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- Insurgents shot down two American Black Hawk helicopters with rocket-propelled grenades. When about 90 U.S. Rangers and Delta Force operators rushed to the rescue, they were caught in an intense exchange of gunfire and trapped overnight.
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'Day of the Rangers'), also known as the Black Hawk Down Incident, was part of Operation Gothic Serpent. It was fought on 3–4 October 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia, between forces of the United States—supported by UNOSOM II—against the forces of the Somali National Alliance (SNA) and armed irregular citizens of south Mogadishu.
- 3–4 October 1993
Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War On October 3, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia.
Oct 10, 2013 · Last week marked the twentieth anniversary of the infamous Black Hawk Down incident where Somali militia fighters loyal to Mohammed Farah Aidid shot down two American helicopters using rocket...
- Jeremy Kuzmarov
Feb 1, 2017 · Some 18 Americans and two UN soldiers were killed. At the time, the United States was leading a UN mission to end the civil war and famine in Somalia. Within six months, the US had withdrawn its...
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- Somalia Was in The Midst of A Bloody Civil War at The Start of The 1990s
- It Was Part of Operation Gothic Serpent
- The Aim Was to Seize 2 High-Profile Military Leaders
- Us Black Hawk Helicopters Were Shot Down in The Attempt
- Fighting occurred on The Streets of Mogadishu
- Several Thousands Somalis Were Killed in The Battle
- The Mission Was Technically A Success
- The Crew Were Posthumously Awarded The Medal of Honour
- The Incident Was Immortalised in A Book and Film
Somalia began to experience political unrest in the late 1980s as people began to resist the military junta that had been controlling the country. In 1991, the government was overthrown, leaving a power vacuum. Law and order collapsed and the UN (both military and peacekeeping forces) arrived in 1992. Many of those vying for power saw the arrival o...
In 1992, President George H. W. Bushdecided to involve the US military with UN peacekeeping forces in an attempt to restore order in Somalia. His successor, President Clinton, took over in 1993. Many Somalis disliked foreign intervention (including active resistance on the ground) and faction leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid who later declared himself p...
The American military task force Ranger was dispatched to capture 2 of Aidid’s leading generals, Omar Salad Elmim and Mohamed Hassan Awale. The plan was to have troops stationed on the ground in Mogadishu, securing it from the ground, whilst four rangers would fast-rope down from helicopters to secure the building they were in.
The ground convoys ran into road blocks and protests from the citizens of Mogadishu, setting the mission off to an inauspicious start. Around 16:20, Super 61,became the first of 2 Black Hawk helicopters to be shot down that day by an RPG-7: both pilots and two other crew members were killed. A combat search and rescue team was immediately sent to h...
Aidid’s militia reacted with force to the US’s attempts to seize two of their group. They overran the crash site after a heavy fire from both sides and most of the American personnel were killed, excluding Michael Durant, who was captured and taken as a prisoner by Aided. Fighting continued at both crash sites and across wider Mogadishu until the e...
It’s thought several thousands Somalis were killed during the operation although the precise numbers are unclear: the area in which the majority of the fighting took place was densely populated and so casualties included large numbers of civilians as well as militia. 19 US soldiers were killed in action, with a further 73 wounded.
Although the Americans did manage to capture Omar Salad Elmim and Mohamed Hassan Awale, it’s seen as something of a pyrrhic victory due to the excessive loss of life and disastrous shooting down of two military helicopters. The US Secretary of Defense, Leslie Aspin, stepped down in February 1994, shouldering much of the blame for events in Mogadish...
Delta snipers, Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honour for their actions in holding off Somali forces and defending the crash site. They were the first American soldiers to receive it since the Vietnam War.
Journalist Mark Bowden published his book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War in 1999, following years of painstaking research, including combing US Army records, interviewing those on both sides of the event and reviewing all available material. Much of the book’s material was serialised in Bowden’s paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, before it w...
- Sarah Roller
Sep 14, 2023 · The True Story Of Black Hawk Down. Helicopter Super Six One’s pilot and co-pilot were killed instantly. Although a rescue force helped save the injured survivors, another man would later die of his wounds. Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant was piloting a second Black Hawk when his chopper too took a hit from a grenade launcher.
Mar 8, 2024 · Major General William Garrison was tasked with leading a raid by U.S. special operations forces, composed of Army Rangers, 10th Mountain Division soldiers, and Delta Force fighters, on the Olympic Hotel in Mogadishu, where Aydid was thought to be hiding. Britannica Quiz. A History of War. On October 3, Operation Gothic Serpent began.