>> A very well-written article abt the Brits army in
Iraq.
>> I hope for God's sake our SAF boys will have the same type
of "chiong"
>>spirit like these angmo kias when put into similar
situations.
>>We shouldn't ever lose out to them.. these angmo kias are
not even SAS
>>but normal Infantry unit material.
March 09, 2007
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007110295,00.html
COMMENT ON THIS STORY
ITS been 16 years since SAS hero and Sun Security Advisor Andy
McNab was captured behind enemy lines in Iraq after a Scud-hunting
mission went wrong.
For this special dispatch, he agreed to go back on to the war-torn
nations mean streets to join up with his old regular infantry unit
the 2nd Battalion, the Rifles.
Here, he reveals the truth about what life is really like for Our
Boys on the ever-more dangerous front line that is Basra
today.
RIFLEMAN Steve Turner pokes his head round a gap in a wall, knowing
full well it could be taken off by a 7.62mm round any second.
Its B Companys third visit in as many weeks to check on Al Asher
police station in the heart of Basras rebel stronghold. On both
previous occasions, a lone sniper put a bullet into one of their
soldiers. It was odds on that he would strike again.
Sticking your head out to cover open and hostile ground to look out
for your mates takes guts. And this lad from Liverpool is only 20
years old.
For Steve, though, it was nothing special.
With a shrug he told me: Its me job, Andy. If I didnt do it, who
else would be looking out for the lads?
Sniper zone ... Andy joins patrol at police station where two
soldiers were shot
I spent eight years with the Rifles before I passed SAS selection
and went down to Hereford. Back then, they were known as the Royal
Green Jackets, and had a strong reputation for being a tough and
highly professional unit.
These days, though, all you ever hear in the UK is doom and gloom
for troops in southern Iraq.
The TV news makes it sound like theyre about to top themselves
with misery and are begging to come home.
Oh really? Well, thats not the infantry I knew and loved. The more
I thought about it, the more the suggestion of it p***ed me
off.
Rather than hearing from the dozens of armchair generals, I wanted
to come out and see it for myself. Living and taking fire with the
guys for seven days, it became clear that the cr*p I thought the
talking heads were spewing was just that.
I saw with my own eyes just how up for the fight these young men
really are.
Thats no bad thing because theyve got one big fight on their
hands all right.
'Take cover' ... our brave troops constantly look out for one
another in Basra
Bush hats, smiles and giving out sweets to kids is history.
Instead, its helmets, bullets and only heavily armoured fighting
vehicles on the streets now. The battalion is half-way through the
bloodiest six-month tour of duty in the city since the 2003
liberation.
Sick of taking hit after hit from the Shia extremists, commanders
have told troops to take the fight back to them.
For B Company alone, that has meant brassing up the fanatics with
an incredible 15,000 rounds already and theyve still got three
months to go.
As one warrant officer from Yorkshire put it to me: First we tried
softly softly, but that didnt work. Then we did hearts and minds,
and that didnt work either.
Now were giving them a f***ing slapping. Theyll listen to that
all right.
Going after the bad guys means strike operations tracking the
insurgents down, kicking their doors in and nicking them. To date,
troops have launched a total of 55 different strike ops in the last
five months. When I was in, that sort of highly skilled work was
the preserve of the Special Forces, but the Rifles proved
themselves more than capable of it.
In turn, when they are attacked, they turn the battle round and
kill them.
Rifleman Paul Livingstone, 20, from Somerset, is a fantastic
example.
He has only fired six rounds from his SA80 assault rifle so far,
but has killed three enemy fighters.
That means an extraordinary coolness under fire, professionalism
and guts.
Then there was selfless Kingsman Michael Hargreavess story.
Serving with a company from the 2nd Battalion, the Duke of
Lancasters on attachment to the Rifles battle group, the mens
task is to hold a small outpost bang in the middle of the
city.
Nobody can decide whether to nickname it the Alamo or Rorkes
Drift, after 325 different attacks on it since they arrived on
November 15 last year.
Kingsman Hargreaves was shot in the chest three weeks ago while
manning the same sangar (sandbagged positions on the roof of a
compound) where a friend, Kingsman Jamie Hancock, was shot dead two
months earlier.
The bullet shattered on his body armour and peppered his neck and
face with shrapnel.
Medivacked home for treatment, he could have spent the rest of his
tour with his feet up in an English hospital bed.
But the 22-year-old father of two from Manchester begged nurses to
send him back to Iraq early and yesterday he was back up in that
same sangar on guard duty, taking fire again.
On asking him why, he told me: I just wanted to get back with the
lads.
Attacked ... Tom Newton Dunn and Andy hit the deck at Basra
Palace
That made me feel very humble.
Success has a cost and, in turn, the enemy have fought back harder
too.
If only the ever more accurate sniper fire which killed two
soldiers and wounded four more in the last week alone in Basra
was the only threat Rifleman Turner and his rifle company have to
face.
On the way back to and from their tasks, they also have to contend
with shaped-charge roadside bombs, RPG shoots and heavy automatic
gunfire.
Then, when theyre back at their base Saddams former palace in
the city they get on average three rocket and mortar bombardments
a day. I learned that the hard way on my first morning there on the
way to the cookhouse for breakfast.
Just after 7.30am, six mortar rounds piled into the complex and we
hit the dirt.
Bet that wasnt in the travel brochure, eh Andy? one gobby young
rifleman said as I dusted myself down.
Attacks on the 7,000 troops in southern Iraq have rocketed to more
than 100 a week from less than 40 a week before the start of the
offensive.
Raid ... Andy sees our boys move in to arrest insurgents who killed
Brit soldiers
A total of 15 servicemen and one woman have been killed and 74
troops have also been wounded in action, 27 seriously.
For the four months previous to that, the casualty figure was just
14. Yet still that hasnt put them off. I even met three mates
Chris, Joe and Shane on their second consecutive tour in
Basra.
They liked the work and the money so much they had volunteered to
transfer to 2 Rifles from a previous battalion so they could stay
out here.
And all this from todays iPod and PlayStation generation, derided
by the old and bold as a bunch of soft sh*tes.
What the Rifles CO, Lt Col Justin Maciejewski, told me summed it
all up.
The colonel said: You know, never before have I been less
interested in what the media are saying back in Britain about this
place.
All the hand-wringing is all well and good, but its just simply
wrong.
Were not victims, and we are actually making a difference here.
Weve taken the fight to them and were winning it.
What I witnessed here was the most professional, motivated and
well-armed generation of soldiers our country might have ever
seen.
Yes, they are under constant 24-hour threat, theyre knackered, run
ragged and some are even losing mates.
But the truth is most of these guys are also having the time of
their lives.
They are closing in on the enemy, killing them, and theyre loving
it its what theyre paid to do and its why they joined the
infantry.
Im not saying everybody has to like it. Just understand it.
Then the liberal hand wringers might just realise these soldiers
dont want their sympathy after all.