Eight Royal Marines and four Americans were killed in a non-combat related helicopter crash last night.
In an interesting Order of Battle snippet, it is also now clear that 3 Commando Brigade (Royal Marines) is fighting with a battalion of US Marines under the control of its HQ. As RM and USMC often train together and have famously cordial relations, I suppose this is not all that surprising.
Also, it is being reported that 3 Commando Brigade (Royal Marines) have secured the strategic Al Faw Oil Facility. I assume the success of this operation on the Al Faw peninsula will lead to a move towards Basra next, which Sky News reported has come under air attack this morning.
Astonishing pictures of some significant fighting in the town of Safwan were coming out live on television this morning (UK time), showing that some elements of the Iraqi army were putting up a fight against USMC forces. A group of USMC vehicles could be seen pouring machinegun and grenade launcher fire into Iraqi positions, and gunship helicopters were seen firing cannon and rocket fire to suppress outgoing Iraqi gunfire.
It now seems that taking the border town of Umm Qasr, reported to have fallen to the allies last night, required more fighting that was initially claimed by US news reports. USMC mechanized infantry was apparently pinned down by Iraqi fire for two hours, requiring Royal Marine artillery support before the advance could resume.
On the left flank of the allied move into Iraq, forward elements of the US 3rd Infantry Division are reported to be as much as 90 miles in from the Kuwaiti border and although as of now (08:40 GMT) the US division is reported to be stationary whilst it refuels, there does not seem to have been any serious opposition yet to what is probably the main American advance.
R.I.P
Doesn’t it seem like helicopters get more of our guys than enemies do?
The CH-46 are older planes – though well maintained. We’ll see what the investigation comes up with, but I understand weather conditions, sand storms were terrible.
I’m so sorry for all of the families who lost a loved one.
I have experience with sand storms. The fine sand gets into motors, past the filters. You run a motor for several hours in a sand storm and it melts down.
I was appalled yesterday when I saw pictures of vehicles on the move. I feared that in 4 or 5 hours all those vehicles (tanks, APCs) will lose their motors and grind to a halt.
Yeah, mechanical things don’t work too well in the desert, much less during a desert sand storm.
My dad flew CH-46’s in Vietnam. Talk about ancient. The US Marines (& Royal Marines?) are trying to replace them with the Osprey, but unfortunately that program has had some teething issues, so to speak.
The Osprey program is back on the engineering table. I am extremely glad about that.
The program is not scrapped completely yet though.
I heard rumor about another VTOL machine, but can’t drag it up from my mind at the moment with keeping an ear on a press conference.
CH-46 are old, but I think (and it’s my thoughts as I don’t have numbers available) that more money has been available to maintain them over the past couple of years due to administrative changes at the top.
The Osprey program is back on the engineering table. I am extremely glad about that.
The program is not scrapped completely yet though.
I heard rumor about another VTOL machine, but can’t drag it up from my mind at the moment with keeping an ear on a press conference.
CH-46 are old, but I think (and it’s my thoughts as I don’t have numbers available) that more money has been available to maintain them over the past couple of years due to administrative changes at the top.
The Osprey program is back on the engineering table. I am extremely glad about that.
The program is not scrapped completely yet though.
I heard rumor about another VTOL machine, but can’t drag it up from my mind at the moment with keeping an ear on a press conference.
CH-46 are old, but I think (and it’s my thoughts as I don’t have numbers available) that more money has been available to maintain them over the past couple of years due to administrative changes at the top.
I swear I did not hit “post” 3 times. ugh