|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
IRAQ - Op Telic
Bn Sit Rep |
|
LOOK!
New sections have been added . . . . . Pictures
from recent Welfare Office Events have been added
and the picture board section has been updated, plus
lots more . . . . . |
Welcome to the
OP Telic 6 (IRAQ) Section
Battalion Articles
The following information has recently been
submitted for the next edition of the Guards
Magazine
1st BATTALION COLDSTREAM GUARDS BATTLE GROUP IN IRAQ
By CAPTAIN N R JONES
Coldstream Guards
1 Coldstream Guards Battlegroup is a cosmopolitan
organisation spread across Basra City in Southern
Iraq. Numbers 2 and 3 Companies soldier alongside A
Coy of 1st Battalion The Staffordshire Regiment
(swapped with Number 1 Company) equipped with
Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicles and C Company of
the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Into
this melange are stirred RMPs, Medics, a Royal
Engineer Boat Troop and US and UK Police Advisors.
All come under the ever watchful eye of 'Big
Brother' - 12 Mechanised Brigade based at Basra Air
Station. 4 months into our 6 month stint on Op TELIC
6, the Battlegroup continues to have an interesting
and challenging time.
 Long gone are the early TELIC 'war fighting' tours,
now replaced with an increasingly complex and
relatively benign environment where Security Sector
Reform (SSR) is the main area of Battlegroup focus.
The terrorists are of course still here and continue
to pose a significant threat to our safety as well
as to the safety of the vast majority of Baswaris,
many of whom continue to be murdered and blown up by
roadside Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) on a
staggeringly regular basis. The Battlegroup works
extremely hard to maintain security and order within
the City so that we can get on with the main
business of reconstruction, both of the physical
infrastructure and, critically, of the Iraqi
Security Sector in respect of training, equipment
and joint operations. Much of what the Multi
National Division (South East) (MND(SE)) is doing
out here is not new and policy and techniques have
been developed through the early nineties in Bosnia
and Kosovo. What is new, is the scale, level of
resources and truly international nature of Op
TELIC.
The tour has been very well put together with an
extensive Pre-Deployment Training phase. January
through to March found the Battalion (not yet fully
Battlegrouped) slipping around the mud tracks of
Salisbury Plain, crawling through the broken
buildings of Caerwent in Wales and fire and
manoeuvring across the infamous shingle at Lydd and
Hythe in Kent. We trained hard at the 'kinetic' end
of the scale to prepare for what others (notably the
Micks) had encountered in Basra. Despite the
incongruity of attempting to communicate in 'Dell
Boy' Arabic to real Iraqis in full tribal dress in
the less than salubrious surroundings of Imber
Village, we gained a huge amount from our training.
The Rifle Companies worked hard at their patrol
skills and the ability to react to and contain
incidents involving anything from chemical plant
industrial accidents involving mass civilian
casualties to multiple IED attacks against our own.
Meanwhile, Battlegroup Headquarters suffered the now
familiar and seemingly never-ending planning cycles
and exercises under the watchful eye of the Land
Warfare Centre Directing Staff. By deployment time
Headquarters staff had become impervious to the
intimidation techniques of the DS: the dreaded
clipboard held tight to the chest with the raised
eyebrow and subsequent scribbling in secret
notebooks. We arrived very well prepared.
Deployment saw a lot of activity from the
Quartermaster's world with a huge amount of
vehicles, kit and equipment to move by Sea and Air.
The RAF tried their best to complicate the process
of Air Trooping, managing to arrange a 48 hour
journey from Oxfordshire to Basra in true Phileas
Fogg style. All arrived in good heart, fresh from
pre-deployment leave, and raring to go. Enthusiasm
had to wait, whilst all underwent the mandatory
arrival-in-theatre training package where weapons
were zeroed, important in-theatre lessons were
taught and the joys of tent-dwelling and the use of
portaloos were introduced. We arrived 'up-country'
complete as a Battlegroup on the 20th April and took
over from 1st Battalion The Duke of Wellington's
Regiment.
Basra City occupies approximately 100 km² with
between 1½ - 2 million inhabitants. The Battlegroup
is split across the City in three locations. The
Shaat Al Arab Hotel in the North is anything but a
hotel, but efforts from the Pioneers and
Quartermaster’s Department continue to make it a
little more 'Holiday Inn' than 'Bangkok Hilton'. The
building sits to the West of the Shaat Al Arab River
that bounds Basra and historically provided it with
the water to fill its canals and support its
industry and transport. Despite its much toted
nickname of 'The Venice of the East' one should
think more along the lines of the Delhi rather than
the Doge's Palace and Grand Canal. Number 2 Company,
A Company 1 STAFFORDS, Battlegroup Headquarters and
others reside in ‘The Hotel'. In the centre of the
City Number 3 Company share Old State Buildings (OSB)
with the Tactical Support Unit (TSU - an 'elite'
unit within the Iraqi Police Service). In the South
of the City C Company 2 RRF share the grand
surroundings of Basra Palace with the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, US State Department and others.
Formerly Saddam Hussein's seat of power within the
South of Iraq, the walled compound provides good
security for those within. All members of the
Battlegroup are fortunate enough to live on the
Western side and so avoid the stigma of living
'South of the river'.
Upon takeover we found ourselves dealing with a
regular and serious IED campaign. On nearly a daily
basis a large explosion somewhere in the City would
rip through a passing Iraqi Police Service Patrol
Car, often killing innocent bystanders as well as
the Policemen inside. These IEDs are formed from old
artillery ordinance (usually several 152mm shells)
and some form of remotely activated firing pack. The
components and knowledge used in making this type of
simple device are common place, a legacy from the
many wars that have blighted this region. Whilst
counter-terrorism in Northern Ireland has tried to
restrict the sourcing of bomb-making equipment, here
the Battlegroup can only deter and disrupt its setup
and use due to the ease of access that the terrorist
has to munitions and other bomb components. We have
worked hard at countering this threat with some
early success; however recent events have seen a
return of this unwelcome and effective weapon. 12
man multiples are the basic patrol unit that is
used, whether mounted in Warrior or Snatch (an
armoured desert Landover), waterborne, on foot or
dropped off by helicopter. Several attacks on our
base locations have served to keep all sharp within
the compounds, and no small amount of luck has saved
us from serious casualties. 'Chinese' rockets
(107mm), 60mm Mortars and Rocket Propelled Grenades
are the terrorists’ weapons of choice here, and
ensure that body armour and helmets are a welcome
addition to a late night trip to the loo for those
slightly more 'senior' members of the Battlegroup.
Our own mortars have been firing illumination rounds
on a regular basis in support of specific surge
operations and as part of the routine base defence
plan.
Force protection does, of course, remain a baseline
and routine activity from which springs our raison
d’être. So, on top of search and arrest operations,
provision of security to high-level meetings and
routine security activity, the training and
development of the various Iraqi Security
Organisations remains our main focus. As we move
towards large scale provincial and national
elections following a referendum on the new Iraqi
Constitution, the Battlegroup continues to work and
plan alongside the Iraqi Police Service, Iraqi Army
and the myriad other smaller security agencies. We
have had small successes in raising the standards of
the Police mostly through the hard work and
perseverance of our junior commanders during
training, mentoring and monitoring activity. The
Rifle Companies have been carrying out 'station
surges' where they enact a 'day-time' television
type makeover of local Police Stations with regards
to their operational planning, manning procedures,
accounting and basic patrol skills. A lick of paint
is always well received although the joys of AGAI 67
action have yet to take hold.
Critical to the success of our mission here is
achieving and maintaining the consent of the
population. This allows us to work in a (relatively)
benign environment, whilst driving a wedge between
the population and the insurgents, as well as
increasing our ability to find out what is going on
from people who know the streets and know each
other. All patrols are, therefore, tasked with
speaking to as many people as possible to gain
‘atmospherics’ and to discuss such broader issues
as, for example, the progress of reconstruction and
the benefits of democracy. Meanwhile, company
commanders are tasked with finding and developing
relationships with key ‘stakeholders’ who have
influence, be they religious leaders, tribal leaders
or community leaders. This allows us to deliver our
initiatives, as well as those from Brigade or
Division, through influential conduits to a larger
audience than we could achieve by ourselves.
Naturally the media has an important role to play
and we have been successful with television, radio
and newspapers – some our own, others local.
The Battlegroup is also involved in the initiation,
sourcing and monitoring of construction projects
that benefit many around the City; these come under
the moniker of Civil Military Cooperation (CIMIC).
The Mechanical Transport Officer (Officer Commanding
CIMIC) is just one of the Battlegroup Staff who has
had to adjust to a foreign role outside of the
normal Aldershot routine. The Signals Officer
commands the Court Liaison Team whilst many seniors
have found themselves getting to grips with posts
such as Media Ops, Info Ops, Psyops, commanding the
Election Cell and various SSR posts.
As ever, we play hard when given the opportunity.
There are many that will return home significantly
slimmer than upon deployment, with excellent
gymnasium facilities and a 1 mile perimeter circuit
which is a test in the late afternoon heat. Table
Tennis and Volleyball (a 1st Battalion speciality)
remain popular with an artificial 'beach' situated
amongst the hum of generators and the heavy metal
work of the REME workshops. The Battlegroup's
seniors take particular delight in demonstrating the
skills they developed in Hong Kong to the more
junior commissioned members of Battlegroup
Headquarters.
The City is a place of contrasts as most are, with
people of many different tribes, ethnic backgrounds,
and religious and political leanings all rubbing
shoulders. Our work here is difficult, at times
dangerous, but often rewarding and intriguing. Never
have we asked more of our junior guardsmen as
regards the difficult balance of restraint,
confidence and compassion for others in an
environment where marked progress and tangible
success is difficult to judge. The Battlegroup has
undoubtedly progressed the good work started by our
predecessors, but there is still a huge amount to
do. The success of the forthcoming referendum and
elections will show how stable and how willing to
accept democracy this re-born nation is, in this
difficult transitional period.
 The
Field Officers and Quartermaster of 1st Battalion
Coldstream Guards outside the Officers’ and
Sergeants’ Mess, Shaat Al Arab Hotel, Basra, 11th
July 2005.
From left to right: Maj J H F Thurstan, Maj J R
Mayhead, Capt R J Howick, Lt Col N B Henderson, Capt
J Na Nakhorn, Maj R C N Sergeant, Maj St J P P
Coughlan, Maj W J Tower.
|
>More images are available in the
OP TELIC 6 PICTURES
section.
>More info is available via the
THE BASRAH BULLETIN |
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
©Website
copyright, designed and maintained by A.J Brady |
|
