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Chirac apologises over war graves
DEBORAH SUMMERS

JACQUES Chirac extended a diplomatic olive branch to Britain yesterday with a letter of apology to the Queen.

The French president expressed regret over the desecration of a British war cemetery on the Channel coast and insisted the French had not forgotten the debt they owed British soldiers who died liberating their country.

In a letter to the Queen, Mr Chirac described the scrawling of anti-war graffiti on monuments at a first world war cemetery in Etaples, near Calais, as "inadmissible and shameful".

Vandals spraypainted anti-war slogans and insults against Tony Blair and President George Bush at the cemetery. It contains the remains of 11,000 British and other allied soldiers. The graffiti was discovered by British tourists.

Mr Chirac also said French people's thoughts were with British soldiers currently fighting in Iraq. "From the French people and from me personally, I offer you my deepest regrets," he wrote.

Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "We unreservedly welcome both the content and the sentiment of President Chirac's letter and the sentiments towards our troops serving in action at the moment and that his thoughts and the thoughts of the people of France are with those soldiers."

The letter marks a concerted attempt by France to heal the diplomatic rift with Britain and America over the war in Iraq. Mr Chirac does not want the issue to ruin France's relationship with the US or the UK.

THE Iraqis were hiding in a bunker at the side of the road when the tanks first spotted them. There were four of them, waiting at a crossroads in the Al Hadi area of Basra, slotting another rocket-propelled grenade into their launcher to fire at the advancing British troops.

The request to engage came over the commanding officer’s radio. A moment’s pause, and then the reply crackled back: "You are now clear to engage the bunker with four men with HESH and co-ax."

High explosive shells and chain gun - that’s what the jargon meant, and nothing could stand in their way. Inside the bunker, the militia had only a few seconds left. The sound of a dull explosion rolled across the city. Over the radio, the Challenger crew reported the kill. "The target was engaged and the job was done."

On the other side of the bridge over the Shatt al-Basra canal, Lieutenant William Colquhoun had unpacked his bagpipes and sat on the turret of his Warrior waiting for the order to advance. As the sun attempted to poke through smoke rolling lazily across desolate marshland stretching away on either side of the bridge, wading birds were picking their way among the long grasses.

As he began to play, the sound of Scotland the Brave drifted across the bridge towards the city, competing with the clatter of rotor blades as four Cobra helicopters raced in to join the attack.

At the controls of his Cobra, Major Steve Hall, a US marines pilot, was looking for more targets to hit when he felt the first bullets rip into the fuselage. A round embedded itself in the nose cone, inches from where co-pilot First Lieutenant Dale Behm was peering through his sights. Another smashed the targeting device ahead of him, more tore through the rotors and the gear box.

The cockpit was on fire, but there was nowhere safe to land. People he could not see were firing at him from the windows of the houses in the shanty town below. Spotting a British Challenger tank on the ground near the bridge, he inched the Cobra down. In the sky above, his wingman had spotted the muzzle flashes and wheeled round to exact revenge. His chain gun rattled and the gunmen on the ground fell silent.

All along the western edge of the city, more dramas were being played out. The early fighting was fierce, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire coming from all directions. But as the Black Watch pushed on into the heart of Basra, the resistance began to crumble. People started to come out on to the streets to point out the places where the Fedayeen militia were hiding.

With the defenders in retreat, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Riddell-Webster’s men pushed on. In the headquarters of the 7th Armoured Brigade, Brigadier Graham Binns realised it was time to commit everything he had to the battle.

What had started as another tentative raid to test out the resolve of the Iraqi defenders had become a headlong rush to capture the city, each unit vying with the next to capture more and more targets. Objectives which had earlier been thought unachievable fell, one by one.

As a hot and howling gale tore through the city, the battle for Basra was finally under way.

Over the radios, the Black Watch battle group was reporting success after success as they pushed over Bridge 3 and on into the industrial north of Iraq’s second city.

In the thick of the action, Lt Col Riddell-Webster was directing the fighting. Egypt squadron and B company were racing towards the military compound which was intended to be their prime objective for the day, south-west of the Al Jubaylah area of the city near the docks on the Shatt al Arab, the waterway leading down to the Persian Gulf.

Under constant attack from RPGs and small arms fire, they reported gunmen firing from behind a group of 40 civilians beside the road. The roadside was mined, they warned, be careful.

Before the off, the CO had told them they were going in to test the water. If it was cold, they were going to stay on. If it was hot, they were getting out of there. If it was just right, they were going to wallow around for a while.

As the Challengers and Warriors sped along the roads into the city, they decided the reception they were receiving was just right. The CO decided they would stay on to wallow around a while.

Over the radio came the CO’s voice; there was no Tam O’Shanter and red hackle perched on his head this time. Helmet and body armour was now the order of the day. Resistance was heavy but they were five kilometres inside the city already, the furthest they had pushed into Basra so far. He ordered up more units from across the bridge. On the other side of the canal, Lt Colquhoun put away his bagpipes and prepared to advance.

Across the swing bridge, they rolled, the sky over the city still quite dark, on past burnt-out vehicles sitting awkwardly by the side of the road.

The forward units were reporting RPG attacks all along the way into the city. From the direction of Bridge 4, the large concrete span which had provided the original bridgehead into the city when they first arrived, came the sound of explosions, British mortars opening up on those firing back from within the city limits.

A Challenger reported tanks destroyed - a T59 and a T55. "We’ve engaged and destroyed another T55," said the disembodied voice. The other units took heart from their success, but there was much more to be done. There was a lot of civilian activity, they said: "We’re taking a lot of small arms fire."

Others had pushed on past the residential area to the west, on past the rundown shanty town alongside the road towards the north-east, past a sports complex they reported to be deserted. They identified a Red Crescent facility, ensured the battle group knew where it was, moved on.

From the city centre came the thump of more explosions. Warriors were disgorging their troops outside the shanty town, the Black Watch infantry advancing into the warren of houses.

"We’ve engaged a section-strength unit. They have gone back into the shanty town," they reported.

Engineers arrived to clear the mined section of the road, declaring the right hand side safe. Tanks used their chain guns to blast more mines out of the way. There were more reports of civilian activity in the shanty town, more reports of positions engaged and destroyed.

From a junction halfway along the route to the first military compound came reports of incoming mortar fire, a unit under attack. And then the radio crackled again and the mortar base had been spotted, a blue Land Rover-like vehicle.

A tank fired a round of high explosive at the vehicle, and it disintegrated but another mortar was still firing, somewhere to the south, out of the battle group’s area of interest. Its position was passed on to the Scots Dragoon Guards and, moments later, there came the crash of British mortar rounds leaving their tubes, and the Iraqi mortar was no longer firing.

After days spent clearing up the nearby town of Az Zubayr and driving out the militia, the Black Watch soldiers were relishing their return to Basra and the chance to engage an enemy they had on the run.

The sun had climbed higher in the sky and now four Cobras appeared, swooping low looking for targets to hit, 200ft above the flat rooftops.

"Four Cobras on station - they are going to sweep our station and our objective and then we are going to lose to and two will stay on," a voice on the radio said.

And another voice: "We’re still taking small arms fire, we’ve identified the base plate."

Further back, B company had crossed the bridge, past the giant electricity pylons dominating the approach, past burnt-out and overturned cars and mounds of rubbish, following the road running along side the triple oil pipeline, part of it ablaze. Warrior vehicles stood by the roadside, more smashed vehicles lined the route.

But there were still hazards to be negotiated. Be on the lookout for more mines, they were warned. "Some mines have

Chirac apologises over war graves DEBORAH SUMMERS

Chirac apologises over war graves
DEBORAH SUMMERS