BS: A British Move

Subject: BS: A British Move
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Aug 06 - 08:29 PM

I read about this but with virtually no commentary in our newspapers.

What do the papers in the UK say about this?

Is This a Strategy- What Comes Next?

Subject: RE: BS: A British Move
From: gnu
Date: 31 Aug 06 - 08:37 PM

ooooo-ch.

Subject: RE: BS: A British Move
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 31 Aug 06 - 09:34 PM

Hmmmm...well there is clearly something odd here, but the bias in that link you posted is pretty worrying Ebbie.

I dont get newspapers, relying for my news on the radio & the 'net, but if you check other sources, the British troops certainly werent 'driven out' of the base to be left to 'go guerilla' in the countryside. The deployment to the rural areas was uder orders from the overall commander (U.S. Commander I mean)...though the co-ordination with Iraqi military taking over didnt happen as it should, being given only 24 hrs notice, which certainly DOESNT seem adequate.

Subject: RE: BS: A British Move
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Aug 06 - 10:41 PM

"...the British troops certainly werent 'driven out' of the base to be left to 'go guerilla' in the countryside." >/em> I too think that was an odd phrase.

Does anyone here have any more information?

Subject: RE: BS: A British Move
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Aug 06 - 10:54 PM

Ah. I see where the guy got the "guerrilla tactics" remark.

More


BAGHDAD, Aug 24 (Reuters) - British troops abandoned their base in Iraq's southern Maysan province on Thursday, which has been under almost nightly attack, and prepared to head deep into the marshlands along the Iranian border to hunt gun smugglers.

Soldiers of the Queen's Royal Hussars are to adopt tactics first pioneered by the famed Long Range Desert Group, a roving special forces unit that fought Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's German Afrika Korps in North Africa during World War Two.

The 600 combat troops are giving up their Challenger tanks and Warrior armoured fighting vehicles in favour of stripped-down Landrovers armed with machineguns. The units will remain constantly on the move and be resupplied by air drops.

"We are repositioning our forces to focus on border areas and deal with reports of smuggling of weapons and improvised explosive devices from across the border," British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge told Reuters.

"We are going to do what the Long Range Desert Group did in North Africa. We will live in the desert. We will be mobile and able to strike when we want. We will have surprise on our side," he said.

Subject: RE: BS: A British Move
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 01 Sep 06 - 08:00 AM

Though its giving it a 'fancy-label' by equating it to the Long Range Desert Group in WW2, its a lot more mundane & commonplace than that... & its something that British troops are particularly good at anyway....& it's a very effective means of observing/affecting cross-border smuggling of arms.