About the Authors
OLIVER POOLE became the West Coast of America correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in September 2001, arriving in New York on one of the first planes out of Heathrow following the 11 September terrorist attacks. At the end of 2002, the Pentagon announced it was introducing a new system of press coverage in the event of war in Iraq: journalists were to be embedded with military units on the frontline. In February 2003, Oliver Poole landed in Kuwait.
Born and brought up in London, he was educated at Oxford University. After working for two years at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, he joined the Telegraph Group in 1999. After covering the start of the Iraq war as an embedded reporter, he returned to Baghdad as the Telegraphs Bureau Chief. He stayed in Iraq until the end of 2006, when he and his team had to flee the country. He is now an Executive Editor at ESI Media, which owns the London Evening Standard newspaper and The Independent digital sites.
Black Knights was first published in 2004. His book on his time living in Iraq as it descended into civil war, Red Zone: Five Bloody Years in Baghdad , was published by Reportage Press in 2008.
RICHARD HOLMES was a celebrated military historian and television presenter who taught at RMA Sandhurst before being appointed Professor at Cranfield University and the Royal Military College of Science. He was the author of the best-selling Tommy and Dusty Warriors , an account of the Princess of Waless Royal Regiments 2003 VC-winning Iraq tour, as well as a dozen other books, including Firing Line and The Western Front . His broadcast work included the acclaimed BBC series Rebels and Redcoats and Wellington .
Richard Holmes formally commanded 2nd Battalion, the Wessex Regiment, and was the General Editor of the Oxford Companion to Military History. He lived near Winchester in Hampshire until his death in April 2011, aged 65.
Black Knights
ON THE BLOODY ROAD
TO BAGHDAD
OLIVER POOLE
REPORTAGE PRESS
Copyright Oliver Poole 2003
Introduction copyright Richard Holmes
eBook edition first made available in 2015
Second edition published by Reportage Press in 2009
First published by HarperCollins in 2003
War Pigs by Terence Butler, John Osbourne, Tony Iommi and William Ward.
1970 Westminster Music Limited of Suite 2.07,
Plaza 535, Kings Road, London SW10 0SZ
International Copyright secured. All rights reserved.
Used by Permission.
ISBN 97 819 06702182
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on a subsequent purchaser. Nor shall this work be reproduced or stored in an information retrieval system (other than for purposes of review) without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
Oliver Poole has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
A library record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover design by Henrietta Molinaro
To the memory of John Donald
Contents
List of illustrations
Illustrations
Myself interviewing Captain James Montgomery at the base camp in Kuwait.
The press pack receives its final anti-biochemical warfare training on the tennis courts of the Hilton Hotel in Kuwait City.
The other two journalists placed with 1st Battalion, Ron Synovitz of Radio Free Europe and Joe Giordono of Stars and Stripes .
Nitai Schwartz and Garth Stewart, who in Kuwait made clear to me their opposition to the war.
British tank crews wait for their turn at a firing range set up in the Kuwait desert.
The men of 1st Battalion being informed by their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel John W. Charlton, that the time had finally come to go to war.
Major George Fredrick, one of the officers with whom I shared a tent in Kuwait.
Big Country, the M88 I travelled in for the first part of the campaign.
Sergeant Norman Weaver, the commander of the M88, just before the Black Knights entered the demilitarised zone that spanned the KuwaitIraq border.
The company prepares for the move into the demilitarised zone.
The US military vehicles that the M88 passed in the final approach to the Iraqi garrison at Tallil.
Iraqi prisoners captured around Tallil airbase. The US soldiers were shocked by how many of the Iraqis had fought back in that battle.
Private Roman Komlev, the Russian-born assistant driver of the M88. Me, unknown soldier, Captain Bill Young and Lieutenant Colonel Charlton after the fighting at Tallil.
A US soldier takes a photograph of an Iraqi pick-up truck that had been destroyed by a Bradley shell in the recent fighting.
A dead body in the back of the pick-up truck.
Myself during the time the Black Knights were stationed around Samawah, sparring with paramilitaries and under threat from sniper and mortar attack.
The view through the hatch in the middle of the M88 during the sandstorm which engulfed us on the fifth day of the invasion, and reduced visibility to less than ten yards.
The Black Knights advance to Dragon 4, 2nd Brigades regrouping base south of Karbala.
Myself with Private Roman Komlev and Sergeant Weaver at Dragon 4. Private Jason Red Carter, the driver of the M88, showing off an AK-47 that had been taken as a battlefield souvenir from a dead Iraqi soldier.
Captain David Waldron, the commander in charge of the Black Knights.
Myself during a nerve gas scare, after the Americans had destroyed a tanker containing chemicals which it was then realised might be blown towards the camp.
Sergeant Ray Simon manning the radio in the back of the CP.
The crew of Band Aid, the companys tracked medical emergency vehicle.
Passing over the Euphrates. Since the invasion had started the US army had skirted the west bank; now finally the river was being crossed, and only Baghdad lay before them.
Band Aid during the advance to Baghdad.
Sergeant Trey Black, the commander of the CP, manning the vehicles .50-calibre machine gun.
The final stretch of road to Baghdad. The Black Knights were now at the very front of the advance, under attack from the Republican Guard and Saddam-supporting paramilitaries.
Sergeants Miguel Moe Marrero and Jerold Pyle and the Abrams, Big Punisher, in which they led the Black Knights advance into Baghdad.
Sharing tea with the locals on the first full day in Baghdad.
The view from the centre of the enclave secured by the Americans in the south of Baghdad.
An American soldier holds two of the First World War British Enfield rifles that Iraqi troops were still using in 2003.
A destroyed Iraqi tank on the streets of Baghdad.
Sergeant Weaver dressed in an Iraqi firemans uniform found at a Republican Guard barracks.
Myself inside a Republican Guard barracks seized less than an hour earlier by the Americans.
Outside the barracks.
Trey Black and First Sergeant Jos Rosa on the day Saddam Husseins regime fell.
Trey Black, Ray Simon and me beside the M113 which acted as the CP for the Black Knights.
Residents of Baghdad at one of the roadblocks set up by the Americans in the city.
