On 5 June 1993, militias of the somali warlord Mohammed Farah Al-Aideed ambushed a United Nations peacekeeper on patrol in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, killing 24 Pakistani peacekeepers. The bodies of the 24 Pakistani peacekeepers were dismembered and chopped up by Aideide's militants, whose barbaric acts shocked the world.
Not far away are merchant ships hijacked by Somali pirates
On 24 April 1992, the small East African country of Somalia fell into civil war, creating social unrest and a miserable population. The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 751, which decided to send peacekeepers to Somalia to oversee ceasefires among all factions and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Somali people.
The Great Warlord Mohammed Farah Al-Aideed
However, somali warlords were very dissatisfied with the Intervention of the United Nations, among which Mohammed Farah Aideed, the most powerful warlord in Somalia and the de facto controller of the capital Mogadishu, believed that the presence of peacekeeping forces seriously hindered his reunification of Somalia, and ordered his men to continue to harass United Nations peacekeeping forces. On 5 June 1993, Aideid's militia threatened the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from Somalia by ambushing and killing 24 Pakistani peacekeepers in Mogadishu and then dismembering and chopping up their bodies.
An armored vehicle of the Pakistani peacekeeper force destroyed by Aideed
On June 6, 1993, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting, and the General Assembly adopted resolution 837, which strongly condemned Aideid's barbaric acts, decided to increase the strength of the Somali peacekeeping force to 28,000 people, urgently deployed heavy equipment such as tanks and helicopter gunships, and authorized the United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia to take all necessary measures and means to arrest Mohammed Farah Aideed, the mastermind behind the massacre of United Nations peacekeepers.
U.S. Marines peacekeeping in Somalia
Jonathan Howe, the U.N. special envoy in charge of peacekeeping operations in Somalia, asked the U.S. to send additional special forces to help the U.N. capture Aideid. On August 30, 1993, the elite 75th Ranger Regiment of the U.S. Army and more than 440 members of the Delta Special Forces teamed up as reinforcements to arrive in Mogadishu. As the best-trained and best-equipped combat unit in the U.S. military, they were involved in the capture of Aideid as soon as they arrived in Somalia.
Member of the Aideed Armed Group
On 2 October 1993, the Informant reported that Aideed's top assistants, Omar Sharon and Abdi Hassan Avale, appeared at the Olympic Hotel in Mogadishu. On 3 October, after repeated verifications by contingent intelligence officers and "informants," the commander-in-chief of the contingent, General Garrison, decided to begin operations. Before the operation, Garrison communicated with the United Nations in advance, the U.S. military listed a few blocks around the hotel as a restricted area, and U.N. officials in Somalia knew that U.S. special forces were going to enter the area for a 40-minute arrest operation.
Birds helicopter flew towards Mogadishu in an instant
At 15:32 p.m. on October 3, 1993, the arrest operation began. Four AH-6 Bird and four MH-60K Black Hawk helicopters carrying the contingent quickly took off from the contingent base northwest of Mogadishu International Airport, with a ground escort convoy of Humvees and 5-ton trucks coming out of the base at the same time. This operation was no different from previous operations, so the soldiers on the mission were lightly armed, did not bring spare ammunition and night vision goggles, and some did not even bring a kettle, because everyone thought it was a very ordinary arrest operation, and would return "soon".
Satellite image of Mogadishu on the afternoon of 3 October 1993
At first, the operation went well, the "Rangers" descended to the four intersections around the Olympic Hotel to establish a blockade line; the "Delta" team members descended on the roof of the hotel and the street south of the hotel, and before the Aideed militants who were meeting inside could react, the "Delta" team members rushed into the various rooms of the hotel and took control of the situation. They then handcuffed the 24 Aideid militants and rushed them to the first floor, waiting to be evacuated by ground escort convoy, and the arrest was completed in less than 30 minutes.
Reinforcement of the American Rangers in Somalia
The only casualties during this period occurred in the Ranger Squad that established the perimeter blockade line, and the fourth squad recruit Todd Blackburn was affected by the dust and air currents rolled up by the helicopter propeller while descending, and fell from a height of 12 meters without grasping the rope, breaking his neck and losing consciousness.
Delta team members who participated in the operation
At this time, the Aideed militia, which had long been alarmed by the US helicopters, came from all directions to set up roadblocks in the US military area of operation to block the us military from withdrawing from the convoy; the Aideed militia also occupied nearby houses and strafed the US troops from the roof; armed pickup trucks equipped with heavy machine guns also attacked the US troops around the Olympic Hotel. The U.S. military returned fire with bunkers and hovering Black Hawks in the air.
Ranger descends instantly
Problems arose when the ground convoy arrived at the rendezvous site to prepare for the return journey. The convoy's route had been blocked by the Aideed militia, and american casualties had already occurred. And the Rangers on blockade missions were engaged in an exchange of fire with the enemy, and most of them failed to reach the confluence point in time to evacuate. Lieutenant Colonel McKnight, the commander of the convoy, decided to send three Humvees to return the injured Todd Blackburn to base, and then use the rest of the Humvees and trucks to return the captives of Aided's armed forces to base, along with delta crew members and Rangers.
Photo of "Super 61" before it was shot down
However, instead, the Black Hawk helicopter Super 61, which was on a cover mission above the confluence point, was hit by an RPG rocket, and the helicopter spun out of control and crashed about a few hundred meters northeast of the confluence point. At this point, the initiative was gradually in the hands of Aidid. The Rangers, closest to the crash site, rushed to the rescue, an attack Bird helicopter on standby in the air also rushed to the rescue, and the pilot assisted the survivors of the Super 61 to transport the wounded to the helicopter and return to the base.
Photo of "Super 64" before it was shot down
The ground evacuation convoy was ordered to the crash site to load the survivors and dead of the Super 61, and a 5-ton truck was blown up by the RPG of the Somali militia while the convoy was preparing for the operation and could not be used. Although the convoy was guided by a command helicopter, the streets were full of barricades and burning tires, resulting in the convoy often taking the wrong road, and this series of accidents completely disrupted the US military's battle plan, and the US army could only be led by the nose by Aideid.
The remains of U.S. soldiers were "whipped"
The Super 64 helicopter was ordered to take over the position of the Super 61, suppressing the gathered Somali militia with fire and covering the evacuation convoy. Near the Super 61 crash site, Somalis rockets hit the tail wing of the Super 64, and as Captain Durant tried to fly to the base, the tail paddle assembly disintegrated into pieces, and the helicopter eventually crashed in a shack area about a few hundred meters southwest of the Super 61 crash site.
The wreckage of the destroyed "Super 64" helicopter
The arrest operation has evolved into a rescue operation, and the nearby "Super 62" helicopter landed in the open space near the "Super 64" crash site with the permission of the command, and the two Delta team members on board, Gordon and Shuhart, rushed to the crash site to rescue the survivors. The "Super 62" quickly took off after being attacked by fire from all directions, and was seriously injured after a rocket hit the fuselage, and had no choice but to withdraw back to the base. The Aideid militia rushed toward the crash site like a tidal wave, and the Americans quickly ran out of ammunition. Gordon, Shuhart and three other crew members were killed and Captain Durant was captured.
Somalis occupied helicopter wreckage
The previously fallen Super 61 was much better off than the tragic experience of the Super 64, and the Rangers and Delta crew had reached the crash site and established a defensive line to temporarily take control of the situation. American soldiers were scattered within two blocks of the crash site to establish a stronghold and hold out for help.
"Super 61" rescue scene (movie stills)
But the fatal thing is that the ground evacuation convoy suffered heavy losses, artillery fire, smoke and roadblocks complicated the route, the convoy was lost in the somalis pursuit and interception, turned a large circle and returned to the hotel confluence point, the convoy suffered heavy casualties, half of the personnel were shot, 3 of the 24 prisoners also died, and had no choice but to return to the base first. The convoy stumbled all the way to the base, more than half of the vehicles were basically unusable, the rest of the base were unarmed Humvees, which could not be used at all, and how to evacuate the American soldiers trapped in Mogadishu was a big problem.
Pakistan Peacekeeping Force Headquarters at the Gymnasium
After the commander-in-chief of the task force, General Garrison, after contacting the US 10th Mountain Division, sent 3 companies of personnel to support, but the Mountain Division also had no heavy equipment, and the 10th Mountain Division did not dare to rush into the city after seeing the scarred and nearly scrapped Humvees and 5-ton trucks in the base. Helplessly, the US military had to ask the United Nations peacekeeping force for help, at that time only Italy, India, Malaysia and Pakistan had tanks and armored vehicles, Italy and India immediately refused the US military rescue request, after all, the brothers' combat strength is really crotch, reasonable.
A United Nations rescue team is assembling
Malaysia and Pakistan have said in principle they can help, but have disputed the use of armored vehicles and tanks. After nearly 5 hours of soft and hard soaking by the Americans, it was already 23:30 at night, and the rescue team composed of American Humvees and trucks, 32 Malaysian armored personnel carriers and 4 Pakistani M48 tanks set off in ink. Approaching the battlefield, the leading Pakistani tank refused to advance and quietly ran away, having to be led by Malaysian armored vehicles, Malaysians were extremely cautious, and when they encountered roadblocks, they stopped and asked the American infantry to clear and pass, resulting in a 1-mile (1.6 km) journey of more than half an hour, but an armored vehicle was destroyed and a Malaysian soldier died.
A Malaysian armored vehicle destroyed
At 1:20 a.m. when the convoy arrived at the rescue site, the U.S. military braved Somalis fire to carry more than 50 wounded into the compartments of armored vehicles, while the bodies of some of the fallen soldiers were placed on the roof of the vehicles, most of whom refused to ride in Humvees and trucks, which they saw as no different from running naked on the battlefield. But the interior space of the armored car was already crowded with people, and about 20 people had to run and follow the convoy out of the encirclement.
Part of the Rangers involved in the operation
Some Delta players and Rangers are in one total, and the brothers will run. As a result, more than 20 US special forces soldiers ran wildly with United Nations armored vehicles on the streets of Mogadishu, followed by hordes of Aideid militia chasing them butts and shooting wildly (African militias shoot in faith, hitting people purely depends on luck). After running for about 6 blocks, many people threw up and couldn't run. After dawn, the US soldiers encountered a Pakistani peacekeeper armored vehicle, after some hard work, the Pakistani army let these mud and blood-stained American soldiers squeeze into the M113 armored vehicle, which lasted more than ten hours, and the "capture" mission that lasted more than ten hours was finally over.
The current situation of the "Super 64" helicopter crash
A total of 18 American soldiers and 1 Malaysian soldier were killed in the battle of Mogadishu, the number of losses lost by the Somali Aideid armed forces is unknown, estimated to be within 1,000 people, and what the Internet is rumored about is 2,000 and 3,000 people.
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