"In a narrow alley, you never know exactly where the enemy is hiding, and that's where a war is really frightening."
This line comes from the movie "Black Hawk Operation" released in 2002, which has won the love of the majority of fans with its sophisticated prop equipment, high-resolution lines, and super detail control, and on the list of "the world's ten most realistic war films", "Operation Black Hawk" is popular.
The film is based on the real historical event "Operation Black Hawk Down", in which the United States lost only 19 soldiers compared to the number of nearly 1,000 people killed in the battle in Somalia. But Operation Black Hawk Fell was seen as the most militarily costly U.S. operation since the Vietnam War. Why is that? What is the ins and outs of Operation Black Hawk Down?
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="4" > first, elite debut</h1>
Known as the "Horn of Africa", the Somali Peninsula is located in eastern Africa, across the sea from the Arabian Peninsula, bordering the Gulf of Aden in the north and the Indian Ocean in the southeast, with the longest coastline in Africa and a developed marine trade industry. Coupled with the fact that this area is close to the traffic of the Mediterranean region and the Indian Ocean, the geographical location is extremely important.
However, it has not been able to thrive on its privileged geographical location, mainly because the region has been in turmoil for many years – in 1991, the Siad regime collapsed, the Federal Republic of Somalia was suddenly in chaos, warlords were divided, and somaliland, Puntland, and south-west Somalia were fragmented.
In such a chaotic society, people have to live without fear. It is said that in Somalia, every household buys neither an Apple phone nor a refrigerator TV, but an AK-47. Because here, the police system can not play any role, ordinary people walking on the street in broad daylight may be shot and killed. Therefore, if there is no weapon, it is tantamount to walking a tightrope on the edge of a cliff, and it is possible to lose your life at any time.
After witnessing more than a year of chaos in Somalia, the United Nations sent peacekeeping forces to the area to carry out humanitarian relief, the main task of which was to urge the warlords to stop killing each other. However, the peacekeeping force did not complete this task as desired, but instead aggravated regional contradictions. Warlord armed forces use the rescue actions of peacekeepers as a pretext for waging war, constantly expanding their territory.
A case in point is Farah Aideed, the most powerful warlord in Somalia, who ignored the actions of the peacekeeping forces and even ambushed Pakistani troops, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. Aideed's move was strongly condemned by the United Nations, so the United Nations authorized the peacekeeping force to take all necessary measures to arrest the "black hand behind the scenes" and eliminate the Aided forces.
In order to show support for the peacekeeping force, the U.S. military sent additional special forces to Somalia to support at the request of the United Nations special envoy, Anathon Howe. The reinforcements are no small feat, and they are among the best of the U.S. special forces elite: the Seventy-fifth Corps of the Army's Special Forces, known as the "Rangers", the Sixth Naval Force, known as the "SEALs", and the frightening "Delta Force".
You know, "Delta Force" can be described as "ace of aces", and its members are all excellent soldiers from other special forces, most of whom are experienced and have strong combat capabilities. It can be seen that the United States is bound to deal with the Somali Peninsula issue.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="12" > second, the teacher is unfavorable, and falls into a trap</h1>
On October 3, 1993, U.S. Army Commander William Garreyson learned that Farah Aideed and his senior aides would meet at the Olympic Hotel in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
William was overjoyed and saw that this was a good time to capture Aidid, so he hurried to make a good deployment for the battle, and attacked the Rangers and delta forces in two directions, attacking the enemy on both sides.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the "guerrillas" and "Delta Forces" flew to the designated area in a Black Hawk helicopter as originally planned. However, for unknown reasons, the Rangers were sent to a place one block away from the designated location, and in the process of delivery, the situation was frequent - a member of the Rangers unfortunately fell from a height of twenty meters and seriously injured, which was a disadvantage.
What was even more troublesome for them was that the communication equipment of the correspondent was damaged during the landing, so the Rangers lost contact with the command and became a "lone brave".
In contrast, Delta Force started out in better shape, and after the Black Hawk fighters delivered Delta Force members to the south block, the team members were very agile, quickly jumped out of the cabin, and then threw smoke bombs into the courtyard, and the courtyard was suddenly chaotic. After that, delta troops immediately rushed into the courtyard, and before Aidid and the others could react, they captured 24 militants and took control of the battle.
However, things were not so simple, and just as delta troops were about to drive away with their captives, they found that the convoy had not arrived for a long time. After a while, a sudden burst of black smoke appeared in the city, and the entire city was shrouded in smoke. Suddenly, a large number of Somalis emerged from all directions, armed with weapons, charging menacingly towards the Delta Force.
It turned out that the black smoke had just been a signal from the militants in the city. The Delta Force, which had originally grasped the initiative, was suddenly surrounded and difficult to move.
At this time, the No. 64 Black Hawk helicopter wanted to provide fire support in the air, but was shot down by a rocket, and the pilot Volco was unfortunately killed. The U.S. military immediately sent the No. 61 Black Hawk helicopter to take over the task of the No. 64 Black Hawk helicopter, but the No. 61 had just reached the position, and it was hit by the tail wing, and Durant had to make a forced landing.
At this point, the ARREST OPERATION OF THE US MILITARY WAS COMPLETELY PASSIVE.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="22" > three, far from the same</h1>
The ground situation was chaotic, the communication of the US army was interrupted, and the command headquarters could not communicate with the front-line troops, which led to the receiving convoy missing the guidance intersection many times and unable to find the direction of rescue. On the other side, the Rangers and Delta forces were in a bitter battle, surrounded by Somalis on all sides, and although the Americans had the superiority of weapons, they were still outnumbered and difficult to break through.
In the Black Hawk helicopter No. 64, the two members of the Delta Force who descended stubbornly resisted in the face of the Somalis, but in the end did not hold out until the arrival of the rescue convoy, and both died. The pilot Durant was captured alive by the Somalis after the forced landing, and finally stripped naked and paraded through the streets.
In order to help the special operators break through the siege, Central Command sent 1 company of the 10th Mountain Division to the city to meet them. Nine trucks and 12 Humvees carrying a total of 150 soldiers took a detour from outside the city to evade the Somalis army and finally reach the special forces base.
At 23:30, the rescue army marched into the city, and it was not until the early morning that the special operators in the city, with the help of the rescue convoy, finally achieved a successful breakthrough.
In this battle, a total of 19 members of the US special operations team were killed, 73 people were injured, the No. 64 and 61 Black Hawk helicopters were destroyed, and three other helicopters were damaged. In addition, a number of trucks and "Humvees" were destroyed, which can be described as heavy losses.
The Somalis killed nearly a thousand people in the battle against the U.S. military, but the U.S. military captured only one member of the Aideid armed group, which was far from what the U.S. military had envisioned at the beginning. Therefore, operation Black Hawk Down was a failed military operation in both the result and the process.
Since then, the U.S. government has lost confidence in the Somali region, withdrawn all combat troops, and the United Nations "Somali peacekeeping operation" has also declared failure. The United States has always regarded itself as a strong military strength, but it did not expect to lose Mogadishu this time, and the reasons for this are worthy of deep reflection by future generations.
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The US military's "Black Hawk Down Operation" ended in a fiasco for many reasons.
First of all, the US division is unknown and the posture is inferior.
In the "Art of War of Sun Tzu", it is said: "Those who are powerful, control power according to profit." That is to say, in war, grasping the situation will grasp the initiative. If you can skillfully use the favorable situation, you can play the effect of four or two thousand pounds.
In this campaign, the US military, under the banner of the United Nations, intends to use powerful military force to coerce others into submission, which puts itself in an "unjust" place. Therefore, the local society, the people, and even the world public opinion will form a contrary trend. The division is unknown and has been defeated without a fight, and from this point of view, the failure of Operation Black Hawk is inevitable.
Secondly, it is not well considered and the synergy is not effective.
Throughout the entire process of Operation Black Hawk, the United States did not care about the feelings and interests of the local people and ignored the role of political means. In the whole arrest operation, the preliminary preparations were obviously insufficient, the actual situation on the ground was not understood, the combat plan was only slightly unknown, and the cooperation between the troops was even more chaotic, so there was a communication interruption, poor rescue, and chaotic combat operations.
Finally, poor command was also an important cause of defeat.
There was no unified front-line commander in this military operation. At a time when the Rangers and Delta forces were at odds, the U.S. commander in Mogadishu was unable to fully command any of them, which led to the two forces acting separately and doing their own thing, with predictable results.
If there is a strong commander at this time, I think that with the military quality of the US special operations forces, it will definitely not lose so ugly.
Text/Genki Girl QMQ
Resources:
1. "Black Hawk Falls to Mogadishu", Wang Hongwei and Gao Kai
2. "The Fall of the US Military 'Black Hawk' from Sun Tzu's Tactical Thought", Wang Lei
3. "Triangle Special Forces - Black Hawk Down", a lone hero