UK-Led Gulf War

I am sort of surprised I have yet to really see this idea thrown out here.

What sort of situation would a UK-led/Commonwealth/Euro war against Iraq in '91 look like? The US can be involved but mostly logistical support, say like France in Mali.

Say Saddam takes a hardline against British citizens in the country during The Observer incident. Or perhaps the destruction of British Airways Flight 149?

Could it be done, Falklands "Empire Strikes Back" style?
 
Last edited:
No, the British forces were too small to carry enough weight to lead. As it was the single armoured division they did deploy had all of the deployable Challenger tanks at the time. About the only country with a big enough army would be West Germany, but they weren't deployable for a number of reasons.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
With US logistical (and financial) support, I would guess we could see two British divisions instead of one, two French divisions instead of one, a division made up of Aussies and Canadians, and a division made up of other European brigades. That would be my absolute highest estimate and that still wouldn't add up to the US force that existed IOTL.
 
An additional problem for all European countries but the British would be that they still had conscription, and sending (non-volunteering) conscripts would be a very difficult move politically.

And frankly, anything that would convince Belgium or Denmark to cobble up a volunteer brigade or the Italians to send a division would easily convince the US to send the 600 000 men they did in OTL...
 

Ancientone

Banned
What unzipped the Iraqis so quickly and comprehensively was US airpower. Of course French, British, Canadian, Italian and Saudi planes participated, but their contribution was a fraction of the Americans'.
I remember watching CNN in the early hours of the morning with a portable TV next to the pool checking the "shot down score board" and saying, after the third Tornado went down, "What's wrong with our ****ing planes?". What was wrong is that we didn't have enough and we didn't have the variety to carry out all the roles required.
On the other hand, I suspect that a Franco-British effort would have concentrated on surgically removing the Hussein family and installing a complaisant regime without so much damage.
 
What unzipped the Iraqis so quickly and comprehensively was US airpower. Of course French, British, Canadian, Italian and Saudi planes participated, but their contribution was a fraction of the Americans'.
I remember watching CNN in the early hours of the morning with a portable TV next to the pool checking the "shot down score board" and saying, after the third Tornado went down, "What's wrong with our ****ing planes?". What was wrong is that we didn't have enough and we didn't have the variety to carry out all the roles required.
On the other hand, I suspect that a Franco-British effort would have concentrated on surgically removing the Hussein family and installing a complaisant regime without so much damage.

Also their tactics were the wrong sort - flying low was planned against the Warsaw Pact, in Iraq it just put them closer to dumb-AAA weaponry.

A Commonwealth-Euro/Arab effort would be smaller and more surgical, not the same beast we saw IOTL.
 
A UK iraq war would involve bombing a couple of military bases as retaliation.

Or surgically removing Sadam, as mentioned

But no boots on the ground aside from the SAS or equivalent.
 
A UK iraq war would involve bombing a couple of military bases as retaliation.

Or surgically removing Sadam, as mentioned

But no boots on the ground aside from the SAS or equivalent.

This was more along the lines I was thinking.

If Iraqi forces had captured (and likely) executed Emir Jaber III Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, I can see an Iraqi withdrawl of most of Kuwait, maybe with a puppet installed.

This coupled with the accidental destruction British Airways Flight 149 (either while mid-air or on the ground) leads to punitive expedition by the UK, mostly air strikes and SAS/Royal Marines, perhaps in support of Kurdish forces.

Does this seem more likely? What sort of UK assets would be brought to bare?
 
This was more along the lines I was thinking.

If Iraqi forces had captured (and likely) executed Emir Jaber III Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, I can see an Iraqi withdrawl of most of Kuwait, maybe with a puppet installed.

This coupled with the accidental destruction British Airways Flight 149 (either while mid-air or on the ground) leads to punitive expedition by the UK, mostly air strikes and SAS/Royal Marines, perhaps in support of Kurdish forces.

Does this seem more likely? What sort of UK assets would be brought to bare?

This is not 1890. A gun boat won't be sent just to retaliate by blowing stuff up, without a clear military objective.

Scrub that, I mean 1840. Even by 1890 punitive expeditions were going out of fashion, and when the Germans tried one in 1902.... It left them with a stain and a nickname that they still haven't got over.
 
This is not 1890. A gun boat won't be sent just to retaliate by blowing stuff up, without a clear military objective.

Scrub that, I mean 1840. Even by 1890 punitive expeditions were going out of fashion, and when the Germans tried one in 1902.... It left them with a stain and a nickname that they still haven't got over.

OP demands a UK led war. Gunboat diplomacy (equivalent) is the most that will happen.

As for that sort of punitive raid, the us did it a few times to libya, for instance.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
An additional problem for all European countries but the British would be that they still had conscription, and sending (non-volunteering) conscripts would be a very difficult move politically.

Good point. IIRC, it was against French law to send conscripts overseas and they had to rearrange the personnel of the 6th Light Armored Division in order to send it to Saudi Arabia in the first place.
 
OP demands a UK led war. Gunboat diplomacy (equivalent) is the most that will happen.

As for that sort of punitive raid, the us did it a few times to libya, for instance.

Punitive actions were all the rage with Clinton, the Cruise Missile President.

The UK could probably get UN approval for air strikes and missile attacks against Iraqi units in the south.

Good point. IIRC, it was against French law to send conscripts overseas and they had to rearrange the personnel of the 6th Light Armored Division in order to send it to Saudi Arabia in the first place.

That's baffling.
 

Archibald

Banned
Bingo. For young French conscripts Algeria was as horrific as Vietnam was for young americans. Many young saw things that burned forever in their minds...
 
Top