Air Raid to Al-Waleed (37)‎

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

2016-9-18

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

With contribution of pilot Mohammad Hossein Nikpour and cinema agents, a movie was ‎made of the operations. During making it, Captain Pilot Mohammad Reza Khaleghi did ‎coordination on the scene and advised the cameramen group about necessary things. ‎According to the time of making and the political issues of that period, and given the ‎matter it was made for the public, this movie was assessed as a fairly good film of its kind ‎in displaying the Air Force in the Sacred Defense. I hope that with more complete and ‎more accurate information, artists of war cinema and the media begin to make another ‎more fascinating film with better and greater initiative and show the value of this unique ‎operation more properly in public.‎
At the end, I draw readers’ attention to a part of letter of retired Colonel Pilot Luther ‎Yadegari, the pilot of refueling Boeing 707 who was responsible for piloting the tanker in ‎the two first periods of H-3 operations. He did me a favor and sent his handwritten ‎memorials:‎

‎"Dear colleague and brother,‎
I appreciate and admire you because of your decision to write a small part of sacrifices ‎and braveries of the sons of this land. I found the courage to be a little help in your great ‎work.‎
Before coming to the point, it is necessary to explain the aerial refueling briefly:‎
Refueling is a very sensitive, expensive, and accurate job. For this reason, very few ‎countries in the world use it. Even in some countries small military aircrafts have become ‎refueling ones; so, it is normal that their function is very limited and often they can only ‎deliver fuel to one or two aircrafts just one time. But our country’s air-refueling tankers ‎were advanced Boeing, and even in their time they were far more modern and had a ‎greater capacity than the same aircrafts in the USA Air Force. The only problem of them ‎was having no parachute for the crew, because they were originally passenger planes and ‎no door can be opened during flying. But USA Air Force has made a hydraulic door at the ‎floor for its tankers through which crews can easily jump down in emergency situation. ‎
We know that takeoff from the ground depends on several critical factors, the most ‎important of them are: aircraft weight, temperature, runway length, and the height of ‎airport from the sea level. Because the average height of our country is three thousand feet ‎and it is of the tropical regions (of the world) as well, and given its enormous vast, existing ‎air-refueling tankers in the Air Force of Iran had been very important and necessary. ‎
With air-refueling tankers, combat aircrafts can take off with minimal fuel and very high ‎capacity of ammunition and receive remaining fuel in the air. Interceptor aircrafts, which ‎defend the sky of country, can keep their mission the maximum of one hour. But this time ‎increases several times with aerial refueling.  ‎
For this reason, after purchasing refueling aircrafts, a lot of training flights were done and ‎both pilots of tanker aircrafts and fighters were enjoyed many higher capabilities. Even ‎long flights to Europe were done, until the Iranian Air Force was able to transfer its ‎purchased fighters to Iran directly from America and by crossing the Atlantic and through ‎Europe. And after USA, Iran was the second country which could pass its military aircrafts ‎over the Atlantic entirely.‎
My intention of telling these things is that to clear that in the final years before the ‎revolution and after that, and even before the war, pilots and staff of Air Force are trained ‎to a very high level and were enjoyed such enough power that during the war they ‎implemented an operations which had been unprecedented since World war II, according ‎to many international analysts. ‎
With the continuation of the war, several flights were done and one of the most famous ‎was air raid to Al-Waleed or H-3 base, which was located (near) the Iraq-Syria border; and ‎a large number of aircrafts and equipment were kept in it, where (according to Iraqis) was ‎too safe and the Iraqis did not think that Iranian aircrafts access there one day. ‎
In fact, we were not aware of the exact details of the plan on those days when the mission ‎was communicated. The flight had been done several times, but each time had left halfway ‎for a reason, perhaps because of leaking out. But finally, one day in the spring of 1360 ‎when the weather was not so good, I, the leader of two tankers full of fuel, was sent to a ‎mission in which we should deliver fuel to eight F-4 aircrafts over the Lake Uremia and ‎then return to our base (it should be noted that this event related to the second attempt for ‎doing the mission.) ‎
No crews of aircrafts were aware of the quantity and quality of the mission. Therefore, it ‎had been very difficult for me and it was a record issue during the war. Only I had gone to ‎the briefing meeting, because the mission was very sensitive. However, we reduced our ‎height in a complete radio silence and were waiting for combat aircrafts over the Uremia ‎Lake. In appropriate time, they found us, approached, and located in position in the four-‎aircrafts teams. That day was one of hard days for me. A gentle rain was falling, and the ‎visibility had reduced to a minimum and because the second tanker was behind me with ‎four aircrafts, my job had been difficult hundredfold. Since nobody knew the nature of the ‎flight, I preferred to have all of refueling aircrafts over the Lake. To do so, we flew in its ‎longitude. But because of its short width and our less maneuverability due to refueling, ‎each time the wings of aircrafts were appeared on dry land, we were shot from ground and ‎got confused completely, and my job had been very difficult. However, aircrafts refueled ‎fully by hook or by crook on time, then they separated from us and we left the region ‎towards Tehran. That day I was completely unaware of the importance and the value of ‎that mission, but later realized that how the operation had been massive and unique in its ‎kind.  ‎
Aerial refueling operations continued throughout the country round-the-clock. And due to ‎military and economic blockade had been imposed against us, as opposed to considerable ‎contributions of most of East and West countries to Iraq, our operation power decreased ‎gradually and there was no possible replacing for any aircraft we lost, and more ‎importantly, for their pilots. With sincere and love, we all did everything we could to ‎protect each other. Each aircraft we lost was exactly like losing a part of ours. We all were ‎friend and brother, as if we knew each other for years. Whenever one of them didn’t ‎return, we felt too heavy sorrow in our hearts. Many times we were threatened and then ‎saw how passionately and seriously our fighters defended us. One of the important and ‎interesting issues was the presence of defense radar control officers. I have not seen even ‎one of these brothers yet, and I haven’t heard their names, but I am extremely grateful of ‎their contributions. Their voice was very intimate and familiar to me. During this long ‎period, either at night or in the day or when we were threatened, they watched out for us ‎very enthusiastically and vigilantly, and well guided us timely. It's strange that a man in ‎trouble became soft like a polished stone. Yes, it was brotherly pure affection for a sacred ‎common purpose, I mean defending the people of our land, Iran."‎

Luther Yadegari, ‎November 26, 2008‎

I (the author) appreciate all of my colleagues in the maintenance battalion, radar and ‎defense staff, especially fighter controller, who played the role of a watcher in protecting ‎against the surprise raid of enemy fighters to insider aircrafts or vital facilities, in addition ‎to offer carefully the basic information to fighter pilots for detecting, intercepting and ‎destroying intruders during the flight. It is hoped that in the future we can present our dear ‎Iranian the memorials of these sensitive and prominent staff, alongside unique role of ‎technical staff, flying line, arms and ammunition, as well as all Air Force staff who ‎undoubtedly had a role in progressin the war goals.

Thanks,‎

Ahmad Mehrnia

The End