Members of the Special Forces Task Group, which recently secured the Al Asad base as part of Op Falconer, battle a harsh sand storm during a vehicle patrol. Photo by Sgt W. Guthrie, 1JPAU(P)

A destroyed Iraqi jet at Al Asad Air Base

Members of the Special Forces Task Group inside the Base in Western Iraq. Photo by WO2 Al Green,

Crushing the Iraqis’ will to fight was a key element
SF dares and wins in Iraq's desert

From WO2 Al Green in the Middle East

Al Asad airbase in Western Iraq is vast and empty, riddled with bunkers and broken aircraft and, for now, belongs to our Special Forces (SF).

Their journey to this place is an amazing story of intelligent mobile small team operations with close air support defeating and demoralising much larger forces.

It didn’t come easily, as their tired sunburned faces testify. The first 50 hours into action nobody slept. SF were amongst the first forces to contact the enemy, seeing their first action within an hour of crossing the border.

This set the pattern for the entire mission with a series of fierce running battles, day and night, against conventional forces and specially trained counter-SF troops.

Counter-SF tactics saw the enemy concentrate sports utility vehicles (SUVs) mounted with heavy calibre machine-guns with mortar support to try and out manoeuvre and overwhelm the SF groups.

They failed abysmally as SF, sometimes with close-air support, used superior tactics to devastate and defeat this determined enemy element. The key, it was found, lay in destroying the SUVs. With that done, surrender inevitably followed.

These actions led to the total domination of the SF area of operation. No mean feat, especially early on when a sandstorm with the consistency of talcum powder blew for two days. Even accompanying driving rain offered no relief, as it started raining mud.

SF pushed on turning the situation around by using the elements to their advantage as cover for surprise attacks.

In defeating a numerically superior enemy, the tactic of crushing the will to fight was a key element. To this end, surprise and shock continued to be used to great effect as the SF, in vehicles armed with .50 cal machine guns and grenade launchers and unpredictable in their movements, arrived attacked and disappeared back into the desert.

This tactic and devastating air strikes had a huge psychological effect on the Iraqis, who began to desert.

In most cases, surrendering enemy stripped of their war-fighting capability were released and told to return home – the fight was, after all, about preventing Weapons of Mass Destruction being employed and SF never lost that focus.

The traditional SF role was also employed in this quest. Those charged with long-range reconnaissance remained undiscovered, as they penetrated deep behind enemy lines gathering critical information and assisting with targeting.

In capturing Al Asad airbase – one of the largest in Iraq – the scale of the victory of the small force became apparent. An estimated 7.9 million kg of explosive ordnance and more than 50 Mig fighters were captured, many still in flyable condition hidden in waddies, under trees, under camouflage nets and a few untouched out in the open.

With the capture of the airbase the SF refused to rest on their laurels – they got it working again. Although none are mechanics or airfield engineers, they repaired and rebuilt two bulldozers, a roller and a grader and repaired bomb craters on the airfield in order to allow 36 Sqn’s C130s to land.

Repair of the airfield also enabled a couple of high-profile visitors to deliver a personal thank you. Fittingly on Anzac Eve, Minister for Defence Robert Hill and CDF Gen Peter Cosgrove paid homage to the small quiet group who have forged an awesome reputation for Australia in the wastes of the western desert.

Amongst them is a sniper who shot out a mortar base plate as a round was going down the tube.

There are those who risked ambush in the taking of surrenders. All have fought and won tough battles but to talk to them you wouldn’t know it – theirs is a quiet victory.

Their hair may be long, their faces unshaven, but the SF soldier’s weapons and gear are immaculate and squared away, their professionalism unquestioned.

It’s little wonder they come across as unassuming – the simple truth is that they have nothing to prove.