A Scimitar AFV of 16 AAB alongside a USMC LTVP-7 west of Basra, March 2003. © Photo by US Marines
20 March 2003. Forty-six thousand troops from the British Armed Forces were deployed to the dusty, yellowish-fawn landscapes of Iraq under the codename Operation Telic. Whilst the British public prepared for the worst as its soldiers were facing weapons of mass destruction, most service men and women were under no illusion that they were invading Iraq to rid the people of Saddam Hussein.
Now, twenty years on, Military Historian and former London Police Officer Julian Whippy is hoping to amend the Americentric post-war media portrayal of the Iraq War with his new book, Burning Horizon, by rendering the conflict through the shattered lens of the veterans themselves. Humour, banter, agony, and courage are all evident in these revealing new stories, and, in this blog post, Whippy runs through the events that led him to them.
The Tears of Old Soldiers: Operation Telic 20 Years On by Julian Whippy, author of Burning Horizon | 5 min read
Mechanised Warfare, Human Stories
Thanks to the pandemic I started writing again. I had stumbled upon the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the British involvement in it when I was putting together some research on amphibious warfare for my day job as a battlefield tour guide. With overseas travel and tours out of the question thanks to Covid-19, I looked to writing about history instead of just talking about it and waving my arms a lot.
I found that there was a lamentably poor number of books on the subject and even many of the Army museums have little in their archives or on display. Referred to by the British Military as Operation Telic, there is quite a few works on the political aspect of Tony Blair, Hans Blix, WMD, and all that.
But, as a historian and battlefield guide, I prefer to look for the human stories from the front lines, be they soldiers, sailors, or air crew. These are the stories that resonate across history and are important to tell.
Let Down and Overlooked
After some initial research, I felt that the men and women who fought for their Queen and Country and did their bit in ‘Saddam’s Downfall’ had been thus far let down and overlooked, thanks perhaps in no small part to the post-war reflection on the lack of WMD and the subsequent bloody insurgency that lasted another six years.
© Photo by A White
My view is that our service men and women did what was asked of them in 2003, often with insufficient or substandard equipment (sound familiar?). Many were wounded and some of them died. Nevertheless, when I approached some veterans I knew, they were honest, open, and seemed pleased that finally someone wanted to ask them about their war and help tell their story.
The quote I hear forever leading battlefield tours is “I wish I had asked my grandad more about his war”, and with Telic that is very much the case. At the twentieth anniversary this March (2023), many veterans are well into their 50s, so now seemed a good time to get them talking.
The Interview Process
I thus embarked on the research of locating and speaking to more than fifty veterans over the next two years. I tended to find more veterans popped up from the Army than other services, and some regiments came forward more readily than others. I also found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the units that had been in contact the most volunteered to talk more than the units that perhaps had a quieter war. 1st (UK) Armoured Division for Telic One was largely made up of 7 Armoured Brigade, 3 Commando Brigade, and 16 Air Assault Brigade. The latter of the three certainly had less time in contact than the other two, but it still provided me with several sources for interview.
Having been a cop for twenty-five years I knew about conducting interviews, but I nevertheless sought advice on this very different sort of interview and the style of questions that would hopefully be most effective whilst being mindful of the mental health issues that such questioning may stir up.
One other requirement was the need to be open and honest with the veterans and assure them of my stance on anonymity if requested and prove to them that I was not part of an anti-army witch-hunt over alleged war crimes.
Emotional Catharsis
What soon became clear was that this process was both cathartic and emotionally draining for some of the veterans. What was also interesting was how differently the veterans approached the interview. Some were laid back with no notes or any other props, while others had dug out piles of maps, old notebooks, photographs, and even ‘blueys’ (military letters) from their wives. Some did not want to meet face to face, and we conducted the interview on Zoom, but most gave up their time at home to meet — several even cooked me dinner!
© Photo by A Abbott
Some interviewees described feeling nervous and apprehensive about the interview and just what may be asked of them, so I did my best to set them at ease with some nice warm up questions about training and their route to the military.
The longer they spoke, the more detail was revealed and the more they remembered. Sometimes that became upsetting for them.
“I still get a thump in the chest of adrenaline and then a flood of anxiety. It doesn’t last long, and I can even smile about it soon after, but it’s still happening to me. Some of those memories keep me awake at night. For many years after Telic I had nightmares. I would be half-awake, sweating, and looking for my weapon by my bedside.”
The Tears of Old Soldiers
Tears in interviews are something I had experienced many times in policing, but I found the tears of old soldiers some of the hardest to watch run down a cheek.
For another veteran, who had also served on Operation Granby in 1991, the interview was halted twice due to his emotions over the awful scenes of death he recalled. These were some of the most challenging interviews I had ever conducted. Fortunately, other light-hearted moments followed and smiles returned. I also spent several hours on my hands and knees in a living room poring over maps, diaries, and letters with another veteran who remarked:
“All these have been locked away in a mental box marked Telic, and today I am unboxing it all; it’s great and a somewhat cathartic experience, thank you.”
Now with the book across the line and published, I am just hoping that I have done the lads and lasses of Telic One some justice by telling their stories after they trusted me to do so. Fingers crossed…
© Photo by B Farrell
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