to only five familiess,who
all happened to live near the airstrip.
As the island is situated to the northwest of
West Falkland, the Argentinian aircraft would
pose a major threat to any British forces that
were put ashore on East Falkland.
They therefore had to be destroyed before the
landings could take place. The Special Air
Service was given this mission. The raid against
the airstrip took place on the night of 14/15 May
1982, but beforehand intelligence had to be gathered.
Timely and accurate intelligence is crucial to the
success of any special forces mission, and the one
against Pebble Island was no exception.
The following account is from a member of D Squadron
who took part in the action:

'At our initial briefings we were told that
Argie engineers had landed on Pebble
Island and were preparing the airstrip as a
maintenance base for their aircraft, which
had been flown in from the mainland to
support the garrison at Stanley. This was
confirmed when an RAF Harrier pilot,
returning to Invincible after a bombing
raid, had observed a Pucara taking off from
the airstrip. The Pucara is piss-poor in any
air-to-air encounter so our Harrier pilots
weren't too bothered about them, but in
the ground-attack role it's another matter.
Designed from the start as a counter-
insurgency aircraft, the Pucara is armed
with two 20mm cannon and four 7.62mm
machine guns. In addition, it can carry an
external payload of 1500kg, including
bombs, napalm and rockets. Against lightly
armed troops who have just conducted an
amphibious landing a small number of
Pucaras could inflict a great deal of
damage, so they had to be taken out.
'On 10 May, eight of the blokes from
the squadron's Boat Troop had gone
ashore in kleppers [two-man canoes used
by the Regiment and the Special Boat
Squadron] to assess the level of enemy
activity, while on board the carrier Hermes
a plan to launch a strike against the airstrip
was put into effect. Some of the lads, ever
the pragmatists, suggested bombing it, but
this was discounted for two reasons. First,
the civilians lived too near the airstrip.
Second, the Harriers wouldn't have
enough time over the target area [the two
carriers Hermes and Invincible were situated
well out to sea before the landings to
protect them from any airborne attack] to
guarantee all the aircraft would be
destroyed.'

With all the problems inherent in an air assault,
the decision was therefore taken to use D
Squadron in a classic hit-and-run raid. To the
public imagination and the media, this is what
the SAS is all about, but to the men who have to
carry out the mission it is an operation that is
fraught with dangers and pitfalls.

'People just don't realise what's involved
with these types of missions, and that goes
for some of the top brass too. I talked to
the guys who dial the recce after it was all
over and they were well pissed off, They
were dropped on a remote headland
several kilometres from Pebble and had to
paddle across the open sea before they
could set up an OP [observation post] on
the island. However, the high winds made
the sea journey a nightmare; you just
don't realise how windy it is in the
Falklands, even the gorse bushes are bent
double by the non-stop wind.
'Once they eventually got on to the
island they had another problem:
establishing a \"hide\". In the open terrain
this was extremely difficult, as the ground
provided very little cover either from the
enemy or the elements. It looks a lot like
Breconn, ie very few trees and loads of
gorse bushes. Mind you, at least on
Brecon you don't have that bastard wind,
well, not all the time.'

The observation party had three main tasks: to
confirm the presence and number of Argen-
tinian aircraft on Pebble, to assess the strength
of the enemy in and around the airstrip, and to
work out routes into and out of the area for the
raiding party. Once in place, the OP reported
back to Hermes. The news was not good:

'Our shore-based team confirmed there
were several Pucaras operating from the
airstrip, but the number of Argentinian
personnel on the ground was difficult for
them to assess in the limited time
available. In addition, the routes to and
from the objective were reported to be
like the rest of the Falklands: bare and
easily monitored by the Argentinians.
Fucking great!'

The temporary home for D Squadron during
this time was the carrier Hermes. When the ship
left Portsmouth on 5 April 1982, there was a
small party of SAS soldiers on board, along with
a company of Royal Marines and some Special
Boat Squadron (SBS) personnel, More SAS
soldiers joined the vessel at Ascension Island.
When in British service (she is now with the
Indian Navy and called Viraat), Hermes. was
essentially an anti-submarine carrier, being kitted
out with Sea King helicopters and a small
number of V/STOL (Vertical/Short Take-Off
and Landing) aircraft. In the Falklands conflict
she could also have fulfilled another capacity:
transporting the whole of 3 Commando to the
war zone. In the event, it was decided that
Hermes would carry the helicopters and Sea
Harriers and not Royal Marines.
Life on board was cramped to say the least
(the ship was the headquarters for Rear-Admiral
John Woodward., the commander of the main
group of surface warships during Operation
'Corporate'.), but the SAS soldiers struck up a
good rapport with the aircrews of 846 Naval Air
Squadron., who had three Sea King helicopters
with which to support special forces operations.
These would be the aircraft that would transport
the men to Pebble Island:

'The aircraft had no special equipment in
those days, although the crews did have
considerably more flying hours and
experience than other pilots. A big bonus,
which we were all pleased about, was the
sudden issue of passive night vision goggles
to Navy pilots. This piece of kit, in its most
basic form, looks like a pair of hi-tech
binoculars, but it enhances any night
situation into a green image of daylight to
assist the aircrew's view. Ironically, this
treasured bit of equipment, which was
already widely in use with the Americans,
was issued to the Somerset-based Naval Air
Squadron by the Royal Aircraft
Establishment just days before they flew
aboard Hermes, leaving very little time for
training.'

With all the available intelligence gathered, the
raid was scheduled for the night of 14/15 May.
Originally, the SAS had been given the task of
destroying the Argentinian aircraft, their ground
crews and the island's garrison. However,
because of strong headwinds Hermes took longer
to reach the flying-off point than expected. This
meant that the SAS soldiers would have only a
short time on the ground to carry out their tasks.
The aircraft thus became the priority target.
The Sea Kings would have to be back on Hermes
before daylight, as she and her escorts (the
frigate Broadsword and the destroyer
,Glamorgan.) had to be well east of the island to
minimise the threat posed by the Argentinian
Air Force. The source continues:

'As we prepared our equipment and
attended the first flight briefing with the
boss of 846 Naval Air Squadron, this guy
appears, he was a stores officer I think, and
told us that we would never get off the
deck until the weather improved. He had a
point. The wind had been blowing
throughout the day, which prevented the
helicopter blades being spread on the
flightdeck (below deck they were stowed
with their blades folded). However, late in
the evening there was a \"weather window\"
which allowed the helicopter handlers, or
\"chocheads\" as they were known, due to
their habit of crawling under the
helicopters and placing wheel chocks on
the aircraft, to prepare the three Sea Kings
for the mission.'

The Sea Kings of 846 Squadron are optimised as
assault transports and are designated Sea King
HC MK 4. Designed to fly in all weathers, they
are fitted with a complete avionics suite which
includes doppler navigation radar, auto-pilot and
an auto-hover system. The fuselage can hold up
to 19 fully equipped troops, and the aircraft can
also be fitted with machine guns, rockets and
rocket pads if required.
As the helicopters were prepared for the
mission, the 45 men of D Squadron who would
carry out the attack were given a final briefing:

'At the int briefing we were told that there
had been more confirmed sightings of
enemy aircraft operating from the airstrip.
Additional information collated from some
Royal Marines who had served in the
Falklands several years before the invasion
revealed that the airstrip was less than
100m from the nearest house, and that the
whole area was fiat and open, confirming
our own information from the lads in Boat
Troop. This made us a bit nervous,
because if we were bumped we would have
bugger all cover from enemy fire.
'The raid was given the codename
Operation \"Prelim\". The plan was to use
two groups to provide fire support for the
raiding party, while another would seal off
the approaches to the airfield. An
additional fire group would escort the
raiding party to the airfield and wait in
reserve to react to any Argentinian anti-
ambush party that had been prepared as a
result of their watching us. The raiding
party, or killer group, would hit the aircraft
and plant explosive charges on them, or
would use LAWs if an enemy presence
prevented the charges being placed.'

The LAW is the M72 Light Anti-tank Weapon,
an American throw-away rocket launcher. It is
useful for SAS-type operations because it is
light, which means several can be carried by one
man. It is also accurate and can penetrate
armour up to 335mm thick (though the version
used in the Falklands by the SAS was only
effective against light armour). Because it fires
a high explosive warhead, the M72 is potent
against targets such as stationary aircraft.
The SAS also had heavier support in the
shape of an 81mm mortar and naval gunfire
support from HMS Glamorgan, an air-defence
ship forHermes. The mortar had gone ashore
with Boat Troop, though the actual bombs were
carried by the men of the raiding party, who
dropped them at the base plate before moving
to their starting positions. Also put ashore
was a forward observation unit from 148 Battery,
whose job was to give exact coordinates to
Glamorgan and then observe and correct the
shelling as it came in. Following the final
briefing, the men were issued with their
personal equipment:

'Every one of us carried M16s with three
spare mags each and an additional 200
rounds of 5.56mm. We don't usually tape
a spare magazine to the one already in the
weapon. For one thing, you can change a
mag for one in a pouch just as fast as two
that are taped together. And anyway,
when you're in the field crawling through
all the shit to get to the objective, such as
mud and water, it all gets into the mag
taped to your weapon. When you change
mags and insert the spare one, all the shit
gets pushed into the receiver. You then
get a jam just when you don't want one, ie
in the middle of a firefight.
'The M16 is a good weapon for short-
range work because it's short, light and
has a high lethality close in. It's not so
good for long-range work, though, and it
certainly doesn't have the stopping power
of the good old SLR [Self-Loading Rifle].

Still, the weight saving over the SLR is
worth it, and that goes for the ammo too,
and anyway, for the raid we only needed a
weapon for close work. We all took great
care of our M16s as the weapon doesn't
really like rough handling, which can be a
bit of problem, especially in terrain like the
Falklands where it's continually damp and
windy. The Americans first touted the M16
as a self-cleaning weapon, and didn't even
bother to issue cleaning kits. Naturally,
there were a host of jammed guns when it
entered service. They then issued cleaning
kits very quickly, but not before several of
their guys had been killed because of jams.
'Some of the weapons were fitted with
M203 grenade launchers firing high
explosive grenades. People get excited
about grenade launchers but I don't see the
point a lot of the time. OK, you've got a
weapon that can throw a grenade over a
distance of around 300m, which is a greater
distance than a man can throw (even in the
Regiment! ), but the grenade only goes in a
straight line. It can't go around cover,
unlike a hand-thrown grenade. In addition,
and this is something a lot of people don't
realise, two-thirds of actual grenade tends
to be the fuse, which means you don't get
as big a bang as you expect. Add to this the
M203's general inaccuracy, and you get the
general idea. Still, for hitting a stationary
aircraft at short range they are effective
enough, and that's why we took them.'

Webbing and clothing are also important on
special forces operations, and this was no
different for the Pebble Island mission:

'The contents of our webbing is always a
high priority. In addition to carrying rifle
magazines and grenades, Falklands
webbing included a survival pack, water
bottles, a bivvy bag [a Goretex sleeping bag
cover] and food. Each one of us customised
our webbing according to taste. For
example, a lot of the lads carried two '44
pattern water bottles with metal mugs,
which are ideal for making a brew and
saving space. Waterproof matches are
always a priority and are usually carried in
small plastic containers, which are them-
selves waterproof. Each man will also have
his own medical kit, though one person in
the section will always carry a specialist
medical bag. Syrettes of morphine are
always carried around the neck for easy
access, and two field dressings are usually
taped to the webbing.
'Woolly hats are always worn, as a lot of
body heat can be lost if the head isn't
covered. In any environment, but
especially the Falklands, you have to guard
against hypothermia. We all wore
climbing gloves, with the fingers cut out to
make handling things easier, as a reserve.
We all had white phosphorus grenades,
with a good old nine milly pistol tucked
under the arm in a holster. To stop us
freezing our bollocks off we wore either
green Goretex jackets or windproof arctic
smocks, a lot of the blokes choosing the
latter because they have huge pockets
which can hold little extras, such as food.'

Though protection against the cold is very
important, the Pebble Island raiders weren't
over dressed. They still had to perform their
task, and they were carrying a lot of equipment.
If they were wearing too many clothes they
would sweat heavily. This isn't a problem if you
are moving, but if you stop then the sweat will
cool, resulting in loss of body heat.

'We wore DPM [Disruptive Pattern
Material] lightweight trousers. They are
thin but they dry out very quickly after
getting wet. Norwegian Army shirts have
been a favourite with the Regiment for
many years, and I wore one with a
headover: a woollen tube that slips over
your head and can be worn around the
neck depending on the weather.
'Against the bitter wind a Norwegian
Army shirt and a smock doesn't feel that
warm, but as soon as you start to tab the
body heats up and you're not so cold. Any
spare clothing is stashed in the bergen. It's
always better to wear fewer clothes when
moving and to save warm, dry clothes for
an emergency. Our bergens also contained
binoculars, a tripod-mounted scope and
night sights, the latter being a variant of
the Individual Weapon Sight used in
Northern Ireland. We each carried enough
rations to last us three days, just in case we
were trapped by the weather. Another very
popular item of clothing was a set of
quilted green trousers, which were ideal for
zipping over your lightweights when lying
up in a \"hide\" during the day.'

As Hermes,Broadsword. and Glamorgan sailed
towards the island, the men readied their
equipment. Buffeted by heavy seas, the three
ships made slow progress. Broadsword's Sea Wolf
short-range surface-to-air missile system became
defective and she began to slip behind.
Glamorgan sailed to within 10km of the shore to
give gunfire support and to be on hand should
the helicopters have to ditch. The carrier sailed
to within 60km of the island, much closer than
was originally planned, to give the Sea Kings a
shorter flight in the strong winds. As the hour
approached for them to board the aircraft, the
SAS men completed their last-minute checks:

'At around 2200 hours we made our way
to the hangar. It was a hive of activity, as
an army of engineers carried out
maintenance on the tightly packed
Harriers and Sea Kings to ensure there
were enough aircraft for round-the-clock
missions. We settled in a corner near the
lift well, the huge mechanical ramp, with
all our gear. A Navy mechanic asked me if
I wanted a \"wet\", the maritime slang for a
cup of tea, and I readily accepted his offer.
Some of the lads drank, others smoked.
It's funny, none of us discussed the job we
were about to do, or the fact that some of
us might not be coming back. We talked
about home, football, the weather, our
rations, anything but the mission.

'We made our way to the flightdeck.
The Sea Kings were revved up, their
blades spinning, as their aircrews went
through their final checks. We sat
crouched near the first aircraft, the South
Atlantic wind combining with the draught
from the rotors to lash us. My eyes
narrowed to slits as I tried to stop thinking
about the cold. If only the wind would fuck
off! Hermes pitched and rolled in the heavy
seas, her 28,000 tons battling with the
ocean. Just as I thought I would be frozen
to the deck, salvation. A \"chochead\" called
forward the first stick. I heard someone
shout \"Thank Christ for that\" as we rushed
forward and entered the Sea King.
'Now the textbook says that the Sea
King has a voluminous fuselage, and so it
does if the team is wearing just T-shirts
and shorts. But here we were, tooled up for
the raid with bergens, webbing and
weapons, which meant there was fuck all
room for any of us. Thank Christ we didn't
have any GPMGs or Milans. I wedged
myself in a corner and waited for what
seemed like an eternity before we lifted off.
Then I began to sweat, shit!
'The noise inside the fuselage was
deafening as the helicopter flew low over
the pitching ocean towards land, skimming
the waves to avoid detection by enemy
radar. We didn't know if they had any on
Pebble Island, but better to be safe than
sorry. It wasn't long before we touched
down on the island, and once we did we
moved like fuck to reach the objective. We
couldn't afford to waste any time, the old
rust bucket Hermes wouldn't be hanging
around, and anyway our colleagues already
on the ground had established safe routes
for us.'

The movement to the objective turned out to be
uneventful. The Argentinian garrison on the
island maintained a poor state of vigilance, which
is surprising considering that they must have
known that the aircraft would be a target.
Nevertheless, the SAS soldiers were in a
heightened state of alert as they advanced:

'I'll never forget the amount of sheep on
Pebble. In Ulster, sheep and cattle are a
major problem when moving about in the
early hours. If you disturb them they will
run wild, which will alert the locals to
your activity. So here we were, moving
towards the target with thousands of
sheep all around us. Fortunately the guys
from Boat Troop knew exactly where we
could tab fast and where to move with
caution. I had this vision of the Argies
bumping us and a fucking great big fire-
fight erupting with all these sheep being
caught in the middle and blown to pieces.
'The mortar rounds we were carrying
were dropped off at the base plate, and
within an hour of being landed the cut-off
group peeled away to take up position and
secure the two routes heading towards the
airstrip. By this time the cold was
beginning to get to everyone. That's the
one thing about the high command, they
always find the most inhospitable places
for us to fight a war in! I remember
thinking how it was like being on top of
Pen-y-Fan in winter, only in Brecon it is
possible to move off the mountain and
take shelter from the wind.'

There were six Pucaras on the airstrip, along
with four Turbo-Mentor light aircraft and a
Skyvan transport. There were a total of 12
Argentinian Pucaras in the Falklands, and if the
SAS could destroy half of them it would be a big
bonus for the Task Force. Both sides expected
the Pucaras to take a heavy toll of the British
after they had landed. However, the soldiers of
the SAS had other ideas:

'The terrain was open and bare, just as we
had been told. We approached the airstrip.
I could see a large house to my left, which
had a line of wind-battered trees to one
side. I also made out some outbuildings
and what appeared to be a windbreak for
the house's garden. The area was riddled
with fences and gates which were clearly
part of a scheme to herd sheep into the
pens around the house.

'I waited with the cut-off group before
joining the killer group. Mountain Troop
went forward, but then we spotted an
enemy sentry and everyone froze. My heart
started pounding and I tightened the grip
on my M16. Instinctively, I slipped off the
safety catch. We thought we had been
spotted, but our luck was in, he didn't see
us. We crept onto the airfield and laid
charges on seven of the aircraft. Moments
later the place erupted as we opened up
with our small arms and LAWs. Using
three-round bursts, I emptied a magazine
into a Pucara, the bullets ripping into the
nose and cockpit, sending shards of perspex
into the air. Overhead para-flares from
Glamorgan lit up the night sky. Where the
fuck were the Argies?
'To my left a 66mm rocket slammed
into the side of another Pucara, engulfing
it in a fireball. The crackle of small-arms
fire filled the air as the explosive charges
started to detonate. I clipped a fresh mag
into my M16 and looked around for fresh
targets. By this time all the aircraft were
either burning or had been riddled with
bullets, their undercarriages shot away and
their fuselages full of holes. In the
background I heard the crump of artillery
shells exploding as Glamorgan fired high
explosive rounds into the enemy's
ammunition dump and fuel stores. The
opposition was nowhere to be seen. This is
too good to be true, I thought.
'The forward observers had done a
champion job. Now they were directing
the gunfire to cover our retreat. We did a
quick check on the aircraft, trying to
identify them all and making sure they
were disabled. When you're on a raid you
don't fuck around. Time is precious. If
you've achieved the element of surprise
things go your way for a while. But in fact
you're very vulnerable, and for all you
know there might be an enemy battalion
behind the nearest hill waiting to fall on
you like a ton of shit.
'Then the raiding party and the cut-off
team re-grouped and prepared to move
out. Just before we did, we received enemy
small-arms fire. One of our boys went
down. Instinctively we returned a hail of
fire, each man firing controlled bursts
from his weapon. Those that had M203s
fired grenades at the Argies. It did the
trick because we received no more hostile
fire. We continued to fall back, more
quickly now lest the enemy were re-
grouping for another go. The wounded
man was grabbed and hauled along (we
never leave our wounded behind, it's an
unwritten law in the Regiment).
'We bugged out at speed, reaching the
landing site to await our lift back to
Hermes. Bang on time the choppers came
in, and a happy D Squadron was lifted out.
I for one had expected a heavy firefight
when we got to the airfield, but it never
materialised. We could have hit the
garrison if we had had more time, but as it
was we all felt pleased with ourselves.'

The raid had been a total success. For the loss of
only one man wounded, the SAS had destroyed
six Pucaras, four Turbo-Mentors and a Skyvan.
In addition, a large amount of Argentinian
ammunition had been destroyed and the
commander of the garrison had been killed. Far
more important, though, was the fact that there
were no Argentinian aircraft on Pebble Island to
interfere with the landings at San Carlos Water,
and the enemy's morale had been dented.