Malaysian Defence

7 Comments

1. The next step would also be translating the book in english. Thanks for sharing the review with us Marhalim 😁

2. “Madness In Mogadishu” is one I’d recommend. The author lead a battalion of the 10th Mountain Division which rode the Condors.

   The Condor he was in was hit by a RPG but miraculously it suffered only slight damage. A factor which prevented additional Condors from being hit was support provided by dismounted U.S. troops as well as rocket and mini gun fire from U.S. Little Birds. It was the author who proposed destroying the abandoned Condors; the request was passed on.

   As part of the original plan Pakistani M-48s should have led the relief column but their lack of night vision required them to use search lights. This would have made them vulnerable to return fire; thus they backed off.

   Reply
   In the book, Mohd Halim recalled that the Pakistanis says the tank main guns were not operational as a reason for them to back out from the rescue mission. As for the lack of NV system, our Condors were also not equipped with them.

3. I can’t comment about the book itself since I haven’t read it, I do wish there is an English version to reach wider audience, but from your review of it I get a sense of humbleness and humility by the author from the onset.

   To me this was shown by not having a profile writeup of the author himself, it seems he wanted to portray this a story of various people involved and not just his own. So leaving out details of the author could have been intentional.

   Another intentional change I see is his willingness to share the Black Hawk Down attention with others personnel in that incident, letting them tell their story rather than his own as most authors would normally do. Or it could be their recollections were more vivid and detailed compared to his own but that’s just my assumption.

   All in all, a commendable effort and it should be followed on more recent missions (ie Ops Fajar, Unfil, Timor Leste, Bosnia).

4. In the interview with Major Jeff Struecker, he mentioned that how Pakistani basically backing away just after getting shot at.
   https://youtu.be/gFoefxX3rb8

5. Marhalim – ”As for the lack of NV system, our Condors were also not equipped with them”

   Yes and most of the Task Force Ranger and troops in the relief column didn’t have NVGs either.

   Ultimately the relief couldn’t have been performed without the Condors and the Condors didn’t suffer more losses because of support provided by U.S. dismounted troops and Little Birds. Another reminder of how in restricted terrain; AFVs will always play a supporting role to infantry.

   Reply
   The US troops dismounted from the Condors as they feel it was much safer outside.

6. ‘Blachawk Down’ mentions troops feeling it was safer to be out of the Condors but ultimately they had to dismount to do their job of lining up and rescuing the trapped troops. It’ interesting to note that none of the U.S. troops [10 Mountain Division, Ranger, Para Jumpers Delta and SEALs had recent experience working with any APCs].

7. For more details on this incident, please read the book ’19 RAMD Mekanis Di Somalia’ DBP 1995 written by Syed Othman Syed Omar.