"Assault on Iraqi artillery positions, Objective STEEL"

by David Rowlands

Image Size 58 x 38 cm

26 February 1991: 3rd Fusiliers Battlegroup.

Just before the start of the ground offensive, the artist was invited by 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers to join them in the desert, and jumped at the opportunity. After various adventures with other units in trying to reach their location in the flat, featureless terrain, I was attached to the crew of a Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle of C Company (Callsign Zero Charlie, commanded by Captain Bob Keating).

The Battlegroup made a wide sweep around the enemy and attacked them unexpectedly from the west. The area codenamed Objective STEEL consisted of dugouts, trenches and artillery pieces. In this painting, soldiers are dismounting from Warriors with fixed bayonets to capture Iraqi artillery, which was uselessly pointing to the South. The green pennant flying from an antenna denotes C Company. The black desert rat painted on the rear stowage bin was the badge of 4th Armoured Brigade. The battlegroup halted around the final Iraqi gun positions on STEEL at 1445 hours, and about 800 prisoners in all were taken. I was able to take some photographs of the enemy's 155 mm guns here. The ground was littered with MLRS bomblets.

At 1502 hours, nine British soldiers were killed and 12 seriously injured as a result of a tragic mistake by US Air Force pilots, who engaged and destroyed two of the Warriors of C Company. I was asked to depict these two vehicles, call signs Two Two and Two Three, in this painting.