From: Adam <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the field.near
the bridge">

Quite a long piece with some interesting snippets:

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/rattlesnake.htm

"Any perception that British forces have it easy down here in Basra is
wrong. In the nearly three weeks Iƒ ™ve been here, Iƒ ™ve seen more mortar
and rocket attacks than during my cumulative time in Iraq. The rate of
British soldiers getting killed in combat during April 2007 seemed to far
exceed that for our troops up north in the same period; and was the most
for the British since the first month of the war back in 2003. Last night,
while answering email, we twice all hit the ground and at least two Brits
and a pizza delivery man on base were wounded. I was told later that the
Pizza Hut delivery man was sent back to India missing a leg. By all
yardsticks, the situation in Basra seems to be deteriorating rapidly."

Pull out to desert bases as CIGS has said but political
"realities" militate against....

"And British soldiers here do in fact look at their American
counterparts with mixture of dismay and respect at the amount of abuse our
people take but still keep going. The recent announcement that American
soldiersƒ ™ tours had been extended to fifteen months, in areas usually far
more dangerous than Basra, was met with astonishment among British combat
veterans here, followed quickly with profuse respect for their American
brethren for keeping at it militarily, despite the political morass common
to both London and Washington.

British combat tours are six months."

You poor bastards...was probably the comment....wrt the 6 month
tour....yeah following on from a tour in the Balkans, West Africa &
Afghanistan....

"Ask a combat soldier a question, you get an answer. Ask the soldier
next to him the same question, you get a different answer. There is wide
and vibrant opinion among British soldiers and it runs the gamut from
frustration with local mentalities that cling to futile violence, to
disillusionment with politics, vexation with media, and consternation about
the costs, calculated in so many kinds of capital. But all the British
soldiers Iƒ ™ve run missions with are of a like-mind when it comes to their
readiness to fight on. They are soldiers. Proud and ready. I would find
them practicing tactics at odd hours. They gave me combat instruction
whether or not I asked. One day, on a different mission, when two soldiers
were killed in the vehicle behind us, a young soldier sent meƒ ”without
hesitationƒ ”to fetch machine gun lubricant in preparation for a gun
battle. I was always more than comfortable going into combat with these
men."

....Ah grousing...the right of any PBI...& then clean your weapon....

The rest is an interesting usage of javelin ATGM to snipe at the adoo (much
as milan has been used).


Adam

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5