Vol 25. This book contains these articles: 1) British Forces in Babylon - Operation "Telic" The British war effort in Operation "Iraqi Freedom" is called Operation "Telic". British land forces sent into the ITO numbered some 26,000 troops and included the famed "Desert Rats", the "Red Devils" and the Royal Marines. The British were responsible for operations in southern Iraq and the capture of Basra and its vicinity. Heavy fighting erupted in Umm Qasr, Al Faw peninsula, and Basra. A combined effort of Challenger 2 MBTs, paras, commandos and mechanized troops finally secured Basra, after street-to-street and sometimes house-to-house fighting. Superb images of the British elite forces in action during the campaign, well documented by Sam Katz. 2) Operation "Falconer": The Australian Effort in Iraq Australia contributed some 2,000 personnel to the 2003 Gulf War, around 500 of them were the elite SAS and commando troops. Australian forces operated primarily in western Iraq, hunting down possible SCUD launchers and weapons of mass destruction, and cutting off escape routes of Saddam loyalists into Syria and Jordan. Again superb images showing the 4RAR Commando and SAS in action. 3) 3-158 AVN in "Lightning Storm II" To prepare the war against Iraq, US forces fielded Exercise "Lightning Storm II" in Germany in late 2002 for training non-combatant rescue and evacuation operations. 3-158 Aviation Regiment was the key player in this exercise, with UH-60 Black Hawks providing the heliborne platform. Carl Schulze faithfully documented the exercise to its smallest detail, accompanied by crisp and sharp photography. 4) New Challenges for Operation "Unicorn" A sequel to Vol.24's Operation "Unicorn" article, Yves Debay returned to the Ivory Coast and followed up the action with the French troops in an exceptionally illustrated article. 5) USMC Force Recon Joel B. Paskauskas II brought us this expanded article on the elite Force Recon Marines. Rare images o
