The Grid Square Removal Company, as MLRS were known, had joined the battle. They must have been firing at their closest range as they did not appear to be parked far behind us and the missiles weren’t landing that far in front of us. The white lines arced in the sky above us and went out as they crossed above us before joining the explosive death at their target end. White streaks of light trailed the missiles as they exploded out of the rectangular boxes on the rear of their tracked launcher vehicles. As I did so the whole horizon to our east exploded in swirling red clouds of explosions.īehind us I could see and feel the missile launches of a Multi-Launch Rocket System (MLRS). I opened the hatch gingerly and looked about. ‘It’s behind us.’ ‘What’s behind us?’ ‘Missile launches.’ They must be ours. I looked 360° through the commander’s episcopes – mini armoured glass periscopes fitted all the way around the commander’s crew position to offer a limited all round vision. We weren’t being hit, at the moment anyway. ‘What the f**k is going on?’ ‘Where’s it coming from?’ ‘Are we the target?’ Everyone was using their episcopes and gun sights, looking around frantically for the source of the artillery or whatever it was. I had my helmet on and was back in the turret within seconds, slamming the hatch behind me. Then suddenly….Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Holy f**king hell! We were under attack. The blog will follow his work up to the war and then the war itself, day by day 25 years on.Ġ100hrs. This blog is written from his diaries, notebooks and a tape recording he made during the war. It is 25 years since the 1991 Gulf War when British troops contributed (OP GRANBY) to the successful Allied operation which prevented Saddam’s invasion of Saudi Arabia (DESERT SHIELD) and then liberated Kuwait (DESERT STORM).Ĭapt Tim Purbrick commanded a Troop of Challenger Main Battle Tanks during the 1991 Gulf War.
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