Black Hawk Down - The Battle of Mogadishu 1993

This is Romeo 64 to all elements. Irene, Irene, Irene. The earth begins to rumble as the one-word launch code sets the armada of American helicopters off towards the center of Mogadishu. Just a few hours before, American forces received a tip off of the location of a meeting of Muhammad Farah Adid's Somali National Alliance, which has been clashing with American and United Nations forces. Adid's foreign minister, Omar Salad Elm, and his top political adviser, Muhammad Hassan Awali, are said to be in attendance. An earlier attack on the United States Marines and their subsequent rescue has put ID's militia forces on alert. Somali spotters near the airport warn those in the city that the Americans are on their way. Piles of tires are burned throughout the city to warn ID's militia that they're coming. As the MH6 Little and MH60 Blackhawk helicopters fly out of the airport, a convoy of nine Humvees and three 5-tonon trucks leave the base and head towards the city. The raiding forts should be in and out in 30 minutes. It's the 3rd of October, 1993, and American forces are about to engage in their largest sustained firefight since the Vietnam War. Somalia has been in the throws of civil war since the overthrow of President Muhammad Siadbar in 1991. One, the multiple factions and clans that worked together to overthrow bar clash violently as they compete for power. As a result of the fighting and drought, famine has gripped the country with scores of Somali dying from starvation and disease. This is Dr. Jonathan Carroll, associate professor of military history and modern war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He is the author of Beyond Blackhawks Down: Intervention, Nation Building, and Insurgency in Somalia 1992 to 1995. What we get really is by 1992 we have a country that has about 7 million people. Over half a million have died through famine, biting, disease, genocide, and about another 3 million are now at risk of of death. So really what we have is this perfect storm of civil war, economic and governmental collapse and a population that is that is really caught in the middle of this. >> In response to the humanitarian crisis, United Nations peacekeepers are sent to Somalia in April 1992 under the UN operation in Somalia, UNISON. Amid frustration with the limited resources of UNISOM, American President George HW Bush in December of 1992 authorizes Operation Restore Hope, a US-led coalition of more than 20 nations named the Unified Task Force or UNITAF. The success of UNITAF led to more peacekeepers being sent to Somalia. In May 1993, the UN operation in Somalia 2, UNISOME 2, takes over from UNITA. >> The United Nations operation in Somalia 2 takes over. And the UNISOM 2 mission is nation building. Okay, if the American coalition has stabilized the country, the UN will now rebuild it from the ground up. And it had up until this point been a successful intervention. There was very little violence. Somalis were welcoming of the intervention, including Muhammad Farad. It is during unisome 2 that violence erupts between UN and US forces and the Somali National Alliance or SNA led by Muhammad Farah Adid a former diplomat and soldier. Despite the violence, the UN brings about a settlement between the factions to lay down their arms and move towards national unity and democracy. The SNA, despite signing the agreement, ignores it. On the 5th of June 1993, they killed 26 Pakistani troops after an inspection of Adid's weapons storage sites. >> If we look at this, this is a watershed moment in the intervention because the very next day, the UN Security Council will meet to discuss the attacks and the prevailing theory which will guide all military actions for the next few months leading up to the battle of Moadishu is that Muhammad Farah Adid is responsible. Basically, he feels his power base is threatened by the intervention and now he is he has lashed out at the UN. >> As a result, UN Security Council resolution 837 is passed directing UNISON 2 personnel to take all necessary measures against those responsible for the attack on the Pakistani troops. >> It doesn't name Muhammad Farah Adid specifically, but everybody understands that this is exactly what the focus is. So what we see is a change from a humanitarian nationbuilding operation to now also be a manhunt to capture Adid and bring him to justice. But it is a it is basically signaling the start of an insurgency and of a reciprocal counterinsurgency campaign in Somalia that will last about 4 months in what the Somali will call the summer war. In July 1993, American Cobra attack helicopters launch rockets and cannon fire into a building they believed to be hosting a meeting between Id and his war council. Adid however is not present. The meeting is actually between Somali elders discussing routes to peace. >> It's controversial amongst the UN because there's no warning given to the building occupants, no opportunity to surrender. So it looks like it's in controventions of the law of armed conflict. But in response to this, Adids militia now start targeting Americans specifically. So before this strike in July, it had been kind of the UN versus Adids militia. Now because it was American forces who carry out this particular strike, it is now seen as Adids militia versus America. [music] >> With 200 casualties inside the building, the SNA seizes the opportunity to promote anti-American sentiment in the city. Fury at the Americ's presence builds in Mogadishu and four Western journalists covering the story are killed by an angry mob of Somali. People are most familiar with Task Force Ranger from Blackhawk Down, but actually for months before Task Force Ranger arrive here, there's nearly 30,000 UN peacekeepers in Somalia, nearly over half of them in Moadishu. So there is a number of of units that are there ostensibly for the nation building operation. And one of them is Task Force [music] Raven. This is a US Army helicopter task force that is based at the airport. In August 1993, as part of Operation Gothic Serpent, the United States deploys two task forces to Somalia. Task Force Raven is assigned to conventional military roles, while Task Force Ranger, TFR, is to conduct special operations. TFR is made up of Rangers, SEALs, the 160th special operations aviation regiment or saw and a company from the first Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta, also known as Delta Force. TFR is tasked with killing or capturing IDE, which is hoped will halt the violence. One of the units within Task Force Raven is team courage and their duties are literally if there's Somali mortar teams or whatever is going on in Mogadishu from the air, Task Force Raven will deal with these threats. >> On the 25th of September, Courage 53, a Task Force Raven Blackhawk conducts a reconnaissance mission over the city. Piloted by chief warrant officers Dale Schrader and Perry Alimman, carriage 53 is refueling when mortars hit the airport. Lifting off immediately to locate the mortar crew, they fly at 100 ft and at high speed when a single RPG rocket hits the underside of the aircraft. It crashes near the UN controlled Newport area in the south of the city. A quick reaction force QRF from the 10th Mountain Division is sent to the crash site, but it does not reach it before the SNA militia do. The QRF troops discover, or so they think, that all of the crew have died in the crash. Trader and Aliman have survived and escape on foot. They are helped to safety by a local civilian. This is a foreshadowing of worse things to come >> because amongst Task Force Raven, it is realized that there is no kind of grills or what to do if pilots or crew are shot down in this city. Uh you would think that there would be kind of some doctrine for this, but actually there is no standard operating procedures at this point. So Task Force Raven look at this helicopter going down as being like, okay, this is tragic and this is a problem. We actually need to be very careful about how we react to and how we train for this eventuality. Task Force Ranger basically say this is just that's just unlucky. This shouldn't impact how we go about our business at all. Fluke shot, trick shot, just one in a million and that's just the way it is. So yes, a huge amount of overconfidence in certainly in terms of the threat to helicopter airframes from rocket propelled grenades. On the 3rd of October 1993, Task Force Ranger receives a tip off of the location of an SNA meeting in Moadishu near the Olympic Hotel. Omar Salad al-Mim, Adid's foreign minister, and Muhammad Hassan Awali, Adid's top political adviser, are in attendance. With just 2 hours notice, TFR, prepares and launches a raid to snatch them both, hoping this will bring them closer to Ided himself. Earlier that day, an American Humvey carrying a Marine Sentcom intelligence support element and a Somali interpreter is destroyed by an SNA command detonated mine north of the Newport area, wounding three Marines and killing the Somali interpreter. The crew of Courage 68, a Blackhawk from Task Force Raven, spots the wrecked Humvey and attempts to extract one marine casualty trapped under the overturned vehicle. Upon receiving small arms fire, they return to the air. Crowds gather around the site and a Cobra attack helicopter is directed to keep the area clear using a 20 mm cannon if required. In an unprecedented move, they actually land one after the other in the streets of Moadishu to try and rescue these Marines. Uh, very daring Kazc. A second Blackhawk, Courage 73, arrives on scene and lands to help extract the wounded marine. Men carrying RPGs are spotted in the area and small arms fire is exchanged, but Courage 73 is able to retrieve all American wounded and depart the area. This action has put ID's forces on high alert. measures are taken just in case American helicopter born forces either try to strike the conference as they did in July or they try to land in the vicinity of the conference which other helicopters will land somewhere else the same morning. So what you see I think is an element of prudent preparation. The Americans have shown a preference of using helicopters in Moadishu during the summer war. So to protect this highle meeting, this highle conference just in case there is a significant amount of rocket propelled grenades and anti-aircraft weaponry just kind of stationed around the meeting. Not expecting trouble, not planning to ambush anybody, but just in case the meeting becomes compromised, they are prepared to deal with any airborne threats that materialize. The plan to capture Elm and Awali is for MH6 Little Birds of Saw to land the Delta Force teams on the street outside the target building from where they will storm into the building and grab the prisoners. Meanwhile, four Ranger Chalks, squads of 15 men, will fast rope down from hovering black hawks to each corner of the block surrounding the target building to establish a perimeter. Once the prisoners are secured, the Humvey and truck convoy, led by Lieutenant Colonel Danny Mcnite, will roll up in front of the target building, load the entire raiding force and prisoners on board, and head back to base before ID's militia can mobilize against them. Blackhawks and Littlebirds will circle above and provide air cover. A command and control or C2 Blackhawk carries Lieutenant Colonel Tom Matthews who coordinates the pilots of SOAR and Lieutenant Colonel Gary Harold who is in command of the troops on the ground. An EP3 Orion surveillance aircraft and an O58 Koware surveillance helicopter circle overhead providing a live video feed to overall commander General William Garrison, commander of Task Force Ranger and the head of Joint Special Operations Command. A combat search and rescue helicopter is on standby should any problems arise. For more substantial problems, the 10th Mountain Division QRF quick reaction force is on standby at their base in the west of the city. The whole plan should take 30 minutes to complete. The helicopters scream in towards the target building in the area of the Olympic Hotel to begin the raid. With US forces jamming radio signals, tires are burning around the city as a signal to the SNA militia that the Americans are coming. AH6 little birds armed with miniguns and rocket pods lead the way upward road to spot any armed Somali. With the coast clear, the MH6 little birds, the transport, throw up a dust storm as they land with precision in front of the target building. Delta Force operators hop off and move into the building. The time is 3:42 p.m. And actually, this dust is one of the key saving graces for Task Force Ranger because there is RPGs flying everywhere. The postaction report will actually define this as, and this is a direct quote, an unprecedented and unforeseen level of resistance here in the Somali intervention. So, it's not as if there is no resistance and then things go wrong. There is a huge amount of resistance right from the get- go. The four ranger chalks begin fast roping down from hovering black hawks to the street. The chalks form L-shaped defensive positions on each corner of the block except for chalk 4, which are accidentally dropped a block further away. This is the first time out as leader of Chalk 4 for Staff Sergeant Matt Eversman. And in his chalk, the first ever combat mission for 18-year-old Private Todd Blackburn. Blackburn has completed boot camp and Ranger selection, but has not attended Ranger School itself. The reason for what happens next is unclear. During the insertion, Blackburn completely misses the rope. Details about his fall are scarce. Various reasons such as the pilot of the Blackhawk taking evasive action to avoid RPG fire, Blackburn's raw adrenaline causing a lack of focus, or the general confusion of combat have been put forward as explanations. Whatever the cause, Blackburn falls 60 ft to the ground. Medics run to attend to him. They are able to stabilize him, but with the growing fire raining down on them, a helicopter evacuation is out of the question. They'll have to wait for the convoy. RPGs are now being fired at the defending rangers. A crowd of unarmed locals is also forming around the raid site. The situation is manageable, but the strength of the resistance is much higher than expected. The raid is taking place close to the Bakara market, an IDed controlled area of the city with a high concentration of SNA militia. With the pre-warning that the raid was coming, hundreds of militia are organized, armed, and waiting. While the Delta operators move through the target building, the Humvey convoy arrives on the street outside and waits for them to complete their task. Evansman orders five men in his chalk to move Blackburn over to the waiting vehicles. To the north of their position, Chalk 2's M60 machine gunner, Specialist Sha Nelson, sees a larger crowd numbering in the thousands gathering on the street. A group of 15 Somali approach with those armed using the unarmed as human shields. He first tries to aim just at the militia, but as he is taking fire from the group, he quickly weighs his options and decides he has no choice but to open fire on all of them. The group scatters, leaving armed and unarmed dead. Seeing this, a larger group of militia and unarmed locals charge at chalk, too. Without time to think about it, the chalk returns fire. At that moment, a little bird marauds down the street above their heads and inflicts a devastating minigun run on the crowd. The display of awesome firepower disperses the few survivors. All four trolls are now being forced into the tough decision to open fire on militia who are using unarmed people as human shields. From the perspective of locals who are just arriving at the scene, they see the Americans indiscriminately firing on civilians, and the fury of the citizens grows further. American forces have stirred the Hornets's nest. Mcnite sends three Humvees to carry the critically injured Blackburn back to base immediately. The journey should only take 5 minutes, but they are driving through a city teameming with angry militia. They turn onto National Street [music] to find militia on both sides of the street, firing into them. Private first class Brad Pollson, manning the 50 caliber machine gun in the lead Humvey, fires right, and Sergeant Dominic Pillar on the second, fires left. In the furious torrent of fire, Pillar is killed instantly by a round to the forehead. At this moment, amidst the intense firefight, a call comes over the radio from Sergeant Bob Gallagher, a platoon sergeant with the main force at the target building. How you guys doing? Taking heavy fire, Sergeant Jeff Striker shouts. I don't want to talk about it. Unsatisfied, Gallagher calls again. Have you got any casualties? Yeah, one streaker replies deliberately short. Who is he and what's his status? It's Pillar. And what's his status? He's dead. The busy radio network falls to silence. The first, but not the last, TFR soldier has lost his life. The Delta operators have apprehended the two targets along with a further 22 SNA prisoners. It's now nearly 40 minutes since the first American boots hit the ground as clearing the building and processing the prisoners is taking longer than expected. The communication issue also causes delays. There is also confusion as the Delta team is waiting for confirmation from the convoy to leave the building while the convoy is waiting to hear from the Delta team to let them know that they've apprehended the prisoners. The confusion is eventually cleared up and the prisoners are loaded into the trucks. Every minute, the amount of people around the building grows larger, but the rangers and circling helicopters are so far keeping them at bay. Rangers in Chalk 4, Sergeant Scott Gallentine and Private Anton Baronson take non-critical hits with Gallentine losing a finger. Chief warrant officers Cliff Elvis Walcott and Donovan Bull Riley, pilots of Super 61, continue to maneuver their Blackhawk at low level above the action. Their crew chiefs discharge thousands of rounds from their miniguns at the militia below while four Delta snipers pick off the enemy through the open doors. Adid will claim in the aftermath that he always wanted to shoot down an American helicopter and then engage American forces in in an attritional kind of close quarters urban battle. Neutralize the American military's technological advantages by bringing them into the city. And this is the claim that he will make. Uh and I I don't buy it. Adid's militia throughout the intervention in Somalia and even up until the start of the summer war. The best estimates, the most generous estimates state that he has maybe 2,000 militia. Some of them are of good quality, some of them are not. He does not have the military power to force a decision in Mogadishu, let alone the rest of Somalia. So, he doesn't have that capability. At 4:20 p.m. during a turn to port, starboard gunner, Staff Sergeant Charlie Warren, spots a militia soldier with an RPG behind them. Hey, I've got a guy with an RPG. He's 5:00, moving to 6:00. Sergeant Ray Dowy, the port side gunner, can't spot the man as the helicopter continues the turn. Is he by a building or something you can describe? Before Warren can respond, the RPG round flashes skyward and hits the tail of Super 61. The Blackhole enters an uncontrollable spin. The Rangers of Chalk 2 hear the impact and watch in horror as one of their own helicopters spins erratically around the sky. Smoke trailing from its tail. The radioet erupts into panicked calls. Back on >> Delta operator Sergeant Jim Smith isn't wearing his seat belt and desperately holds onto a crew seat. The spin pulling his legs outside the door of the aircraft as it descends. In the cockpit, Walcott cy and in a banterous fashion asks his co-pilot, "Hey Bull, you going to pull the PCL's offline or what?" A procedure to attempt to control the spin. is no use. And still maintaining his composure, Walcott makes one last radio transmission. 61 going down. The Blackhawk clips a roof and plows into the street below, falling over onto its side in a ball of dust and debris. Both pilots are instantly killed. It is later discovered that Walcott likely pitched the helicopter's nose down purposefully at the last second, ensuring that the pilots absorbed the impact, saving the lives of the crew in the back. The C2 or command and control bird above orders available nearby rangers to rush to the crash site. Chalk 2 is nearest, so eight of the 15 rangers in that chalk move out on foot into the city. The convoy is ordered to prepare to move to the crash site immediately. A message is sent to the 10th Mountain Division to mobilize to support TFR as the situation is quickly deteriorating. Of the surviving two crew members and four Delta operators of Super 61, only two are not seriously injured. Having just survived a brutal helicopter crash, Staff Sergeant Daniel Bush and Sergeant Jim Smith emerge and defend themselves and the rest of the survivors from the now arriving locals. Little bird star 4 bomb is the first help to arrive at the crash site. They land near an alley and are immediately charged by Somalians. The two pilots, warrant officers Keith Jones and Carl Meyer, defend themselves from the cockpit with pistol fire. Jones hops out and moves to the wreckage just as Lieutenant Tom D. Tomaso arrives with the seven members of Chalk 2 to form a defensive perimeter. They find that Bush has been killed defending the survivors. They move his body into the Littleberg and Sergeant Smith also hops on board. Super 61 pilots Walcott and Bryley are dead and the rest of the survivors require medical attention before they can be evacuated. Little bird star 41 lifts off and heads back to bait. The Humvey convoy rolls up to Sergeant Eversman's chalk fall and they get in under fire. People now line the streets, roofs, and windows and fire down into them. They turn right towards the crash site, but disoriented, the lead Humvey turns south, now heading away from it. The convoy is now lost under the heavy fire. They can't afford to slow down, but is taking time to relay directions to the crash site from the C2 Blackpool to Mcnite. The locals are also building makeshift road blocks throughout the area using tables, chairs, and general debris. Bearing bombs planted inside the road blocks, the Humvees can't simply drive through them. They make several wrong turns and loop around the area of the target building. Ranger commander Captain Michael Steel orders the remaining chalks and delta operators to move on foot towards the crash. They encounter heavy resistance slowing their ability to reach the crash site. With one less Blackhawk in the low orbit role, covering troops on the ground with his miniguns, Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant in Super 64, loitering to the north of the city, receives an order. Super 64, this is Alpha 51. Come up and join Super 62 in his orbit. 64 is inbound. Durant heads south towards the city. The CSA or combat search and rescue black hole Super 68 arrives at the crash site. The team of Rangers and Delta operators begin to fast rope down to the street below. With men still on the rope, the helicopter is hit by an RPG. In a display of superb airmanship, pilots Chief Warrant Officer Dan Jalosa and Major Rodriguez holds the helicopter steady while the men complete their fast rope. They are sent from the area and successfully managed to put their stricken aircraft down in the friendly new port area. Under heavy fire, the CSA team moves the two remaining wounded crew chiefs to nearby shelter. They then move to strengthen the perimeter set up by Chalk 2 at the intersection just west of the crash. Durant Super 64 is on station over the rooftops providing minigun fire support for the Humvees below. At 4:40 p.m. Durant's black hole takes an RPG hit to the tail section. He pulls the aircraft out of the orbit and points southwest towards the airport. It's leaking oil, but the controls are still responding. All of a sudden, the tail rotor gearbox and most of the tail itself completely disintegrates. The Blackhawk enters a violent spin. He radios, "Super 64 going in hard. We're going down." Just before hitting the ground, the pilots managed to level off the chopper and as it impacts with the Earth, the helicopter lands flat on its belly. As a result, the crew survives. Yuf Dahir Malin, a commander of a small group of Adids militia, is near to the crash site and later recalls, "As soon as I saw the aircraft coming down, I started running towards that plate. People started to rush from all directions. They all knew there were survivors inside who started shooting at people. Task Force Ranger with increasing SNA opposition now has to secure two helicopter crash sites and rescue both air crews or recover their bodies. Blackhawk Super 62 circles the crash site and immediately spots a mass of people moving towards it from all directions. They can see the convoy still driving around lost in the city. To the west, Stru's three Humvees that had earlier evacuated Private Blackburn back to the airport have now rearmed and with a volunteer force of cooks, Clarks, and injured Rangers are attempting to fight their way back into the city, but are pinned down. Delta snipers Sergeant Randy Schugart and Gary Gordon can see for themselves that the crashed Super 64 will shortly be overrun and that both convoys are nowhere near. They volunteer to deploy on the ground to defend the crash site. At first, the commanders in the C2 helicopter reject the request, but after discussion, they agree they have no choice, and this might be the only chance to [music] save the crew of Super 64. Chugat and Gordon are inserted on the ground approximately one block south of the crash site and make their way to the downed helicopter. They find that all four crewmen have survived the crash. The Delta operators carefully move Durant to a tree next to a shack on the right side of the downed helicopter. His back and one of his legs are broken. They hand him his MP5K submachine gun before moving to the other side of the Blackhawk. To his left is an alleyway. Durant covers their backs by firing on any Somali that emerges. With Little Birds and the snipers on board Super 62 firing down on the crowd, the mass of people are being kept at bay, but it doesn't last. On the ground, Durant hears Gordon cry out in pain from the other side of the helicopter. After a few seconds, [music] Shug brings Gordon's weapon to Durant, loaded and ready to fire. Ysef Dah Malam later remembered [music] the scene around the downed Super 64. There were some dead Americans at the site of the crash. So instead of running towards Michael Durant, the crowd rushed into the aircraft itself [music] to the bodies and this deferred most of the angry mob. Above them, Super [music] 62's pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Mike Gaffina, sees Gordon has been killed and radios a desperate plea. This is 62. Ground element crash site number two has no security right now. They have one guy on the ground. Are there any ground forces moving to crash site 2 at this time? Negative. Not at this time. One of his crew chiefs, Sergeant Paul Shannon, is shot in the hands and Sergeant Firstclass Brad Halling, one of the Delta snipers, takes over on the minigun. RPGs continue to flash towards Super 62 and one connects on the starboard side of the aircraft. Captain Jim Yakone, Gaffina's co-pilot, and Hauling are wounded in the blast. Gaffina has almost no control over the aircraft and yet somehow manages to crash land it in the Newport area to the south without the miniguns of Super 62 providing devastating fire from above. And after 30 minutes of desperate fighting, Shugat runs out of ammunition. The crowd finally overruns Super 64. Three of the four crewmen and snipers Gordon and Shugat are killed. The angry locals are in the process of beating Durant to death when his life is spared by an SNA member who decides to take him to Id as a prisoner. Abdi Aziz Abdi Khadir, an idi militia fighting in the battle, later claimed that we don't kill captured soldiers, but the ones killed in battle, nothing good comes of them, which is why they were dragged through the street. They deserved it. The convoy is taking a hammering in the city with 50% of the troops inside the vehicles suffering from wounds. Stru Humvees are unable to fight their way back in. Two Blackhawks have been shot down. Another two have been damaged by RPG hits. And most of the others are riddled with bullet holes. Chalks 1, 2, and three are taking casualties, fighting to and defending crash site one. The mission that was supposed to take 30 minutes has lasted hours. The troops on the ground are running out of water and ammunition and didn't bring night vision equipment. The convoy, lost in the city and sustaining heavy casualties, heads back to the airport with Sergeant Everman and most of Chalk 4 on board. Romeo 64, this is Uniform 64. We've got a lot of vehicles that will be almost impossible to move. Quite a few casualties. Getting to the crash site will be awful tough. Pimped down. Uniform 64. This is Romeo 64. Danny, I really need you to get back to that crash site. This is uniform 64. I have numerous casualties. Vehicles that are halfway running. Got to get these casualties out of here ASAP. A quick reaction force from the 10th Mountain Division of 12 Humvees has tried to fight its way into the city, but is ambushed on route and returns to their base. The Rangers and Delta operators besieged at the first crash site will have to fight on into the night without ground support. They have become mixed together during their fight to the first crash site. Ranger Lieutenant Jim Lechner, Sergeants Aaron Williamson and Mike Goodale, and privates Pete Nethery and Vince Erico have been hit on route. Delta Force Sergeant El Filmore is killed with a shot to the head. Throughout the fight to the crash site, the more experienced Delta operators offer reassurance and guidance to the younger, inexperienced rangers, but those who witness Filillmore's death are shaken. The rescue crews are frantically trying to remove the wounded and the bodies of the remaining crew of Super 61, but the crash has crumpled the aircraft around them. They first stabilize semi-conscious left side gunner Sergeant Ray Dowy, believing that the convoy will be here shortly to evacuate him. A hail of fire punches holes through the aircraft's thin skin, and medics Sergeant Bob Mabbury and technical Sergeant Tim Wilkinson both take hits to the hands. Despite this and not wanting to move Daudi from the aircraft under fire from the top side, they dig a tunnel out from under the aircraft, dragging Dowi to a nearby building. Rangers and Delta teams arrive at Marahan Road, a southerntherly road going uphill away from the crash and occupy buildings on its eastern side. The fighting is already desperate in close quarters and the force takes more casualties. Ideally, the teams would move into a coherent perimeter around the crash, but Lieutenant Larry Perino has no choice but to radio Ranger leader, Captain Steel, to inform him that his chalk is combat ineffective at their current location with more wounded than can be carried. Captain Steel's group further up the street are also rendered combat ineffective by the number of wounded. Steel send a detachment across the street to improve their defensive perimeter. All teams will have to defend their positions until help arrives. At present, the men on the ground have no idea when that could be. Ranger Corporal Jaime Smith is hit on the street and is dragged into a courtyard nearby. Trying to stem Smith's blood loss, Delta Medic Sergeant Firstclass Kurt Schmid tries desperately to save the 21-year-old's life. He requests an immediate helicopter evacuation or the young man will die. Marahan Road is still too hot to land a helicopter, so the request is rejected. Parino watches on helplessly as Corporal Smith slips away. As day turns to dusk at 7:30 p.m., the 30inut mission heads into its fourth hour, and the besieged Rangers and Delta operators are beginning to run short of ammunition, water, and medical supplies. General Garrison has no choice but to order Blackhawk Super 66, piloted by Chief Warrant Officers Stan Wood and Gary Fuller, to conduct a dangerous resupply mission. They approach the area and come to a hover one block south of the crash site. With the large concentration of SNA militia below attacking the US troops on the ground, a ferocious hail of fire begins to hit the helicopter. Bullet holes are being punched into the airframe as the crewman frantically push supply packages overboard to the street below. Rounds tear into the engine and gearbox, but the Blackhawk stays airborne until all the supplies have been shoved out of the door. Miraculously, Super 66 completes it resupply and Wood and Fuller climb the helicopter out of danger, nursing it back to the airport. The supplies are distributed amongst the teams, but Steel's group is too isolated and doesn't receive any new ammunition. The AH6 Little Bird attack helicopters now arrive to perform rocket and minigun runs against the militia forces surrounding the American ground forces. The SNA militia are now arriving with heavier truckmounted machine guns and recoilless rifles. With the isolated Delta and Ranger groups unable to form a coherent single perimeter, the risk of friendly fire is high. With the help of infrared strobes dropped by the troops on the ground to signify their positions. The little birds rotate in to put down frequent fearsome guns on the SNA militia. As the night goes on, the Somali fire becomes less consistent, but a constant stream of reinforcements from across the city continues to enter the fight. Back at headquarters, General Garrison, realizing that the QRF Humvees won't be enough to rescue his troops, has called on the UN peacekeeping force of Pakistanis and Malaysians at the Newport area for aid. Not a quick reaction force and having not been given warning of the raid, it is taking a few hours for the rescue column armed with four M48 tanks and 32 Condor armored personnel carriers to mobilize for the rescue mission into the city. The 10th Mountain QRF and Task Force Ranger Humvees arrive at the Newport zone at around 10 p.m. The rescue force finally departs at 11:23 p.m. Heading north into the city. The US 10th Mountain Division troops have transferred into the Malaysian APCs crewed with Malaysian drivers and gunners. The Pakistani tanks lead the column of vehicles to National Street. From there, the Malaysian condors spearhead the force into the city. The majority of the convoy will hold between the two crash sites, and elements will move to both sites to carry out the rescues. 10th Mountain AH1 Cobras relieve the Littleirds and provide air support to the ground forces. Heavy fighting slows the relief column. RPGs flash toward them, and a rocket bounces off the hood of one Humvey. One of the transport trucks takes a disabling RPG hit and the men on board scramble into nearby vehicles. Malaysian gunners pound nearby buildings with cannon fire to cover their movements. Despite the use of armor, movement is slow for the two-mile long convoy. A Malaysian soldier is killed when an RPG hits the lead Condor. Seven more Malaysians and two Pakistanis are wounded during the fight into the city. The Rangers and Delta besieged at crash site one continually radio in to the C2 bird asking when the convoy will arrive. 40 minutes they say, then 30 minutes later, another 40 minutes. Then 10 minutes, then 20 minutes. Then simply soon. The men on the ground have no choice but to laugh at the erratic time estimations. With a healthy dose of eye rolling, any minute now becomes the standard response before the question is even asked. The convoy arrives at its central assembly point on National Street and halts amid a continuing firefight. The vehicles of the leading half of the convoy take a right turn up Hallig Road and approach a road block just south of the target building that Rangers and Delta Force had landed at nearly 9 hours earlier. Again, fearing bombs and mines planted into the road block, the condors can't simply drive through. 10th Mountain troops dismount from the lead vehicles, some progressing on foot towards the first crash site, while others dismantle the roadblock by hand. The convoy and dismounted soldiers fight block by block through the city in a constant battle with the SNA militia. 23-year-old 10th Mountain Private James Martin is killed as he moves on foot through the city. To the south, rescue forces arrive at Durant's crash site, but the crew are nowhere to be found. The Somali mob has carried the bodies of the dead crew members away. Abdullahi Hassan Ferimi, an Ided clan elder, later recalled in an interview, "Before October 3rd, the people in that neighborhood were subjected to severe punishment from the American forces. Their houses were destroyed, their property was destroyed, and on this day, they were trying to destroy whatever they saw of Americans. Dragging their bodies through the town was very unfortunate." Durant himself is under the captivity of Ided. The ground forces secure sensitive material on board the downed Blackhawk and use explosive charges to destroy the helicopter. With the roadblock clear, the convoy rolls eastward with dismounted troops alongside on the street. Captain Steel hears the approaching vehicles. In the darkness, he shouts out, "Rangers! Rangers. He cautiously peers out into the street. This is Captain Steel. I'm the Ranger Commander. Roger, sir. We're from the 10th Mountain Division. 10 and 1/2 hours after the first TFR boots touch down in central Mogadishu. Their rescue column has arrived. The Humvees and Condors reinforce the Ranger perimeter and quickly get to work helping to free Walcott's body from the downed helicopter. The cockpit is lined with bulletproof kevlar. So attempts to saw through to cut him free are fruitless. Using chains attached to the front and rear of the aircraft, the Humvees attempt to physically pull the airframe apart. The efforts take several hours. The Americans and Malaysians continue to hold off the angry inhabitants of the city with RPG rounds and vehicle-mounted heavy machine guns still battering them from all sides. Wounded Sergeant Goodell in one of the condors loses his cool and screams at the Malaysian drivers to get them out of here. No, no, we stay, comes the response in broken English, and the rescue force holds the line. An RPG ricochets off another condor. And again, the driver comes and reassures his American counterpart. With the sun rising, the crew of Super 61 is freed from the downed black hole. The vehicles finally begin to roll south to rejoin the others holding on National Street and Holig Road. With the vehicles carrying dead and wounded on stretches, there isn't enough room for all of the Rangers and Delta operators. They have no choice but to run the mile south to National Street on foot. The Humvees and Condors don't drive slowly enough for the men on the ground to use them as cover, and they find themselves alone. After 14 hours of fighting, Captain Steel leads nine Rangers, all of the Delta Force operators and the CSR team through the streets of Moadishu. They put down covering fire as they dart across each intersection. In daylight, there's no point in being slow and cautious. It's a miracle that only one man takes a hit to the shoulder, but continues anyway. The dash to the awaiting vehicles is later [music] called the Moadishu Mile. Finally, the exhausted men spots the column of APCs and Humvees waiting for them. Each now running on nothing but adrenaline, they collapse into the vehicles. With Pakistani tank support and with Pakistani troops dismounting to clear roadblocks, the convoy finally rolls out towards the Pakistani held stadium northeast of them. The battle of Mogadishu comes to an end. In the disastrous battle of Mogadishu, one Malaysian, one Pakistani, and 19 Americans have been killed or will later die of their wounds with a further 82 UN troops wounded. What should have been a 160man 30inute mission to snatch two of ID's top ministers becomes a 15-hour nightmare requiring a rescue force of 3,000 UN troops with tanks and APCs. Usually the argument goes that task force ranger carries out seven operations in Mogadishu. the 7th of course being on October 3rd and many commentators, analysts and academics and military practitioners have suggested that actually one of the key contributors to what turns a raid into a battle is that Task Force Ranger has operated the same way seven times. So the tactics are tired. They've been they've been used exhausted. This is not correct uh in my view because if you look at the seven operations of task force ranger they don't use helicopters every time sometimes their forces will be inserted by helicopter and withdrawn by vehicle inserted by vehicle withdrawn by helicopter you know dayight operations in my analysis I have found that the retrospective evaluations of the battle of Mogadishu they tend to be very very limited by western military doctrine and approaches. So it can't possibly be that the plan might have been tricky or it couldn't the Somali couldn't possibly it has to be a failing on our part. So a very key hallmark of of Western military thought is to evaluate how we plan how we execute. And in this case somebody has kind of jumped on. We did the same thing seven times. Therefore that must have kind of given the game away to our adversary. Estimates for Somali killed vary between 312 and 2,000, including many civilians. >> It will be in the immediate aftermath of the battle of Mogadishu that Adid himself will actually unilaterally declare a ceasefire. He will actually say, "Let's talk." Because actually his militia, small as it is, has taken horrific casualties in the battle. So in my view, in my analysis, this I think is a deed trying to save face and kind of saying, well, yes, I always wanted to kind of bring the the international community back to the negotiating table by grabbing them by the belt buckle, so to speak. Uh, but in reality, this battle is a disaster for Adid. if he wanted to have a kind of conventional close quarters engagement with either the UN or US forces, there is no clear calculus that shows why that in any way would have gained him anything other than a significant attrition of his own forces. On the 6th of October 1993, amid public outcry over the event, President Bill Clinton orders a cessation of all operations against Adid and appoints a new special envoy to Somalia to broker a peace settlement. But in in all respects, the battle of Moadishu, while being a political disaster for the United States in terms of the news coverage of the casualties, this also needs to be viewed as an absolute disaster for the Somali National Alliance because their best fighters have either been killed or wounded to the point that Adid himself puts up his hands. >> President Clinton also announces that US troops will leave the country no later than March 1994. US Secretary of Defense Led Aspen steps down, taking blame for refusing requests for armored support to the mission in Somalia. General Garrison also takes full responsibility, effectively ending his military career. After 11 days in captivity, Mike Durant is released and the bodies of the remaining crew of Super 64 are returned in poor condition. 5 years later on the 2nd of August 1996, Muhammad Farrar Adid dies of a heart attack following a gunshot wound in a battle with a rival faction. A tragic civil war in Somalia continues today. Thanks to Dr. Jonathan Carroll, associate professor of military history and modern war studies at the Royal Military Academy, Sanhurst. He is the author of Beyond Blackhawk Down: Intervention, Nation Building and Insurgency in Somalia, 1992 to 1995.