What US Marines Said When British Commandos Took Al-Faw In A Sandstorm

"We figured we'd be bailing them out by morning." — Staff Sergeant Marcus Webb, 1st Marine Division March 20, 2003. Midnight. A Shamal wind had turned the Persian Gulf into a wall of sand and rain. Visibility near zero. Sea running high. And 40 Commando Royal Marines were about to launch a helicopter assault from HMS Ocean into the southern tip of Iraq anyway. The objective: the Al-Faw Peninsula — a narrow thirty-kilometer finger of land controlling Iraq's entire oil export infrastructure. The Mina al-Bakr Oil Terminal offshore. Subsea pipelines. The entire revenue backbone of a post-war Iraq. If Saddam's commanders followed the scorched-earth doctrine of Kuwait 1991, the northern Gulf would burn for decades. The Coalition had one window to prevent it. Speed was everything. 3 Commando Brigade, under Brigadier Jim Dutton, launched 48 helicopters into near-zero visibility at H-Hour. 40 Commando hit landing zones marked by reconnaissance teams who had spent hours lying in the mud ahead of the assault. 42 Commando crossed the Shatt al-Arab waterway by boat against a current running harder than any pre-mission survey had shown. US Navy SEALs and Poland's GROM fast-roped onto the offshore terminals and neutralized demolition charges before they could be triggered. American Marines of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force watched from the Kuwaiti border, quietly expecting to be called in by morning. By 0200 on March 21, 3 Commando Brigade held the southern peninsula. By 0600, 40 and 42 Commando had linked up and were pushing north. The Iraqi 51st Mechanized Division was collapsing. Three Royal Marines wounded. None fatally. If you watch this channel because history like this matters, please consider subscribing. It keeps this work going. 📚 Further context / historical background: — UK Ministry of Defence official histories and operational records, Operation Telic, 2003 — US Marine Corps After Action Reviews, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Iraq 2003 — Historical accounts of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) and the battles for Al-Faw, 1986 and 1988 — Parliamentary and Congressional records on Coalition planning for Operation Iraqi Freedom #RoyalMarines #AlFaw #IraqWar