Forces TV - 1st Gulf War 1991
 

Dear fellow Ppruners,

I am involved with Forces TV making a new series called "We Were There" - an hour long programme which brings together military personnel from an iconic incident to discuss their experiences. Rather than a 'normal' documentary style interview, the programmes are a round-table discussion involving about 6 'veterans' with everyone contributing.

So far, we have made episodes about: Korea and the Battle of Gloster Hill, The Falklands and the sinking of HMS Sheffield and Northern Ireland and the bombing of 2 Para at Warren Point.

I am investigating the possibility of doing an episode covering the air war during the first few nights of Op Granby in 1991 and I'd be interested to hear from any of you fine gentlemen who were out there at the time - if you DM me a few basic details and an email address, I'd be happy to hear from you.

best to all
John Nichol

Sorry John, touched a nerve, it was 2 Para at WP (Edited to tone down post)

A good friend who lost his leg in the incident (One of his colleagues came out with the now famous "No you haven't mate, it's over there") sadly died of a heart attack fairly recently after working tirelessly for many years with BLESMA and other service charities. He was in hospital following breaking his other femur during a charity bike ride when he succumbed. He had also recently had the other leg taken off after years of pain from the original incident. RIP Paul B

Many thanks for pointing out my error & you are quite right TBT - a slight slip of the keyboard on my part.

& your friend Paul was mentioned on a number of occasions by the guys I interviewed. Indeed I met him a couple of times when doing some work with BLESMA.

JN

How about covering the lesser known parts of Op GRANBY that started in August 1990? I was the Sqn Duty Officer the night the FLASH signal came in for the F3s of 5/29 Sqns to deploy immediately from Akrotiri to Saudi Arabia. Some very worried looking faces the next day as the int came in that Saddam was preparing to roll further South and that we would be standing on our own, with the Saudis and a few Americans, until the cavalry arrived...:ooh:

Whilst I was non-CR at the time, there were some interesting stories coming back from the crews that deployed. Flying CAPs in small numbers against a numerically superior foe in the first few days/nights in a barely combat capable jet with no defensive aids took a lot of guts, in my opinion. No CSAR, no preparation and making it up as they went along.

The build up to the '91 Air War might make an interesting 5 minute intro to your planned program. It shows, in my opinion, the very best of the RAF whilst it was still a force to be reckoned with in its own right (about 27 fast jet sqns, if I recall correctly?).

LJ

It's a very good point LJ, and made by the F3 guys before. Thanks for the reminder.

With the format of the programme as it is - filmed "as live" with half a dozen guests talking about a single incident, it might be quite difficult to bring in another storyline. But I'll see who comes forward with personal accounts.
cheers
JN

John, sounds like a great project. Very good luck with it.

Here you go, this will bring back some memories:


:ok:

Found this on your YouTube feed JN:


Splice the 2 together and job done! :ok:

ah yes - one of the classic GW1 vids.
I put a copy of the TVAM one up on Youtube a while ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfdsMwg-XmQ

Happy days.

Beat you by 1 minute! :ok:

I doubt that a full and frank discussion of the merits (or otherwise) of Saudi-Arabian compound-hopping (and 'furniture' constructed from slabs of tonic water) whilst waiting for the initial aluminium overcast to clear before we could take Albert off on a series of jolly adventures would make for riveting viewing. However, every luck with it.

Actually, having just looked at the schedule for this evening, it would probably qualify as 'appointment TV'.

You know what, it would be nice to see one covering the coldwar from a RAFG and BOAR viewpoint.

A very interesting point Nut......& already under consideration - you'll have to watch this space (or more accurately, a new thread!)

But I need to get this GW1 programme off the ground first.

Thanks for posting the Sky News vid, B. Video of the battle damage to "Delta Hotel" on the 24th of January 91. I was on the ABDR team that got that frame back as a war goer less than two weeks later.. It did another 8 raids before a cracked canopy hinge saw its return to Bruggen (and two years of Cat 3 repairs!). Could talk about that for 30 minutes very easily.

Hi John, I did Op Granby at Muharraq with an outfit called XV Sqn (groundcrew)..... you might have heard of them. From memory, you and JP didn't stick around for long ;)

I do remember it was the 17(F) Sqn groundcrew that saw you off and when the XV Sqn boys came on shift at 0700 to find out that you and JP were missing, the mood was so dark. It had been a bit of an adventure up to then with our fancy 5* hotels. The reality brought us all down to earth. The other dark time came later on when Steve Hicks didn't come back.

Nice to see you post here occasionally. Hope you are well and good luck with the programme.

Just to add a bit of balance in terms of types of ac involved I make no apologies for my favourite video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwieL2O2Nn8.
25 years on and no chance of operating on such a scale again.

LJ, you reminded me, I took a couple of F2 guys down to Metropole Building for a special brief about 1988 prior to their visiting Q8. I wonder if they were still involved come 1990.

LJ,

Yes, the initial deployment was a very interesting time for mud movers as well. The most dissapointing thing to me, particularly in retrospect, was that it took so long to get a useful air to ground capability in place. Yes, Heaven and earth were moved from the off but, we were supposed to be ready for WW3! Thank our lucky stars the big shooting war did not start any earlier.:O

Good luck with the prog John, I am certain this subject will become more seriously exposed as time goes by.:sad:

OAP

M8, within 12 hours of the arrival of the first GR1s in theatre, there were 4 on QRA loaded with JP233s.

Yes, I know there were no maps, or targets and it was a political QRA as much as anything else but still, it was a capability.

The PGM capability took longer but then it was still in its infancy on the still-young GR1 in 90/91. But we showed the world how to do it and the GR1/TIALD combination was second only to the F117A on bombs dropped vs DHs. :ok:

OAP

Yes, I think the first muds (Jags) arrived in far off Thumrait about 3 days after the Lincolnshire Land Sharks touched down in Dahran.

JN

Thanks mate. I think that seeing as it is 25 years ago this coming August, that there might be enough for a documentary series on the UK's efforts for GW1 (similar was done for the Falklands War). Your planned program may well be leading the charge. Also, the transition from the 'thirty year rule' to the 'twenty year rule' might see classified info being released earlier under FOI.

Good luck with your project matey and I look forward to being one of the armchair critics if the TV production try to add their own falir to the final product! :ok:

LJ