"Basrah"

by David Rowlands

Giclee Print
Image size 56 x 32 cm

2003: In central Basra, 1st Battalion The Black Watch occupied the Ba'ath Party Headquarters buildings which had been bombed. When I was with the battalion, a soldier invited me to accompany him to the roof of a tall, badly damaged building to admire the view. We walked up many flights of stairs, then onto the flat roof. We could see the old British military cemetery down below. I was then shown the hole in the roof through which a 500kg satellite-guided J-Dam bomb had been dropped by a US plane. The bomb was lodged (still unexploded) at the base of the building. I was very relieved when we finally walked gingerly down the rubble-strewn staircase again and out of the building! That night, in a bare, concrete room nearby, with no electric light, I lay in my sleeping bag on the dirty floor amongst the debris and shattered glass.

Very early next morning, I accompanied the Commanding Officer (Lt Col Bullock-Webster), with his bodyguard and driver, in a patrol of Land Rovers around the old centre of Basra. This painting is a result of that tour, and shows a foot patrol of 'Jocks' in the early morning light.