Target Basra - Mike Rossiter

In the dead of night on 20 March 2003, Royal Navy Marines from 40 and 42 Commando board a fleet of twenty helicopters.With faces blackened and mouths dry at the thought of what lies ahead, they have been given the job of capturing the oil pipelines and pumping stations through which 90 per cent of Iraqs oil is exported, to seal off the whole of the Faw peninsula and hold it against any counter-attack by the Iraqi Army. They will be the first troops on the ground in Iraq, literally kicking the door down. They will also suffer the first allied casualties in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein.Operation Telic was a bold and audacious break with military doctrine, a night-time airborne assault against heavily defended positions. Lightly armed and isolated, the Commandos only support for the first few days came from Royal Navy ships HMS Ark Royal and Ocean sailing off the coast.The night-time landing was just the beginning. The Commandos were engaged in a series of fast-moving and hard-fought battles against tanks, Baath party Fedayeen and Republican Guards as they moved rapidly north up the Faw peninsula until they reached the outskirts ofBasra, the second-largest city in Iraq. Finally, after a two-day battle that broke the back of the Iraqi resistance, and eighteen days after their first contact with the enemy, Royal Marine Commandos entered the presidential palace in Basra.Told from the perspective, and with the cooperation of officers and men in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines, Target Basra is a story of courage, fortitude and the harsh realities of modern war, fought in the context of the turmoil of the Middle East.