This article was originally published in the July 2022 issue of Ordnance magazine. This reprint has been re-improved and edited, supplemented and sorted out by the secondary content, so as to share with the same friends. Personally, I think that "Weapons" magazine is a professional and objective military magazine, and it is recommended to continue to subscribe to enrich their military knowledge. Reprinting some of the older articles on them is mainly to let readers examine the things and opinions of the past from another and more unique perspective.
The Beirut barracks bombing on October 23, 1983, was the largest number of casualties of U.S. nationality in a single incident before the 9/11 incident, except for the war. The incident, which resulted from U.S. armed intervention in other civil wars, resulted in the deaths of 241 U.S. intervention force personnel. In the decades since the incident, the administrations of six generations of U.S. presidents have lined up, sinking step by step into the swamp of policies called "counterterrorism."
"Don't know what to do there"
As a pawn of the "world police", the U.S. Marine Corps stationed in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, can be traced back to 1958. Eisenhower, then President of the United States, ordered the deployment of U.S. troops to Lebanon. Several units of the U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Division arrived in July of that year and left in October. There was a standoff with local armed forces during this brief military deployment. Both sides fired, but there were no casualties.
In July 1976, when Lebanon was mired in a protracted civil war, the U.S. Marines once again went there to participate in armed intervention and carried out a number of non-combatant evacuation missions. The next time they set foot in Lebanon was in 1982, during the Reagan era. Unlike the previous two times, this round of stationing of the US Marine Corps lasted a long time and was destined to usher in many losses.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon in early June 1982 with the aim of eliminating arafat-led Palestine Liberation Organization. This bloody invasion is clearly not glorious. The explanation given by then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Beckyn of the reasons for sending troops to other countries was that "they [the PLO] will never again be able to attack settlements in northern Israel." "The first phase of the Israeli operation directly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Lebanese. There are countless homeless people. When Israeli ground forces entered the Bekaa Valley, the Syrian army also had to fight with the Israeli army.
In order to protect the American diaspora off the coast of Lebanon and to support the Israeli army, then-US President Ronald Reagan ordered marines stationed in the Mediterranean region to immediately enter Lebanon. When the order was reached in rota on the coast of Spain, all the 32nd Marine Corps amphibious forces, who were preparing to enjoy a 10-day holiday there, were urgently assembled. They were transferred to Beirut by 5 ships of the 4th Amphibious Squadron of the 6th Fleet of the U.S. Navy.
During the voyage, Colonel James Mead, commander of the 32nd Amphibious Force, known as "James the Big Man" because of his height, told his men in general terms that they were going to "keep the peace." Yet, like the vast majority of Americans, many soldiers in unit 32 had no idea where Beirut was, let alone perceived the strategic value the turbulent city might have for the United States.
Colonel James Mead, commander of the 32nd Amphibious Force of the United States Marine Corps, used radio to get in touch with the Navy ships
Colonel James Mead was the first to land in Lebanon on the first tank landing ship
"I was 18 years old and didn't know where I was going or what I was going there," Marine John Nash recalled with chagrin, "and we were told we were going to Lebanon." This allowed the big guys to spend only 10 hours of free time in Rota. ”
With the establishment of the Marine Corps air-ground task force concept, the formation of the "amphibious force" became the basic unit of the U.S. Marine Corps at that time. Its force formation usually consisted of a battalion landing team based on a standard Marine battalion, a medium helicopter squadron and a support support group. The 32nd Amphibious Force is a typical Marine Amphibious Force, and the "Big James" includes the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment of the Second Marine Division, the 261st Marine Squadron Medium Helicopter Squadron and the 32nd Support Support Group, with a total of 1746 Marines and 78 naval personnel.
Specifically, in addition to the three Marine Corps companies, the 2nd Battalion Landing Team also has an artillery company, a tank platoon, an amphibious assault vehicle platoon, a reconnaissance platoon, an anti-tank squad and a communications squad, with strong comprehensive combat capabilities. The 261st Helicopter Squadron, defined as a composite squadron, consisted of 12 CH-46E Sea Riders, four CH-53D Sea Stallions, four AH-1T Sea Cobras, and two UH-1N Hueys.
CH-53D "Sea Stallion" helicopter
Still on the road, Americans can already perceive that this trip to Lebanon will be different from similar actions many years ago. On the evening of 7 July, as a helicopter carrying several Marine Officers who had rushed to Beirut earlier to coordinate the stationing of troops left the ground, two Israeli F-16 fighter jets roared in and posed in an attacking posture behind the helicopter. The Americans on board broke out in a cold sweat. One of them was Lieutenant Colonel Robert Johnston, commander of the 2nd/8th Battalion Landings. His feeling was, "The Israeli pilot was in hot pursuit, and although he didn't fire, that gesture was serious enough." ”
Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter
At about 5 a.m. on August 25, the first U.S. landing craft lowered its gangway, and U.S. Marines led by Colonel Mead set foot on Lebanese soil to form a multinational force with French and Italian military personnel to oversee the evacuation of thousands of PLO and Syrian militants.
On September 1, 1982, off the coast of Lebanon, U.S. Marines drove back to the LCU-1657 universal landing craft in an LARC-V amphibious vehicle to pick up the personnel.
This wave of Marine Corps missions was completed by September 10. The 32nd Amphibious Force boarded a ship on the same day and returned to Naples, Italy, ending the half-month deployment of Beirut 1. President Reagan specifically called to praise the Mead Force for "continuing this traditional mission of the U.S. Marine Corps peacemakers for more than 200 years." Colonel Mead himself was satisfied, "This operation is unique from almost any point of view. The Marines thought they were going to say goodbye to Beirut, but they didn't expect it to be the beginning, and they would soon be back here.
On September 10, the U.S. Marine Corps 32nd Amphibious Force completed its first deployment and withdrew from Beirut, and they would face a catastrophe when they returned.
Then we come to Beirut
The situation in Lebanon will not be calmed by israeli incursions. In September, after the assassination, Lebanon's new president, Amin Gemayel, wanted the multinational force to come back and help him maintain the situation. Within 48 hours, the U.S.-led multinational force was regrouped. The 32nd Amphibious Force of the U.S. Marine Corps had to return to Beirut immediately.
On the way back to Beirut by sea, Colonel Mead was told that the Marines were going to show the U.S. military "presence" in Lebanon. In his view, the vague concept of "existence" did not exist in the Marine Corps' dictionary. "Existence" is the language of Politicians in Washington, and their own behavior is already the "intervention" in international law in other civil wars.
More than half a month after leaving, the 32nd Amphibious Force arrived in Lebanon on 29 September. A new round of deployment, code-named "Beirut 2", began. The size of the landing force was 1200 people. In collusion, the "multinational forces" have delineated their respective spheres of influence. The Italians went to the South City, the French ranged to the port and city center, and the U.S. Marines were in charge of the international airport area in western Beirut. Mead was given the task of "occupying and consolidating positions along the designated line from beirut international airport south to near the Presidential Palace." ”
U.S. Marines are on alert in machine gun bunkers at Beirut airfield
In fact, the Americans chose a place with the least threat. Downtown Beirut, where the French were located, was the most "lively" place at the time, and the downtown area of Beirut, where street battles occurred from time to time, was filled with narrow streets and rabbit-nest-like alleys. Foreign troops walking the streets here are tantamount to looking for death. The Italians' southern city area is dotted with refugee camps, which are filled with "hatred, resentment and despair" that refugees have caused by the war. ”
Schematic map of the deployment locations of U.S. Marines, French and Italian troops in Beirut City
Although the airport area is relatively "safe", it is also the scene of many fierce battles. There are tens of thousands of unexploded ordnance from 125 species from 19 different countries in the past 8 years of civil war fighting. On September 30, the day after Operation Beirut 2 began, the Americans fired a "dud bomb" while clearing the airfield. Corporal David Reagan, a Marine Corps officer with the same surname as the current President of the United States, thus became the first American soldier to die in the intervention.
After that, the "Beirut 2" area of operations stabilized for a few days. As with the previous deployment, the Marines were primarily responsible for patrolling and alerting the airfield and did not have direct contact with the civil war parties. Compared with the bloody storm of the Lebanese civil war, the supply of American soldiers has become the focus of attention of the American media. According to the American media at the time, the mission area "had several kinds of wine on the tables of the French and Italians, and seemed to lack only candlelight and violins". The U.S. Marine Corps, on the other hand, had only the Post-Vietnam War version of the C-type ration. After the relevant reports fermented in the United States, the U.S. military logistics department quickly shipped thousands of frozen hamburgers and Mexican pancakes to Lebanon.
The 32nd Amphibious Force's "Burgers and Pancakes" duty ended on October 26. When Mead's soldiers boarded the ship again, the 24th Marine Corps Amphibious Force, as the receiving unit, had also completed more than two months of preparations, and its advance team had already arrived in Beirut. The new amphibious force, commanded by Colonel Thomas Stokes, included the 3rd Battalion Landing Team, the 263rd Helicopter Squadron and the 24th Support Group, also from the 8th Marine Regiment, with a strength of 1,929 Marines and 108 naval personnel.
The 24th Amphibious Force conducted dozens of armed patrols during the deployment of Beirut 3. At the request of the Lebanese government, the Marine Corps began training the Lebanese Army's Rapid Reaction Force on 13 December. Previously, the U.S. Marine Corps was relatively "neutral" to Lebanese foreign occupation forces, seven national contingents within the framework of a United Nations peacekeeping, and about two dozen different factions of armed groups, not directly involved in one side's battlefield operations. However, the training of the Lebanese government army undoubtedly removed the mask of the US military in the Lebanese civil war.
Direct support for the government of Beirut is by no means a good thing for the U.S. military. However, at that time, the US military was happy with its own positioning. Colonel Stokes, the commander of the 24th Amphibious Force, even boasted that "the Marine Corps is contributing to the history of the world." ”
Encouraged by blind optimism, U.S. soldiers even came close to clashing with the Israel Defense Forces. On February 2, 1983, Marine Corps Captain Chuck Johnson stopped three Israeli Centurion tanks moving "at combat speed" outside a Lebanese checkpoint. The American officer, brandishing a loaded M1911 pistol, jumped on the opposing tank and shouted, "If you want to go over, you can get past my body." The Israeli tanker thought the American was crazy. According to Seljen media reports, this Johnson was obviously drunk at the time.
"Great place to stay in Kyoto"
The next round of handovers for U.S. forces was completed from February 9 to 14, 1983. The 22nd Amphibious Force, which came to replace the 24th Amphibious Force, looked like a new face, but it was actually an old acquaintance. This unit has just changed its name not long ago, and it is actually the 32nd Amphibious Force that has been here twice. Still under the command of Colonel James The Great, Mead. This time this unit came to Beirut as a "three-way palace".
At the beginning of Operation Beirut 4, Mead's men received a wallet-sized card with several rules of engagement printed in large letters. Important among them are: "When patrolling on duty or on foot, the magazine may be placed inside the weapon, but the ejection window should be closed and the safety should be closed to ensure that there are no bullets in the chamber." This made the soldiers realize that the situation on the ground seemed to be more tense.
According to U.S. military rules of engagement at the time, troops in Beirut were only allowed to fire if they were "in danger and able to identify specific targets." Mead's assessment of this was, "My people are at a disadvantage. ”
General Robert Barrow, the commander of the U.S. Marine Corps in Washington, D.C., was also unhappy with the restraints on his troops. He wrote to U.S. Defense Secretary Casper Weinberg on March 14 calling for "vigorous action."
The rules of engagement for U.S. forces in Beirut were set by Washington. On the one hand, it is to establish a friendly image of the US military, and on the other hand, it also believes that the various factions of the Lebanese civil war should not dare to attack the US military. However, this assumption will obviously not hold.
In March 1983, the situation in Beirut escalated further. On the night of 15 March, an Italian patrol was ambushed by unidentified men, killing 1 Italian and wounding 9. The next day, north of the runway of Beirut International Airport, a grenade was dropped on the patrol of the U.S. 22nd Amphibious Force from the second floor of the apartment, wounding five Marines. By April 17, a Marine in a U.S. military duty post was shot by the Lebanese, and the Americans returned fire.
And that wasn't all, the next day the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon was finally attacked. A van loaded with 2,000 pounds (about 907 kilograms) of explosives ( supposedly stolen by the attackers from the U.S. Embassy ) drove past a sleeping Lebanese guard and stopped in the vestibule of the 7th-story building where the U.S. Embassy is located. The landslide-like explosion occurred suddenly. The attack killed a total of 63 people, 17 of whom were Americans, including a Marine Corps corporal Robert McMar who was in charge of embassy security.
After the incident, companies of the 2nd Battalion Landing Team, which belonged to the 22nd Amphibious Force, took turns to be stationed in the embassy area for 24-hour duty. The scale of the attack shocked and frustrated the U.S. military. Lt. Col. Donald Anderson, battalion commander of the landing team, wrote: "Who should be angry at whom? Oh my God, something like this could happen to us at any time. ”
More than one armed group claimed responsibility for the bombing of the U.S. embassy. This alone is a clear indication of how "popular" Americans are in Beirut. The distraught U.S. military changed the rules of engagement, allowing Marines to fire when they "sensed" hostile intent. At the same time, the 22nd Amphibious Force took a series of measures to strengthen its positions. For example, additional barriers have been built in the airport area, the number of sentries in various posts has been doubled, and all local vehicles entering the US military garrison have been subject to strict inspection.
In a state of anxiety, the 22nd Amphibious Force finally waited for the rotation. On 29 May, the 24th Amphibious Force returned to Beirut under the leadership of the new commander, Colonel Timothy Geratti. Colonel Mead and his men boarded the ship in horror and left the land of right and wrong. Operation Beirut 5, which was later remembered for its attack, began.
Unfinished
For the next part of this article, please click on the link: Beirut Barracks Explosion - U.S. Marine Corps Lebanon "Bitter Brigade" (part 2 of 2)