ABANDONED ARMOUR

Coalition forces began their invasion of Saddam Hussain’s Iraq 20 years ago. Craig Allen, attached to 3 Para, recalls the huge amounts of abandoned armour and weaponr y left discarded in the wake of the Iraqi defeat

A Chinook overflies the collection of Iraqi armour assembled at 3 Para’s airfield base

Twenty years have now passed since Coalition forces, including the UK Armed Services and the United States military, confronted Saddam Hussain’s Iraq in the Second Gulf War of 2003. As a reservist at the time, I found myself re-joining my regiment, the Paras, and accompanying the 16 Air Assault Brigade as a media escort and photographer. The campaign itself, although arduous in many respects, saw little hard fighting with Iraqi troops, most being reluctant to confront the might of the forces arrayed against them.

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