On October 3, 1993, in mogadishu, Somalia, a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter code-named Super 61 was hit and dropped by a rocket launcher in the hands of Somali militants while carrying out a military capture operation called "Irene", resulting in the failure of the mission.
The failure of Operation Irene also became the biggest setback suffered by the United States in overseas military operations since the Gulf War.
Operation Irene was a complete accident for the United States, because they were bound to succeed, and this Irene capture operation will definitely become the fastest, most perfect, and most beautiful arrest operation in the history of the US military, which can be used as a reference for future military training, so the whole process of video shooting was taken.
The capture operation brought together the most elite U.S. troops, with Delta Force, composed of elite green berets, in charge of capture missions, and SEALs performing ground-assisted offensive missions.
In addition, there are many units, including rangers, responsible for peripheral or air transport and fire support tasks. The U.S. military also specially arranged six Black Hawk special operations aircraft code-named MH60 to cover.
The man to be arrested by Operation Irene is Named Muhammad Farah Aideed, the most powerful somali warlord in Africa, who controls the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and most of southern Somalia.
On 5 June 1993, UN peacekeepers were countered by Aided's armed forces while attempting to shut down radio stations owned by Aideed.
In this conflict, the armed forces of Aideed shot and killed 24 Pakistani UN peacekeepers and formally declared war on the UN in an extremely brutal manner, when the United States, which has always regarded itself as the world's policeman, took the initiative to arrest Aideed.
Soon the U.S. military received a tip that at 13:30 on October 3, 1993, Aidid's top political adviser and public interior secretary would meet in a three-story house near the Olympic Hotel in the center of Mogadishu, and that Aidid would most likely appear.
From the map, this place is three miles from the US military base next to the Mogadishu airport, that is, more than 4,000 meters, and the US military can drive directly to it, in fact, this is a completely impossible thing.
Mogadishu has been in turmoil for many years, the whole city has been dilapidated like an abandoned city, some roads can not be driven at all, the whole city is a big labyrinth, the US military can not find the location accurately in the first time, if you rush to go, it will hit the grass and snakes.
The only way to do this is to find a local to lead the way.
The U.S. military quickly found a local who was willing to lead the way, and they asked the Somalis to drive a small car to the front of the Olympic Hotel, then came outside, opened the hood and leaned in, pretending to have an engine failure, which meant telling the United States that he was not far from the target location, at which point the monitor on the US helicopter began to lock on the target.
Subsequently, the aircraft that had been on standby in the US military base immediately took off, operation Irene officially began, the black hawk landed, and the momentum was like a bamboo, and finally the operation ended perfectly, and another classic case was born.
Unfortunately, this is only a fantasy, and we can only blame the US military for being too confident and too ostentatious. The loud sound of the Black Hawk helicopter had already spread to all corners of Mogadishu.
Adided knew as soon as the U.S. military took action, and this time he did not hide as usual, but was ready to have a hard confrontation with the U.S. special forces.
At 15:20, everything went as planned, and all 14 U.S. helicopters arrived over the target building.
At 15:50, Delta Commandos quickly landed on the roof of the target building, broke through the door, and successfully captured the target person.
But before the U.S. military could celebrate, it was stunned by the scene before it, when a Black Hawk helicopter code-named Super 61 was hit and crashed by a rocket.
After the Black Hawk helicopter was shot down and crashed, the U.S. military immediately notified the battle search and rescue team on standby and went to the crash site to rescue the injured and trapped people.
At about 18:00 p.m., three hours had passed since Irene's operation, and the Rangers in charge of support had arrived at the crash site to rescue the pilots and began to establish their own defensive positions.
However, at this moment, Aidid's armed forces were all surrounded, and the Rangers, who were usually not afraid of heaven, did not go up to meet the breakthrough, but hid in several buildings behind them.
The Ranger troops who were not afraid of heaven actually hid? There's no way they're running out of ammunition.
In the movie "Black Hawk Down", when the operation starts, all the U.S. troops think that this military operation is a victory, they voluntarily give up the night vision goggles, reduce the bulletproof armor, and even the kettle is not brought, and the real situation is more exaggerated than in the film, they are arrogant enough to actively reduce the ammunition base carried by individual soldiers.
In order to save ammunition, the Rangers hiding in the buildings could only shoot sporadically at some Somali militants who were close to them, and each of them was silently praying in their hearts that the rescue troops should come quickly, and if the reinforcements put heavy weapons such as tanks, these Rangers would be successfully rescued and broken out.
Before rescue forces arrived, a second Black Hawk helicopter was shot down again, code-named Super 64.
After the super 61 fell, the super 64 was used to replace the super 61 to continue the task of covering the ground troops, but unfortunately it also failed.
At this time, the rescue work became more complicated, the sky was getting dark, if the fall of the first Black Hawk helicopter caught the US military a little off guard, there was still room for reluctant deployment to support, but then the fall of the second Black Hawk helicopter, so that the US military had no way at all.
At this time, the US military had to put down a savior-like face and ask for help from the Pakistani military camp, if they continued to take care of their own face, the US troops trapped in Mogadishu were likely to be completely annihilated.
The Pakistani military camp was in the northernmost part of the Map of Mogadishu, the U.S. Military Base was on the southernmost side, and eventually the Supreme Commander of the Pakistani Military Camp agreed to supply the U.S. Army with 4 M4 tanks.
At 11:30 p.m. on October 3, 1993, about 300 U.S. troops headed to the crash site in downtown Mogadishu to rescue their trapped comrades.
In the end, Irene, who had been planned for only one hour, ended up fighting for 15 hours, but in any case, this nightmarish operation was also over as the trapped soldiers were rescued back to the barracks.
During the 15-hour operation Irene, a total of 160 people participated in the battle, of which 19 soldiers were killed and 103 wounded.
The Institute for Strategic Studies of the United States Army Academy made a report on the Somali background at the beginning of the peacekeeping operation, and they gave a very beautiful name to the "Save Hope" report, which obviously means that it is hoped that through this operation, the door to peace, friendship and exchange will be opened.
But the result of the action was so ironic that they brought not hope to the Somali people, but to a bloody tragedy.
Nine years after Black Hawk Down, in 2002, the Americans made operation Irene into a movie called "Black Hawk Down", in which the United States did not shy away from the fact that they had broken mogadishu because of their blind arrogance, but in this film, the Americans whitewashed their shooting of Somali civilians.
In reality, Operation Irene, part of operation Save Hope, killed more than 500 Somali civilians and injured more than 500.
To this day, this remains a pain that the Somali people cannot forget.