"Crossing Triangle 2A"

by David Rowlands

Image Size 58 x 38 cm


At first light on 21st March 2003, a Spartan Command Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked), call sign 30C, commanded by Sergeant Burdon, went forward to observe the bund which marked the boundary between Iraq and Kuwait. It was driven by Lance Corporal Haigh.

Then a CET (Combat Engineer Tractor), call sign 42A, commanded by Lance Corporal Wolfe and operated by Sapper Saunders, proceeded to dig out an 8 metre-wide gap in the bund. Earlier, while it was still dark, the Milan platoon and infantrymen of Y Company, 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers had deployed to the left and right of the gap, and were now firing Milan anti-tank rockets and 5.56mm rifles from the top of the bund into Iraq. All the while, artillery rounds (air bursts) were exploding in the near distance, and sometimes very near.

42A broke down, and withdrew 50 to 100 metres, so another CET, 42C, (painted green and black), commanded by Sapper Wetherell took over at the breach. When the breach was completed, call sign 31C, an AVLB (Armoured Vehicle Launching Bridge) commanded by Corporal Tuck, was driven forward by Sapper Cuthbert to lay a No. 10 Tank Bridge over the ditch. Sapper Holyland was at the radios. 42A continued levelling the ground while the Tank Bridge was being lowered.

Sergeant Burdon was now standing beside his Spartan, as sappers dismounted from AFV 432s (call signs 21B and 40D) and (using a 'monkey') began marking the defile with 6-foot angle-iron pickets, placing an orange traffic cone on top (the approved US, not NATO marking method). Then Challenger 2 tanks sped through the defile and advanced rapidly into Iraq.

Shortly afterwards, at Shaibah, Sergeant Burdon and the other participants showed me over their vehicles and described the details of this scene.