Air Raid to Al-Waleed (28)‎

The Story of Demolishing Fighters and the Equipment in Al-Waleed Triple Military Bases ‎Known as H-3‎

2016-7-16

Air Raid to Al-Waleed (H-3‎)‎

The Story of Demolishing Fighters and the Equipment in Al-Waleed Triple Military Bases ‎Known as H-3‎

By: Brigadier General Ahmad Mehrnia

Tehran, Sooreh Mehr Publications Company

‎2010 (Persian Version)‎

Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

Amir Baratpour says:

"In the final position, the navigation device of my aircraft differed with current position about 70 to 80 miles and showed another direction. "Where does INS show, Javanmardi?" jokingly I asked the pilot of rare cabin. With a thick Shirazi accent he said: "Sir! It shows Tel Aviv." I asked: "Do you think what we do?" He immediately said: "Sir! Let’s go to bomb there." And we laughed very much."

In this regard Javanmardi says:

"If we hadn’t worked carefully on the maps and scrupulously didn’t define the situations, it was very likely to face a problem here, because our navigation device wasn’t working properly."

Three F-4 aircrafts on a group fly towards the target

Geographically, the desert region was extremely risky for flight team. From the leader and two other members of team I heard that when they have reached the desert region, they saw nothing but flat land as far as their eyes could see; something like sea conditions but in soil type! At that low altitude it was very simple that pilots don’t recognize height[1] for a moment (Vertigo) and crashed. On the other side, they couldn’t turn on automatic Radar Altimeter device, because the enemy might have discovered its frequency, and the operation is leaked out.

Baratpour says:

"Despite my insistence that no one should talk through radio under any circumstances, I myself warned the team in a short sentence: "to be careful with the altitude of aircraft." Thank God everything went according to the plan."

Captain Eskandari, Major Toosi, and Major Khazraei are the first group of pilots who release their bombs on the northern base. It is just at this moment when enemy’s anti-aircrafts notice the bombers. Apparently Captain Khazraei has been flying slightly lower than the calculated altitude, so because of this, several shrapnel of number one bombs hit some parts of aircraft and worst of all the hydraulic system, and damage it. For this reason, he cannot refuel for third time and force to fly toward an airport in Syria for emergency landing[2]. In a brief before the flight, of course, it had been said to pilots that in case of emergency, the best thing is using a suitable airport which has been specified in the Syrian territory, but the critical condition of the aircraft doesn’t allow it to get the determined airport; so the pilot have to land in a base without facility and proper runway.

About bombing operation and above incident, Second Brigadier General pilot Manouchehr Toosi said:

"We entered the region of Hـ3 in Iraq from the south of Syria. I was at the left side of Eskandari and Khazraei was at right. Everywhere was sandy, like a mirage, so it made flying in low altitude very difficult. As we get closer to the target, we saw some buildings, and soon learned that they are hangars and utilities of target. Our target was the northern base. As I was at the left side of Eskandari from starting point, I had more difficult conditions in circling.  At the last circling near the target, the leader turned slightly more to place in the right position. I felt we come close to colliding each other, so immediately I reduced engine power and distanced him by doing a maneuver. Therefore I fell behind with the team. Situation didn’t also allow me to use reheat of engine, since the possibility of unforeseen events were high and I afraid of running short of gasoline; but thank God everything went smoothly.

I still hadn’t reached to the target when heard the voice of Khazraei. He said that his aircraft has damaged and he is in an emergency situation. Now I had to bomb remaining spaces. As I had been said, many aircrafts had been arranged on the ramp, inside and in front of hangars. At the same time I bombed, weak defense of base opened fire that had no effect on us. Without any problem I kept turning back the route alone and was looking for other friends. A few miles after I had re-entered Syria, I saw one of insider aircrafts. I came closer and saw Khazraei along with a colleague are flying toward the tanker. I and the pilot of rear cockpit, Nikookar, prayed for the health of Khazraei and Bagheri. While flying farther behind him, I heard his voice on the radio, he continuously reported the situation. Very soon two supertankers came up. The refueling hatch of damaged aircraft didn’t open and it failed to refuel. Izadseta reported the location of a base and by following them, ordered to land there. I accompanied them too and was above that remote base at the moment of their landing. Embankments had been made in some parts of runway; perhaps to avoid destruction by Israelis’ attack. From above the airport, I and Nikookar saw the aircraft went out of runway. Soft soil and sand which would enter into the engine severely dispersed in the air. We really thought that they have been finished. God had much mercy on them."

To be continued…