Air Raid to Al-Waleed (37)
The Story of Demolishing Fighters and the Equipment in Al-Waleed Triple Military Bases Known as H-32016-09-18
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
Number of Visits: 4858
http://oral-history.ir/?page=post&id=6599