Americans are by far the most militant nation on earth since the fall of fascism. The United States of America throughout its history has constantly taken part in wars, interventions and punitive operations. By the end of the twentieth century, the United States used military force abroad more than two hundred times! Many of these conflicts were direct aggression against independent states or territories.

Naturally, not all of them were successful. And some just fail. We will remember three of them today.

Operation at the Bay of Pigs

In 1960, US President Dwight Eisenhower approved a military operation to overthrow the Cuban government led by Fidel Castro. To this end, the CIA organized the training of Cuban exiles who opposed the new government, and supplied them with weapons and ammunition. Thus was formed "Brigade 2506", which was assigned a central role in the operation. Around midnight on April 17, the landing of participants in the operation in the Bay of Pigs began.

Let's remember in more detail how it all happened and how it ended ...

On January 1, 1959, revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. The victory of the Cuban socialists could not but alarm Washington, the American commercial and industrial corporations and, of course, the American mafia, which lost its real estate in Cuba and lost its colossal income. In addition, in a short period of time, the entire former political and business elite immigrated from Cuba, which enjoyed the patronage of the former dictator Fulgencio Batista. As a result, many Cubans settled in American Miami: students, intellectuals, bandits - a real little Cuba was formed in Florida, living according to the usual capitalist laws, a kind of Cuban abroad.

Counting on the support of Cuban emigrants, the American leadership decided to overthrow Castro by military means. To solve this problem, the US command developed Operation Pluto, which provided for a sudden landing on the southern coast of Cuba in April 1961. At the same time, it was assumed in advance that the Cuban counter-revolutionaries would announce the creation of a provisional government on the island, which would ask for help from the United States. The landing of the American troops was to be carried out immediately after the request of the provisional government of Cuba for help. In addition, to confirm the justice of the invasion, the Americans planned to use the support of the countries of the Organization of American States (OAS), a purely pro-American international organization. The OAS was supposed to provide its own military contingent, the number of which could be up to 15,000 people. To prepare the operation, several groups of CIA saboteurs and provocateurs were sent to Cuba, preparing a series of sabotage on the island, designed to destabilize the situation in the country on the eve and directly on the day of the American invasion.

It was planned to prepare the amphibious landing operation by bombing the three largest military airfields in Cuba, on which all the military aviation of the Cuban revolution was concentrated. Eight bombers were prepared for the bombing, and the strike was scheduled for 15 April.

The amphibious landing was planned to be carried out in the Bay of Pigs (translated into Russian - the Bay of Pigs). The landing site was not chosen by chance: a significant part of the coast of the bay can be used as an airfield, and landing on a flat sandy beach, which is the coast of the bay, given the complete absence of antiamphibious defense, seemed to the Americans an easy and pleasant adventure. In addition, the area has excellent defensive capabilities: a huge swamp begins a few kilometers from the sea. The coast of the bay was connected with the rest of the island by only one road. These circumstances, of course, were considered by the Americans as conducive to their consolidation on the island, as well as the accumulation of troops for further advancement deep into Cuba.

The landing date was set for the night of 17 April. It would be naive to believe that the upcoming American landing was a surprise for the Cubans. It is reasonable to assume that Soviet intelligence also played an important role in this. However, this is a topic for another conversation, and also a topic for separate discussions for military historians.

On April 14, 1961, a US Air Force U-2 reconnaissance aircraft took photographs of all of Cuba. According to the data received, up to 15 aircraft were stationed at Cuban airfields. The next day, according to the plan, 8 American B-26 bombers bombed the airfields of Campo Colombia, San Antonio le Los Baños and Santiago de Cuba. As a result of the strikes, most of the aircraft of the revolutionary Air Force were declared destroyed. However, the Cubans, who knew about the impending aggression in advance, replaced the combat aircraft with dummies. Therefore, out of 24 aircraft that the Cubans had, only 2 were lost.

The raid by US bombers, among other things, had very specific political consequences, bringing only one harm to the Americans. On April 16, a mourning ceremony was held in Cuba for the seven Cubans who died as a result of the American bombing, at which Fidel Castro delivered a fiery speech and once again confirmed that Cuba was choosing a socialist path of development. American bombing and sabotage only rallied the Cubans, finally denoting the image of the enemy.

The ships of the flotilla of interventionists, which left in the direction of the Island of Freedom, carried about 2.5 thousand tons of weapons and ammunition. At 1:15 a.m., an encrypted radio message was transmitted to Cuban counter-revolutionaries and CIA agents stating that the invasion had begun and that the time had come for active action to organize large-scale sabotage. However, Cuban counterintelligence managed to nip in the bud all attempts to destabilize the situation in the country, and thus American plans to create at least a semblance of a provisional government in Cuba were doomed to failure.

At dawn on April 17, the landing of the first echelon of troops began. On the road connecting the coast of the bay with the rest of the island, paratroopers were dropped. The fight has begun. Cuban border guards and milicianos (militia fighters), numbering about 100 people, delayed the advance of the enemy, who had almost a tenfold superiority over the defenders.

With the beginning of the intervention in Cuba, a general mobilization was organized. But the Cubans, who learned that the revolution was under threat, did not need special invitations. There were so many volunteers that they simply did not have enough weapons, distribution points for which were organized right on the streets.

The offensive of the invaders began in three directions at the same time: three battalions went to Playa Giron, one - to Playa Larga, and a battalion of paratroopers moved to San Blas. To capture the airfield in the Playa Giron area and prepare it to receive their aircraft, separate units were allocated.

To stop the advance of the invaders inland, the high command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba decided to use aviation to disrupt the landing of troops on the coast, as well as the subsequent blocking and defeat of the landing forces from the sea and land. To solve this problem, the main command allocated 7 infantry battalions, 20 T-34 tanks and 10 self-propelled guns-100, as well as 14 mortar and artillery batteries.

The Cuban command had only to transfer these very impressive forces to the battlefield. Thirty-fours and self-propelled guns-100 hit the positions of the invaders. The lead thirty-four was commanded by Fidel himself, the fact of being on the battlefield gave the young Cuban tankers an unprecedented enthusiasm.

By April 18, the initiative completely passed into the hands of the Cuban revolutionary troops, and during the general offensive that began, the Cubans sank four enemy ships, shot down five aircraft, pushing the invaders to the very coast of the bay, almost throwing them into the sea. Thus, by the evening of April 18, 1961, the operation to overthrow Castro, prepared by the CIA, suffered a complete collapse.

Against the backdrop of the apparent failure of the landing operation, Kennedy gave the order to use aircraft. However, due to a ridiculous mistake related to confusion in time zones, the bombers missed the fighters and did not dare to attack.

On the morning of April 19, the Cuban revolutionary troops, after a half-hour artillery preparation, finally broke the resistance of the enemy. The interventionists tore off their uniforms and fled. Losses of "gusanos" - mercenary interventionists amounted to 82 people. 1197 people surrendered. The revolutionary forces lost 156 people killed and about 800 wounded.

The prisoners were ransomed by US President Kennedy for $62 million.

An important role was played by the position of the Soviet Union, which sent a note of protest to the Americans in connection with the action inspired by them. In this regard, the United States did not dare to escalate the invasion by bringing in its own armed forces. The result of the operation was the complete failure of the CIA plans, associated with a reassessment of the degree of dissatisfaction with the Castro regime in Cuba - a major counter-revolutionary action on the island itself, which the organizers of the landing were counting on, did not happen.

Later, a museum of the operation was opened in Playa Giron, at the entrance to which one of the Cuban Air Force aircraft (Sea Fury), which participated in the operation, was installed. Along the entire road along which Cuban troops marched to Playa Giron, commemorative obelisks were erected at the places where soldiers died during the bombing. The victory is celebrated annually on April 19, in its commemoration, Air Force and Air Defense Day is set on April 17, and April 18 is Tankman Day. In July 1961, the Council of Ministers of the country established the Order of Playa Giron, one of the highest state awards in Cuba.

Later, Fidel Castro assessed the role of the Battle of Playa Giron in the history of the Cuban people: "The Battle of Playa Giron did not allow the history of Cuba to turn back to the old days, and saved the revolution." In July 1961, the Cuban Council of Ministers established the Order of Playa Giron as one of the highest state awards.

The first US intervention in Latin America was a total failure. Cuba managed to defend its right to freedom and independence. However, the American leadership was preparing a revenge, and in November 1961, they developed a plan for a new operation to change the regime in Cuba, codenamed "Mongoose", which was to begin in October 8-12, 1962. To prevent a new invasion of Cuba, the USSR secretly deployed medium-range missiles with nuclear warheads on board in Cuba. As a result, the Caribbean Crisis broke out - the greatest military-political confrontation of the 20th century.

Operation Eagle Claw

The Americans have a Delta special forces unit. In the United States, Delta is widely known in Hollywood films as "Charlie's Brainchild". In "adjacent" (here the thesis "competing" does not reflect reality) specialized organizations around the world, the Delta members became famous as "Special Forces who did not know victories." In general, it was like this.

When the Americans decided to create their own special forces, Charles Beckwith, a heavily decorated "green beret" who was famous for being "not slightly frostbitten," got to do this paramount business. To master the basics of the profession, he was sent to England in the 22nd SAS regiment. Sasovtsy, quite by the way, deservedly, are considered harsh guys in the world and have a lot of successful operations in their assets. Apparently, Charlie studied poorly, because he was infinitely cool. It is not known how it is, but after a while, the brothers in the camp sent Attacking Charlie back. Provided with a beautiful diploma. At home, he picked up a team for himself and began harsh training, interspersed with no less severe choral cries. And finally, ta-ta-ta-da!!! (fanfare begins) On November 21, 1977, Delta Force entered service.

Colonel Charles Alvin Beckwith

The guys were just eager to fight, and in November 1979 they had such an opportunity. On November 4, outraged students at the University of Tehran broke into the American embassy and took 53 American diplomats hostage. The demand of the invaders was to return to their historical homeland the former Iranian Shah who had fled from the country. And treasures stolen from the nation as a makeweight (well, not to demand twice).

Jimmy Carter and his advisers could not adequately perceive Iran, because Iran was now ruled by inadequate people. Carter and Brzezinski toyed with the idea of ​​retaliatory taking of Iranian hostages on US soil for a while, but quickly abandoned it. The Americans were afraid that unpredictable ayatollahs would start shooting the hostages. Nobody knew how to deal with the Iranian hostages in this case. Brzezinski commented grimly: "They can always fall out of the helicopter into the Red Sea on their way home."

Having had enough of the Iranian diplomatic ghouls, President Jimmy Carter remembered that he had at his disposal, as he was informed, the Best Special Forces in the World and gave Attack Charlie a battle order. Essentially idiotic, but still ... Our hero was given a full carte blanche. "Operation Flywheel Turns On" to the music of Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars...

Mission Commander General James Vought and Delta Force founder Colonel Beckwith:

The plan for the release of the hostages was as follows: two Delta squadrons and a company of rangers on three C-130 Hercules aircraft with attached tanker aircraft were to land at the Desert-1 point, which was located about 370 km southeast of Tehran . Eight RH-53D Sea Stellion helicopters, which were based on the Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, were also supposed to fly there. The difference between the landings of aircraft and helicopters was to be 30 minutes. After landing the Delta and refueling the helicopters, the Hercules aircraft were to return to the departure airfield, and the helicopters were to deliver the Delta fighters to a pre-planned shelter near Tehran, which was a two-hour flight, and then fly to another point, at 90 km from the shelter of the "Delta", and throughout the next day to remain there under camouflage nets.

The scheme of the operation "Eagle's Claw": On the evening of April 25, CIA operatives, abandoned in advance in Iran, were to deliver the Delta to the US Embassy in six trucks. Closer to midnight, the group was supposed to storm the embassy building: climb the outer walls to the windows, get inside, eliminate the guards and free the hostages. Then it was planned to call helicopters and either evacuate from the territory of the embassy or from a nearby football field. From the air, the evacuation was to be supported by two AC-130H fire support aircraft. In the early morning hours of 26 April, the helicopters would have flown 65 km south to land at the Manzariye airfield, which by then was controlled by a ranger company. From there, the hostages were supposed to be delivered to the United States on two C-141 jet planes, and the Rangers were supposed to return on C-130 planes.

For 90 days, US spy satellites monitored the remote area of ​​the Dasht-e-Kavir desert. It was here that it was decided to organize a base for the release of American diplomats in Tehran. During all this time, only two cars passed on the road leading from Qom to Mashad. It was here that C-130 military transport aircraft were supposed to land with fuel, special forces and equipment necessary for the successful completion of the operation. Helicopters were supposed to fly here from the Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, on which the American landing force would be transferred to Tehran.

Before embarking on this operation, even the description of which seems rather complicated, the CIA sent Air Force Major John Carney to Iran. The Major was flying in a light spy plane. He had to make sure the ground around the proposed makeshift runway was firm enough to keep the C-130s from sinking into the sand. After landing, Carney marked with four infrared sensors the square in which the planes were to land. The sensors were not visible to the naked eye, but when approaching a given area, the pilots could turn them on using the remote control and see them in night vision devices. Karney carefully checked the field between the sensors, making sure that the soil was firm enough and that there were no piles of debris and dangerous holes in the middle of the field. In his opinion, the site was "almost perfectly flat." While Karney was working, two Iranian cars drove past him. Nobody noticed him. Carney successfully completed the mission, returned on a CIA plane to Oman, and then immediately flew to London. Soil samples he brought were studied and approved. The unusual activity of Iranian vehicles on the night that Carney was preparing the runway was explained as an "anomaly" and forgotten. The location of the Desert One base has been finalized.

The harsh reality, however, turned out to be much more prosaic. It all started with "turntables" ... .. The fact is that the command of the Navy insisted that Navy pilots participate in the operation (the motivation is that army helicopters that do not have folding blades will not be able to fit on an aircraft carrier, hence the modification "D" instead of "C"), and allocated for the operation the crews of helicopters - sea minesweepers. The pilots were, in principle, "not sharpened" for this operation. Flying over the desert is not their path. The pilots were trained to perform only one combat mission: searching for and sweeping sea mines exclusively in the daytime with the help of a large trawl lowered on a towing cable. During the training, it turned out that the flight crews did not want to learn night and "blind" flights and were not eager to participate in the rescue of hostages. With great difficulty, Bzkuiz managed to replace the Navy pilots with the US Marine Corps pilots. The matter has moved. In total, "Delta" conducted 79 night trainings to free the hostages, Beckwith was more or less calm, but did not fully trust the helicopter crews, believing that they could let him down.

The Iranians did not spot the first Hercules with radar. They, however, noticed the flight of 4 "Hercules" with fuel, but decided that it was about Iranian aircraft. The nation was waiting for the American invasion, but obviously not on slow-moving turboprops. Approaching Desert One, the pilots of the first plane noticed strange milky clouds. At first they were generally mistaken for a light haze. The pilots called John Carney, who was already considered an expert on Iran, into the cockpit. They asked him, "What is that thing over there?" Karney thought about it and answered: “Khabub”. The pilots laughed at the unknown and strange word.

They did not know that haboob would bury their mission.

Carney had heard about haboob before, from CIA pilots with whom he had flown on reconnaissance missions. The changing atmospheric pressure in the desert causes the smallest particles of sand to rise into the air and hang in it, sometimes at a height of several thousand meters, forming a vertical cloud. Khaboob was unlikely to harm large aircraft, but could be a problem for helicopters. Karney, thinking about this, immediately reported to the command post in Wadi Qena. Karney's warning about the haboobs was not passed on to the helicopter pilots - the encryption and decryption of the messages took too long, and the command post in Wadi Qena could warn the helicopters after they had left and turned off the radio.

This was the most serious mistake, which, in the end, became the main reason for the collapse of the entire operation.

The helicopters flew into the second haboob in unison, assuming that it would disappear as quickly as the first. Instead, it got tighter and tighter. Soon the pilots could not see their helicopters or the ground. The helicopters were forced to turn on the rear red safety lights. The crew of each helicopter fought the haboob one-on-one, and not everyone emerged victorious from this struggle.

Lack of landmarks, heat and dust caused dizziness and nausea. The pilots wore night vision goggles, which further reduced depth of field and increased the feeling of nausea. The backup hydraulic system of one of the helicopters failed. Under normal circumstances, this required an immediate landing, but the pilot decided to continue.

After the helicopters flew about 250 km over Iranian territory, the first serious trouble happened. A pilot warning light in the cockpit of the sixth helicopter came on, warning that something had hit the propeller blade hard - a potentially fatal problem. The pilot landed immediately. There was a crack on the blade, and the helicopter could not fly further. The team burned secret manuals and instructions and boarded the eighth helicopter, which landed next to the sixth.

Lieutenant Rodney Davis recorded the failure of one system after another. The electric compass and several navigational instruments failed. His co-pilot was unable to fly due to dizziness and nausea. Davis lost sight of the lead helicopter. He could not see landmarks on the ground and could not rely on instruments. He climbed to a height of 2700 meters - the dust has not gone away. He knew that there were mountains ahead, but he did not know exactly where. He reached the point of no return - if he continued flying to Desert One, there was no way back - there would not be enough fuel to fly back to the aircraft carrier. He consulted with the most senior officer in the helicopter mission, Colonel Chuck Pittman, who was in his helicopter. They decided to return to the aircraft carrier. And they returned - not knowing that on the way one helicopter had already failed.

To take out all the hostages and troops, 4 transport helicopters were required. So any hint of at least a rudimentary air defense system put the operation under serious threat. Beckwith was not at all embarrassed. He is the Attacker. I remember that Chip and Dale had an excellent motto "Dementia and courage!"

Unfortunately, the trouble was just beginning.

In different sources, further events are described in approximately the same way, with a difference in details:

1 option. As soon as the Hercules landed, Captain Ishimoto and his men immediately rolled out the jeep and motorcycles. They saw a tanker and a pickup truck scurrying down the deserted road. Apparently, the tanker was carrying stolen gasoline. Delta could not let the Iranians who saw her leave. The troubles did not end there, but only began. The propellers of the Hercules were still spinning when one of the shocked commandos saw an Iranian bus coming straight at them. It was a big Mercedes full of astonished Iranians who reaffirmed the ultimate law of warfare - the absolute certainty that the unpredictable and the unexpected will happen at the most inopportune moment. And the moment was critical. One of the members of the Ishimoto group, realizing that the tank could not be overtaken, fired an anti-tank missile at it. Since he was a professional, the rocket exploded and the tank exploded too. One of the Iranians who were in the cab managed to jump out and climb into the accompanying pickup truck, on which he fled from his pursuers.

Option 2. The site prepared by the CIA operatives was next to a busy highway, and the Americans were amazed at the sheer volume of traffic moving right in front of the landing plane. In addition, almost all the Rangers who were supposed to guard the perimeter were vomiting from the shaking in the air. Only two were able to drive motorcycles and, approaching the highway, managed to stop the bus, taking its passengers and driver prisoner. The rangers first shot at the truck moving behind the bus from a machine gun, and then launched a grenade from an underbarrel grenade launcher. A column of flame shot up into the night sky. Turns out they hit the fuel truck. The minibus following the truck turned around, picked up the driver of the fuel truck and sped away. One of the rangers on a motorcycle tried to catch up with him, but soon stopped the pursuit and turned back.

A secret American base in the heart of the Iranian desert was suddenly lit up like a Friday night football game in his native Texas. The soldiers took off their night vision devices - they were no longer needed. Subsequently, the Delta people claimed that they had shot a fuel truck in order to ... block the road! In desert!!! Clever ... The captured Iranians, meanwhile, were guarded by the physician Karl Savory. After a while, one of the commandos asked the doctor, who was obviously not the most experienced shooter in the world, to insert a forgotten magazine into the M-16 - just in case. After the excesses with the bus and fuel truck, according to the description of various sources, “a group of fighters settled down not far from the aircraft.” Nowhere is it indicated that elementary sentinel guards were posted. It became clear that in a maximum of half an hour, Iranian armored motorized infantrymen, tested in the war with Iraq, would appear on the scene in all their glory. Who are not afraid of a damn thing at all, since Ayatollah Khomeni gave them all a pass to Paradise on the oath.

Beckwith was forced to make the decision to cancel the mission.

The paratroopers began to sit down inside the Hercules on giant, almost empty rubber containers from aviation fuel. Some fell asleep right away. Immediately behind one of the Hercules, which was preparing to take off, with a Delta Force on board, was Major Schaefer's helicopter, which had just refueled from the same plane. The dispatcher approached him and ordered him to remove the helicopter in order to allow the aircraft to maneuver. Schaefer had enough fuel to fly to the aircraft carrier, but the leaders of the air operation wanted the Hercules to leave first. Schaefer raised his car about 10 meters above the ground in order to allow the plane to turn around. Its propeller blades kicked up thick clouds of dust.

Schafer focused on the blurred figure of the dispatcher, and saw nothing but her. To get away from the cloud of dust raised by Schafer, the controller moved to the left wing of the Hercules. Schaefer did not notice this movement, but instinctively continued to keep the helicopter's nose pointed at the controller's figure.

The blades of the helicopter hit the tail of the Hercules.

The Hercules crew attempted to open the rear airstairs. The exit was blocked by a wall of flames. The only escape route was a side door on the starboard side, two-thirds of the way from the tail. Delta Commandos were well trained to use this particular door for parachute jumps, so they left the aircraft on fire with enviable speed, jumping from a height of about 3 meters.

It exploded so that a pillar of fire was seen, probably already in Tehran itself. Both cars instantly burned down along with the crews (8 people).

the transfer of the bodies of the dead Americans at the Zurich airport, May 6, 1980. Officially recognized dead are 8, and the coffins are transferred - 9.

Four more nearby Deltovites received severe burns. The frightened commandos, having decided that they had come under enemy fire, opened heavy fire strictly anywhere. Shrapnel from the exploding Hercules ricocheted four serviceable helicopters. The three remaining Hercules, still partially filled with aviation fuel, began to move in different directions from the site of the explosion. The air was filled with the heavy smell of burning gasoline. Chaos reigned on earth. The paratroopers thought that the Hercules were trying to escape by abandoning them and stopped the planes.

This disgrace ended to disgrace simply. The American Rambos were offended, stupidly left "everything as it is" and flew home on the "surviving" Hercules. Leaving 5 (FIVE!!!) RH-53Ds on the ground! Stuffed with secret equipment. Along with maps, code tables, ciphers, operation plans, thousands of dollars and reals, and documents about American agents in Iran, which were very useful to the nascent counterintelligence of the Islamic Republic.

Despite the assurances of the crews who abandoned them that the cars were hit and the helicopters were not subject to operation, they faithfully served the Iranian armed forces for many years to come (we better not know where they got the spare parts). And on the basis of information obtained from the documents, competent comrades from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps "took" a lot of American agents and their accomplices.

Beckwith was kicked out of the army, which he considered mean and black ingratitude - that's not what they do with the "Attackers"! About what everywhere and declared for many years. And his brainchild Delta Team continued its triumphant march around the world. It was muzzled in Asia, muzzled in Africa, muzzled in South America ...

The only place where the harsh American heroes were not mocked was in Europe. Because they were not sent there. In order to somehow elevate Delta, at least in their own eyes, the Americans made several strange films "Team Delta". Starring Chuck Norris. Well, those in which small such rackets were launched from motorcycles in batches, smashing tank columns to shreds ... This was the main achievement of the offspring of Attacking Charlie.

As a result of Operation Eagle Claw, the following died:

Islamic republic:

On the Iranian side, the Americans killed one civilian - a passenger of a fuel tanker. His identity has not been established.

USA:

US Air Force personnel, EC-130 crew

Major Harold Lewis Jr.

Major Lyn McIntosh

Major Richard Bakke

Captain Charles McMillian

Tech Sergeant Joel Mayo

USMC servicemen, RH-53 helicopter crew

Staff Sergeant Dewey Johnson

Sergeant John Harvey

Corporal George Holmes

Operation Eagle Claw involved a total of 54 aircraft and helicopters, a Delta team of 118, and a company of rangers. Operation Eagle Claw cost $150 million.

Later, when the invasion of Iranian territory became public, the Sultan of Oman protested and terminated the agreement with the United States, which allowed their Air Force and Navy to use Masirah for their needs.

Iranian students released the hostages on the day of Reagan's inauguration, January 20, 1981, after 444 days of captivity.

Washington has unfrozen Iranian assets worth $12 billion. A huge part of this money ($4 billion) went to pay off the claims of 330 American companies and individuals. Iran agreed to return its debts to various foreign banks ($3.7 billion). So the Iranian government received "clean" only 2.3 billion dollars.

When creating the article, Internet spaces were used as a source, while some of the articles contradicted each other. Since the fiasco of the US Special Forces is obvious and does not require proof, I tried to use primarily American explanations for the failure of the operation. For example, most articles state that the collision occurred when refueling helicopter and only after that, a decision was made to cancel the operation.

The date of the operation and the list of the dead are taken from wikipedia, so some of the data in the article differs from the wiki, which states that:

1. "one (helicopter), due to a possible blade failure, crashed into the water immediately after takeoff from an aircraft carrier."

2. Sketch plan of a temporary base in the desert:

Source

Battle in Mogadishu (1993)

The battle in Mogadishu (known in Somalia as "Ranger Day", Somal. Ma-alinti Rangers, in the USA also known as the Battle of the Black Sea) took place between the US Special Forces and the illegal armed groups of the Somali National Alliance (Gen. M. Aidida) October 3-4, 1993 during the UN peacekeeping operation in Somalia and is the most famous event of this operation. On a mission to arrest and capture two members of the so-called "Government of the Somali National Alliance," US Special Forces units engaged in urban combat with a vastly outnumbered enemy and suffered heavy casualties.

CNN aired footage filmed by Somali journalist Issa Mohammed showing triumphant Somali militants carrying the torn body of a dead Delta fighter around the city. These shots shocked the Americans. The American public found that the country was on the verge of intervening in a foreign civil war, as happened three decades earlier in Vietnam.

The loss of US Special Forces in Mogadishu influenced the US leadership's decision to withdraw US troops from Somalia.

During the battles of October 3-4, 1993, the losses of the Ranger tactical group, the Rapid Reaction Forces and peacekeeping units amounted to 19 people dead (18 Americans and 1 Malaysian), about 80 people were wounded, 1 person was captured (pilot "Super 64 » Mike Durant, later released), two helicopters and several cars.

It is difficult to determine the losses of the Somali side. There are quite different estimates, for example, the American ambassador to Somalia, Robert Oakley, believed that up to 2,000 Somalis were killed and wounded in the battle, while according to the estimate made by Mohammed Aidid himself, 300 dead and 800 wounded. It is difficult to determine how many civilians were among them, because, according to the Americans, both women and teenagers participated in the battle with weapons in their hands.

Based on the events in 2001, the thin was removed. the film Black Hawk.

From Vietnam to Kiska

In what, in what gentlemen from the USA can give a hundred points ahead to anyone - it is in the ability to wishful thinking. Here they are only equal to their diligent students from some ... underdeveloped countries. Before declaring the US Army the most “defensive, smart and strong” in almost the entire history of mankind, Mr. John Kirby would do well to recall history to the whole world. Own. Well... can we help?

Ash Songmy

We ended the first part of our conversation with a story about how the US Army, in eight years, was unable to cope with tiny, in comparison, Vietnam. At the same time, it must be remembered that the disgrace of America in this case was not limited to military losses alone.

In 1967, the so-called "Russell Tribunal for Investigating War Crimes Committed in Vietnam" was created. This International Tribunal held two of its meetings - in Stockholm and in Copenhagen, and after the first one they delivered a verdict, which, in particular, said:

“... The United States is responsible for the use of force and, as a result, for the crime of aggression, for the crime against peace. The United States violated the established provisions of international law enshrined in the Paris Pact and the UN Charter, as well as the establishment of the 1954 Geneva Accords on Vietnam. US actions fall under Article: Nuremberg Tribunal and are subject to the jurisdiction of international law.

The United States has violated the fundamental rights of the people of Vietnam. South Korea, Australia and New Zealand became complicit in this crime…”

“... The Tribunal finds that the United States, which carried out the bombing of civilian targets and the civilian population, is guilty of war crimes. The actions of the United States in Vietnam must be qualified as a whole as a crime against humanity (according to Article 6 of the Nuremberg Statute) and cannot be considered as mere consequences of a war of aggression ... "

On March 16, 1968, the US Army stood forever on a par not even with the Nazi Wehrmacht, but with the most vile units of Nazi Germany, like Einsatzkommandos or other punishers, whom the Germans themselves abhorred. From now on, along with the Belarusian Khatyn, the Polish Lidice and other places of the most terrible fascist crimes in history, the Vietnamese village of Song My in the province of Quang Ngai is mentioned. More than 500 people were killed there by American soldiers. And - with special cruelty. The village was literally wiped off the face of the earth - burned down with the people to the last house and barn.

About bastards from purely punitive teams such as “scouts” from Tiger Force, the 101st Airborne Division (oh, those brave American paratroopers ...), who specialized in reprisals against prisoners and civilians, and in addition, they hung themselves with scalps and necklaces from the cut off ears of the Vietnamese are also known to the whole world. As you wish, but in my opinion, SUCH shame is not washed off in any way and never - neither from the uniform, nor from the banner, nor from the soldier's honor.

In the end, I can not resist considering another topic that has already become commonplace. At one time, it became very fashionable (especially in some circles that love “liberal values”) to equate the war in Vietnam with the participation of the USSR in the Afghan war. It seems like - the same thing ... Well, let's compare. In the previous part, I already gave the figures for the losses of the US Army for eight years of Vietnam. Let me remind you very briefly - the loss of those killed only by the US Army - more than 58 thousand people. Downed aircraft - about 9000. Missing - more than 2000 people. About a thousand American soldiers were taken prisoner. Mostly pilots.

During the ten years of the conflict in Afghanistan, the USSR lost about 14 and a half thousand people (irretrievable combat losses), 118 aircraft and 333 helicopters. You can compare further, but, in my opinion, this is enough. I am not going to consider the idiotic conjectures of liberal "historians" that "Afghan losses are underestimated at times", based solely on the thesis: "they counted something little", I am not going to consider. With this - to Mr. Kirby. In one room...

Oh yes! Even in the USSR there were not those 27,000 deserters and war evaders who crawled out in the United States like cockroaches from all cracks when President Ford announced an amnesty for them in 1974. Feel the difference, as they say.

How the "Black Hawk" over the "Black Sea" screwed up

The first US Army personnel to receive the highest military award, the Medal of Honor, after the Vietnam War were Sergeant First Class Randall Shugart and Master Sergeant Harry Gordon. By the way, posthumously ... I wonder - for what merits?

The civil war that began in Somalia in the 1980s continues to this day. In the early 90s, out of a peculiar habit of “bringing democracy” to the whole world, no matter how he kicked, the Americans initiated the introduction of “UN multinational forces” into the country Under their own command, of course. The operation received, as always, the utterly pretentious name "Revival of Hope."

However, "American hope" was not shared by all Somalis. One of the field commanders, Muhammad Farah Aidid, completely considered the presence of foreign soldiers as interference in the internal affairs of the country. What a savage... Of course, the Americans tried to deal with him in the usual manner - with numerous casualties among the civilian population and without any harm to Aidid personally.

The ensuing confrontation led to the fact that in 1993 in Somalia, a whole tactical group "Ranger" - Task Force Ranger, came directly to the soul of Aidid. It included one company of the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, a Delta squadron, and helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Night Hunters. Special forces - special forces nowhere! Elite to all elites. Well, this elite turned around on the move ...

The first operation to capture the "inconvenient" field commander was carried out "brilliantly" - the prey of the special forces was ... the official representative of the UN Development Program, three senior employees of UNOSOM II and an elderly Egyptian woman, a representative of one of the humanitarian organizations. Whoops…

However, as it turned out in that raid, the idiots were only warming up - the Americans themselves assessed all further operations as "not very successful." During one of them, the heroic “Delta”, with a roar, shooting and all the required special effects, heroically stormed the house of an entire Somali general, effectively putting him and, in addition, another 40 members of the Abgal clan “face to the ground”. True, it later turned out that this general is the best friend of the UN, the United States in Somalia, and in fact he was put forward as a candidate for the post of the country's new police chief. Mdya ... With allies like the Americans, it’s as if enemies are not needed ...

The bodyaga with attempts to capture Aidid himself, or at least someone from his inner circle, dragged on for a long time, tediously and unsuccessfully. Without a doubt, the role played by the fact that the American General Howe, who "steering" the process, perceived him as another "dirty native", while Aidid had a decent military education, received, including in the USSR. Well, the smartest army, no questions...

And finally, the long-awaited day "X" has come! According to intelligence data, on October 3, 1993, in the area of ​​​​the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, which was called the "Black Sea", Omar Salad, Aidid's adviser, and Abdi Gasan Aval, nicknamed Kebdid, the Minister of Internal Affairs in Aidid's "shadow government" were supposed to meet. Aidid himself was allowed to appear. The Yankees could not miss such an opportunity! A real armada was prepared for the capture - twenty units of aircraft, twelve cars and about one hundred and sixty personnel. Armored Hummers, trucks full of Rangers, and, of course, Black Hawks. Where would we be without them...

By the way, the first such helicopter was shot down by the Somalis on September 25 - with the help of the most ordinary Soviet RPG-7. Pompous fool…sorry, Commander-in-Chief General Garrison considered this incident nothing more than an accident. "Coincidence, you say? Well, well ... ”- said the partisans of Aidid. And then they stocked up more RPGs.

The beginning of the operation was marked by events ... let's say, in a purely American style. In general, she almost broke down because the agent, who was supposed to stop the car near the house where potential targets would gather, and thus give a signal to capture, left his car in a completely different point with a fright. The entire armada mentioned above almost rushed to storm an empty place. Understood. The agent was either reprimanded or intimidated, and, having once again circled the block, he stopped at the right place. And away we go!

We will not (out of pity) focus on such moments of the operation as the “elite ranger” who blurted out when landing from a helicopter from a twenty-meter height. Or on a desperate assault by two four commandos of an impregnable fortress, which turned out to be ... a stationery store. Well, it happens... One way or another, two of Aidid's close associates and two dozen more people with them were captured by the Americans, and an evacuation convoy moved to the Black Sea area to extract them. And this is where the jokes ended. The bloody hell has begun.

The "Black Sea" exploded with fire and lead. At the very least, miserable scraps of a column that took away an almost self-murdered commando managed to get to the base. In that part of the column that remained for the removal of prisoners at the very beginning of the battle, the Hammer and one of the trucks were burned from the RPG. And then the Black Hawks began to fall from the sky. The first of them with the proud call sign "Super-61" was shot down in five minutes. From all the same RPG, of course. The next grenade flew to the hawk, which landed the search and rescue group. Its pilots were very lucky - they somehow managed to reach the base.

"Black hawk" with the call sign "Super-64" was less fortunate. It didn't go down at all, to be honest. After receiving an RPG shot in the tail section, he crashed two miles from the 61st. Snipers were brought in to protect his Super 62 crew. The ones I mentioned at the very beginning. In the end, only one of the pilots of the 64th managed to survive, and even then, only because he was captured for a subsequent exchange. And ... Yes - "Super-62" caught his grenade, but blurted out to the ground already near the airfield itself.

All this time, the convoy under the command of Colonel McKnight, who had originally arrived to evacuate the rangers and prisoners, circled the streets of Mogadishu! For which she was subsequently awarded the "honorary" title - "The Lost Convoy". At first, the command demanded that the colonel provide assistance to the downed helicopter pilots, then, realizing that help would be here, like milk from a famous animal, they demanded to immediately go to the base - in order to at least deliver the prisoners to their destination! The drivers of the convoy, meanwhile, with admirable tenacity ... turned into the wrong streets, missing the right turns and forks. In the middle of the day! As they themselves later wrote in their reports, “because of the enemy’s heavy fire.” Well, the smartest - you haven't forgotten?!

Another convoy sent to rescue the rangers who were dying one after another in the meantime got stuck literally in the first hundreds of meters of movement. Two Hammers were blazing with cheerful fires, and the brave mountain shooters and rangers, instead of helping out their comrades, feverishly fired in all directions (later it was calculated that during the battle they shot 60,000 pieces of ammunition!). As a result, the fathers-commanders again spat and ordered the "rescuers" to return to the base.

By nine o'clock in the evening it became completely clear that there was no way to cope with the "most-most army in the world" on its own. The Americans rushed headlong to ask for help from their colleagues in the peacekeeping contingent. As a result, the “elite of the US army” was saved by Pakistani and Malaysian “armor”! She pulled out, so to speak, their asses - as the Americans themselves like to say in such cases.

The column, which included four Pakistani tanks, twenty-four Malaysian armored personnel carriers and about three dozen more vehicles, supported from the air by a whole flock of helicopters, managed to break through barricades and heavy fire to the site of the tragedy. By morning, the evacuation (during which part of the rescued had to follow the “armor” of the foot thug for a whole mile) was successfully completed

The result of the battle was the death of 18 elite fighters of the US Army, the capture of one of them and injuries of varying severity - about eighty. The Somalis lost, according to various estimates, from 300 to 800 people. True, the US ambassador to Somalia subsequently wove something about two thousand dead, but this, I'm sure, is a calculation of the results of passing the famous computer toy "Delta Force: "Black Hawk" Down." On the easy level...

But even if we assume that this figure is at least somewhat close to the truth, then the result is not the most shameful, but the most shameful! Do not forget that dozens of “turntables” poured fire on the Somalis from airborne weapons - only helicopters covering the last evacuation column shot 80 thousand rounds of ammunition and 100 rockets around the city! The “unsurpassed elite” of the US Army, the magnificent superspecial forces, from the very sight of which, theoretically, the “bad guys” should have scattered within a radius of at least hundreds of miles, were opposed by rebels armed by no means the newest Kalashnikovs and, at most, RPGs. . According to some reports, almost half of them were women and children.

In Somalia, October 3 is called "Ranger's Day" and is still almost a national holiday. In the United States, these events were dubbed “the second Pearl Harbor. A humiliating "truce" had to be concluded with Aidid. The US Secretary of Defense was dismissed, and the “strongest army” left Somalia after these events literally the next year. The rest of the UN troops soon followed. Since then, none of the “peacekeepers” dares to meddle in this territory anymore.

Operation Cottage. Full pussy...

In this part of the story, I willy-nilly have to break the chronological principle, which I adhered to earlier. It’s just that the episode, which will be discussed below, is not only unequivocally the most shameful page in the history of the US Army, but may well be recognized as perhaps the greatest military shame of all times and peoples.

For what the hell the Japanese ran into the Aleutian Islands in 1942, no one has established for sure. Some military historians said that from there the imperial army was preparing to "take Alaska." Or - to build air bases for bombing the United States. However, this explanation seems doubtful. Yes, that's not the point.

In 1943, the Americans, who had bombarded the islands with many tons of bombs for a year, finally mustered up the courage to retake them. In May, they landed on the island of Attu, and for three weeks it turned into the arena of the bloodiest battle. Despite the fact that the Japanese army was a military adversary of the USSR, I cannot refrain from words of admiration addressed to her. The Japanese fought like heroes, like real samurai - Warriors who put honor above life. Left without cartridges and grenades, they met the Americans with bayonets, swords and knives. More than half a thousand American soldiers and officers found their death on Attu, more than a thousand the US Army lost wounded. Well, and non-combat losses - twice as much ...

One way or another, the brave American guys approached the tiny island of Kiska already ... with pretty soaked uniform trousers. More than a hundred warships were thrown to take it, with 29 thousand American and five Canadian paratroopers on board. They, as the command of "the smartest in the world" considered, should have been enough to break the eight thousandth Japanese garrison.

On August 15, the Americans fired on the island EIGHT times, rained down on it 135 tons of bombs and mountains of leaflets calling for surrender. The Japanese did not even think about giving up. “Again, they gathered to cut themselves with katanas, bastards!” - realized the American command, and landed troops. 270 American Marines set foot on the land of Kiska, and after them - a little to the north, and the Canadian landing group.

In two days, the brave paratroopers managed to advance 5-7 kilometers inland. Apparently, they spent most of their time turning over stones and interrogating crabs that came to hand - in search of an answer to the question: “Where did the cunning samurai go ?!” And only on August 17 they finally got a chance to prove themselves in all their glory.

On two land mines, when examining a COMPLETELY EMPTY Japanese bunker, 34 American marines managed to blow themselves up. Two - to death ... Obviously, some of them were not taught in time the golden rule of the sapper: “Do not stretch out your hands, otherwise you will stretch out your legs!” The Canadians who heard such a powerful cannonade did not blunder, and-and-and-and ... How they fried it in the place where it was heard from! Yes, from all trunks! The Americans, who were very offended by such a turn, did not remain in debt - the queues of the Tommy Guns mowed down five Canadians like grass. And at this moment...

At that moment, Admiral Kicknade, who was in charge of all this mess, remembered that he was in charge of something. And he also decided to play war games. “Come on, brother gunners, give me a spark from everything on board!” - obviously, his appeal to the crew of the destroyer "Abner Rean" sounded something like this. Well, they are happy to try ... Naval artillery shells fell on the bad heads of the Marines, who had barely begun to "resolve" the situation. Beats, as it is not surprising, "in the bull's-eye." "Friendly fire" cost the lives of seven more Americans and three Canadians. Plus - fifty wounded.

The next day, we managed (finally!) to establish normal communication and the admiral was informed: “There are NO Japanese on the island! Nancy! Raccoon! Your Mother!" Well, it probably sounded something like that... After wiping the sweat that must have flowed from under his snow-white cap, Kicknade decided to back off. In the literal and figurative sense, he gave the command to the Abner Rean to "join the main forces of the fleet." However, instead of this, the destroyer, barely moving away from the coast, managed to run into a mine, which he managed to miss in an unimaginable way ... skip a minesweeper darting along the island. 71 sailors were killed, fifty were injured, and five completely disappeared in foggy waters without a trace.

You probably think that this circus of idiots called Operation "Cottage" is over? Yeah, how about it ... The guys were not going to let up and continued in the same spirit with renewed vigor. And even tougher!

Already on August 21 (a WEEK, as everyone knows that there is NOT a single Japanese on the island!) the mortar crew of the Americans, it is not clear from what fright, fired at their own reconnaissance group, returning from the search. From my own, I specify specifically, units! They shot, apparently, very badly, because the scouts who survived under the mines ... cut out the mortars to the last man! Well, I just don't have words...

Moreover, in the following days - on August 23 and 24, American and Canadian marines opened fire on each other more than once or twice in the process of inspecting Japanese fortifications. In general, the Americans and Canadians lost more than 100 people killed during the assault on a COMPLETELY DESERTED ISLAND. A few hundred more - wounded, frostbitten and sick. No comment…

“But what about the Japanese?!” - you ask. Oh, yes ... The Japanese calmly left the island a few weeks before the assault, not wanting to ruin people and resources in a completely useless battle. And rightly so - the "smartest army in the world" did just fine without them.

It only remains to add that after analyzing the operation to storm Kyska, it becomes extremely clear where the legs of the recent tragedy in Ukraine come from. With the interaction of the police. Ukrainian "special forces" were trained by American instructors...

That, in fact, is all about the US Army. Well, except for a couple of strokes. The US Army is the only one on the planet that has used nuclear weapons. And - not against enemy units and formations, but against completely peaceful cities.

In the US Army ... well, it somehow happened ... there never were Matrosovs, Gastello, Talalikhins. But there were brave paratroopers who crawled on their knees in front of the Fritz in Normandy, and "surrendered" on their own initiative the timing of the offensive (see Part 1), or burned the children of Song My in Vietnam. There was NOTHING SIMILAR in either the Soviet or the Russian army. Never.

Now, that's all for sure. Big hello to Mr. John Kirby!

The first part of our review.

Alexander Neukropny especially for Planet Today

On November 4, 1979, a group of 400 people who declared themselves members of the Organization of Muslim Students - followers of the course of Imam Khomeini, attacked the US diplomatic mission in Tehran. A couple of hours later, the attackers managed to crush 13 US Marines who were throwing tear gas grenades into the crowd. Embassy staff turned to the Iranian police for help, but these requests remained unanswered. The embassy was seized, and the organizers of the attack publicly stated that this action was taken in protest against the United States providing asylum to the former Shah of Iran. In response to the seizure of the embassy, ​​President John Carter froze Iranian accounts in American banks, announced an embargo on Iranian oil (despite the energy crisis), announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Iran, and the introduction of economic sanctions against Iran. All Iranian diplomats were ordered to leave the US within 24 hours.

However, the invaders of the American embassy did not even think of releasing the 52 hostages. The drama dragged on for months. In view of the futility of attempts to resolve the problem peacefully, the American leadership decided to conduct a military operation, code-named Eagle Claw.

The plan for Operation Eagle Claw was extremely complex, and it was difficult to expect everything to go as it should.

RH-53D helicopters in sand camouflage aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz before flying to Iran on April 24, 1980

In the early morning of April 26, helicopters with rescuers and rescued were supposed to fly 65 km in a southerly direction and land at the Manzariye airfield, which by that time would have been in the hands of a US Army ranger company. From there, the hostages were supposed to be flown home in two C-141 jet transport aircraft, while the Rangers were to return in C-130 aircraft.

On April 24, 1980, the capture group was supposed to secretly penetrate Iranian territory on six S-130 military transport aircraft. Three of them were supposed to take on board the elite fighters of the special detachment "Delta Force" (now called (ACE) Army Compartmented Elements). Yes, the very famous "Delta" which is dedicated to a lot of computer games and no fewer films. The other three aircraft are rubber canisters of fuel for refueling helicopters at a gas station code-named Desert 1 (a former British field airfield about 370 kilometers southeast of Tehran). On the same night, eight RH-53D helicopters were supposed to take off from the Nimitz aircraft carrier and land at the Desert-1 point half an hour after the planes. After the Delta fighters disembarked and refueled, the planes were supposed to return to Masirah Island off the coast of Oman, and the helicopters were to deliver the Delta fighters to a pre-designated shelter in the holding area near Tehran, which was a two-hour flight, and then fly to another point , 90 km from the shelter, and throughout the next day to remain there under camouflage nets.

fighters of the special detachment "Delta Force" now (ACE) Army Compartmented Elements) before the operation

On the evening of April 25, agents of the US CIA, who had been abandoned in Iran in advance, were to smuggle 120 Delta fighters through the streets of Tehran in six trucks and deliver them to the US embassy. Closer to midnight, the group was supposed to begin storming the embassy building: climbing the outer walls to the windows, getting inside, neutralizing the guards and freeing the hostages. Then it was planned to call helicopters over the radio to evacuate the participants in the operation and former hostages from the nearby football field.

Operation "Eagle Claw"

At 22:45, the first S-130 landed at the Desert-1 site. After landing the lead C-130, a bus passed along the sandy road. Its driver and 40 passengers were detained until the departure of the Americans. Following the bus, a fuel tanker drove up, which the American special forces destroyed with grenade launchers. A pillar of flame shot up, visible from afar. The helicopters reached the point in an incomplete composition - one machine was lost in a dust storm and returned to the aircraft carrier, and the second made an emergency landing and was abandoned. However, the operation still had a chance of success - six was the minimum number that was required for its continuation. But on one of the helicopters that reached Desert-1, they discovered a problem with hydraulics, after which Colonel Beckwith, who commanded the operation, decided to stop the operation.

Operation "Eagle's Claw" the failure of American intelligence services

The helicopters began refueling for the return flight. And then disaster struck. One of the helicopters, after refueling, did not calculate the maneuver and crashed into the Hercules tanker. There was a powerful explosion, and both cars turned into torches. Burned all the fuel for the operation. Ammunition exploded. The panic began. A nearby group of commandos thought it was an Iranian attack. They opened fire indiscriminately. This is how the baptism of fire of the elite fighters of the special detachment "Delta Force" began, having entered into fire interaction with the "enemy" of which there was not even a trace.

An abandoned American helicopter and the aftermath of the failed Operation Eagle Claw. Iran, April 26, 1980

The helicopter pilots abandoned their vehicles and ran to safety. Secret maps, ciphers, tables, and the latest equipment remained in the cabins. The commander had to give the order to dive into the "Hercules" and quickly get out. Abandoned helicopters have become Iranian trophies. Yes, and according to some abandoned documents, the agent network was almost completely opened.

Burnt S-130 "Hercules"

8 dead, all recorded as members of helicopter and aircraft crews

Operation "Eagle's Claw" the failure of American intelligence services results . "Eagle Claw" ended in complete failure: the Americans suffered losses without completing the task. US losses in the operation: one destroyed aircraft, one destroyed helicopter, five hijacked helicopters, eight dead (here, not everything is clear later, when the bodies were handed over, the number 9 appeared), four wounded. Iranian casualties: one civilian dead.

Operation "Eagle's Claw" US losses destroyed aircraft, one destroyed helicopter and five captured, four wounded, eight dead, and they were not taken out but abandoned at the site of the failure

The hostage drama continued - the last of them were released only 444 days after the embassy was seized. Too lazy to read, watch the video.

Anniversary of Operation Eagle Claw Tehran Iran 2011

On the other hand, the failure forced the American military-political leadership to revise the system for training special forces and planning special operations, making them much more effective.

American soldiers. Men of steel, full metal shells, in general, Rex that won't go into battle without toilet paper. Probably only Agafya Lykova and a dozen reindeer herders have not heard about the heroic battles on a planetary scale under the flag of Pindosia, due to the lack of communications. We are all aware of the most epic jambs of the "most powerful army in the world", of course, after the orcs of Petuny Gunpowder. So, the complete collection of files is stored in deaf archives under the supervision of archivists overgrown with moss. Let me remind the respected community of several such cases.

The man and the ship Ivan Makov.

Or Senator McCain, who in all seriousness at the General Staff of the USSR Ministry of Defense was offered to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for 25 ruined fighters and a burned-out aircraft carrier.

In October 1967, Vanyatka was shot down during one of the raids on Hanoi.
The Vietnamese used to beat the Pindos with hoes, making it clear that the fairy tale was over. But Vanka McCain was not only not torn off, but pulled out of the water, sent to the hospital and almost cured. Then, however, they put him in jail for a five-year term, but it could have been worse.
Ivan claimed that he was regularly beaten, humiliated, obtained military secrets and forced to sign "statements of repentance." However, Chan Chong Duet, head of the Vietnamese prison Hoa Lo, says that the admiral's offspring (and his dad had become commander of the US 7th Fleet by that time) were not tortured - he was considered a VIP prisoner.

By the way, medical assistance to the American military in North Vietnam was provided only if the military agreed to cooperate and gave the Vietnamese secret information.

Experts call the operation "Cottage" to liberate Kiski, one of the Aleutian Islands from the Japanese, in August 1943 "number one" in the shameful list.
"Cleansing" a small island, on which by this time there was not a single enemy soldier left, the US military managed to lose more than 300 people.

The "battle" for Kyska was reminiscent of the cartoon "Hedgehog in the Fog". Under the "cover" of the fog, the Japanese organized themselves out of the trap, having mined both the land and the sea. The operation to evacuate the Kyski garrison was carried out perfectly and entered the textbooks of military affairs.
Two cruisers and a dozen destroyers of the Japanese fleet were rapidly transferred to the island of Kiska, entered the harbor, within 45 minutes took on their boards more than five thousand people and at high speed got away to their geishas in the same way that they came. Their retreat was covered by 15 submarines.
The hardened Americans didn't notice anything. Admiral Sherman explains this by the fact that the patrol ships at that time left for refueling, and reconnaissance from the air was not carried out due to heavy fog. Even though it's complete bullshit.
The evacuation of the garrison took place on July 29, 1943, and already on August 2, Japanese transports arrived safely on Paramushir Island in the Kuril chain. And the Canadian-American landing force landed on Kiska only on August 15th. And if you can still believe in the fogs, then it is difficult to assume that the patrol ships refueled for almost two weeks.

During these two weeks, between the competent evacuation of the samurai and the landing, the US command continued to build up the grouping in the Aleuts and bomb the island.
“Meanwhile, aerial reconnaissance, which, according to the truth-seeker Sherman, was not carried out, discovered strange things: the insidious Japs stopped filling bomb craters, fearlessly walking around the island, fishing and taking pictures in heroic poses. Boats and barges rested peacefully in the bay. And oh, horror, the anti-aircraft guns were silent. After scratching their turnips, the American command decided that the unscrupulous Japanese were drinking sake in bunkers and were preparing to fuck the amers with pissing rags in close combat. And they decided to score with the landing for a couple of weeks.
The plan was ingenious: American and Canadian forces landed at two points on the west coast of Kiska at once - all in accordance with the classic tactics of capturing territory, as written in their textbooks. On that day, American warships bombarded the island eight times, dropped 135 tons of bombs and piles of leaflets calling for surrender on the island. There was no one to give up.

With such a game of Zarnitsa, the Marines managed to lose more than 300 people killed and wounded. 31 American soldiers died due to "friendly fire", naively believing that the Japs were shooting, another fifty were shot in the same way. About 130 soldiers were out of action due to frostbite of the legs and "trench foot" - a fungal infection of the feet, which was facilitated by constant humidity and cold.
In addition, the American destroyer Abner Reed was blown up by a Japanese mine, on board of which 47 people were killed and more than 70 were injured.

In order to drive the Japanese out of there, over 100,000 troops and a large amount of materiel and tonnage were eventually used, a balance of power unprecedented in the history of world wars.

The Normandy Landings, also known as Operation Overlord, is the most widely publicized battle of World War II in Western media space. Remember there, the rescue of various privates, Brad Pitt either on a tank, or without a tank, and so on. It is not surprising, because from that moment a full-fledged war of the "allies" with Germany began.

Films, video games and books show the landings as a real meat grinder in which thousands of Americans, Canadians and British died. But in reality, a large-scale operation looked much more modest.

So, according to the most pessimistic data, the allies lost about 200 thousand people on the days of the landing. Moreover, this figure includes not only the dead, but also the wounded, as well as the missing. For comparison, only in the Battle of the Dnieper, the Soviet and German sides lost 1.2 million people killed and wounded, and each side

It is even more interesting that the landing in Normandy was preceded by another operation, which is not filmed, and generally prefer not to be mentioned - Operation Tiger.

All information about the special operation "Tiger" was stored deep in the archives for almost half a century. Only in the mid-80s, the materials were partially declassified. The official version of events in April 1944 was as follows.
At that time, the States were already in full swing with Japan for dominance in the Pacific Ocean. For this, both the main forces of the navy and the entire marine corps were transferred to the region. Accordingly, only line infantrymen remained to storm the beaches of Normandy, and they urgently needed to be retrained and turned into marines. To do this, General Dwight Eisenhower came up with an excellent plan - to organize a military landing in Britain.

In the town of Slapton, for such an undertaking, there was an excellent beach, perfectly similar to the Normandy coast. But there was a problem, people lived there. Old Eisenhower insisted that the exercises should be as close as possible to the upcoming battle. Therefore, the authorities gently, but with pressure, persuaded 3,000 tolerant Britons to move for a while to stay with their relatives, so as not to die under stray shells.
There was something to fear. Since the command insisted on realistic exercises, the British cruiser Hawkins was singled out, which was supposed to plow the coast with live shells an hour before the start of the operation, and after that the “Germans” and “allies” entered the scene.

The start of Operation Tiger was scheduled for the morning of April 27. To do this, the British cruiser and American landing craft had to leave the port late at night. However, the cruiser arrived late and did not enter the port, but met the Americans along the way. It was only at the meeting that it turned out that the encryption codes on the American ships and the British cruiser did not match. But, the timer was running, and Eisenhower was waiting for a fire show on the shore. To coordinate their actions, the captains of the ships went on the air, which was a catastrophic mistake. The cunning Germans filtered out the mess on the radio, and nine high-speed and highly maneuverable boats under the command of German officer Günter Rabe were sent to intercept the Marines. Simple and elegant. Not tolerant, but effective.

Under cover of darkness, German scows with a motor approached the enemy ships and fired the first torpedoes. One landing immediately went to the rainbow, the second received heavy damage and the Marines got bored, panicked and jumped overboard along with all their ammunition. As a result, even the presence of life jackets did not help them out; under the weight of weapons and other uniforms, they turned upside down in the water. At this time, the guns of the Hawkins thundered. But in the dark, the British mixed up the targets and fired a volley at the allies, and only scraps remained from the landing craft. While the terpils were sorting out where someone was, the Germans jumped off this roast, giving a farewell torpedo salvo, which turned the nose of another transport.

In the morning, the Marines began to count the losses - 700 Americans, British and Canadians. In order not to undermine morale, the command ordered all data on Operation Tiger to be classified, and the bodies of the dead to be buried near Slapton. They did not write names on the grave tablets, but simply put the date and numbers. For a long time, locals believed that German soldiers were buried there, who died at sea during an attack on a transport ship and were later buried by British sailors next to their makeshift training ground.

But the secrets of the brilliant Operation Tiger do not end there, it was only the official version, voiced in the 80s. A few years later, British public figures, journalists and veterans' societies began to delve into Operation Tiger in more detail in order to replace the numbers on the plates with the real names of the dead soldiers. And then inconsistencies began to emerge, and the official version spread at the seams. As it turned out, the reality was somewhat different.
The cruiser "Hawkings" was really late, so the landings headed for the beach-polygon in Slapton only under the cover of coastal batteries. On the spot, they had to wait for the appointed hour, when the Hawkins guns dug up the beach from behind the horizon, and begin landing. There were also the mentioned communication problems. So, the captain of the cruiser received incorrect data on the progress of the operation.
As a result, the British annealed half an hour later than expected. At this time, the defending "Germans" were already on the beach, and the landing ships landed the "Marines". Shells "Hawkins" lay down as expected, right among the soldiers. Allied soldier. As a result of a half-hour shelling, 700 soldiers marched towards the Apostle Peter. The transports themselves also got it, which would later be credited to the German sailors.
As is already known, General Eisenhower and the future President of the United States did not suffer any punishment for the enchanting organization of Operation Tiger - they simply imposed a secrecy stamp.
This story was revealed thanks to a 10-year-old schoolboy from Slapton, who became interested in the history of his native land and wrote an innocent essay about the cemetery of unknown soldiers. His story was reprinted by the local newspaper, and so the millstone was launched, grinding a bunch of official jambs.
All this is just a brief overview of the pages of shame of the army of a potential enemy, but one should not underestimate the enemy. Let's hope that we will not have to experience the hardships and hardships of wartime in all its glory, but still ...

The American publication analyzed five unsuccessful US military operations that had a negative impact on the strategic position of the entire state. Robert Farley, a journalist from the military-political American publication National Interest, has compiled a kind of top of the most failed military operations of the United States of America. In his article, he focused on the strangest operational and strategic decisions of the American command, which could lead to ill-conceived conflicts. Invasion of Canada In 1812, an armed conflict broke out on the American continent between the United States and Great Britain, using Upper and Lower Canada as their springboard. During the first campaign, the unpreparedness of the Americans for war was manifested. The US command was counting on a quick victory, hoping for the support of the local population. But the Americans overestimated their capabilities, which almost cost the newly-minted state independence. The unprepared American troops decided to engage in battle with a professional army. However, the initial enthusiasm vanished in an instant after several combat clashes. In 1812, attempts by the American detachments of Ghoul and Wedsworth to invade Canada ended in failure. Attempts by an American detachment under the command of Stephen van Rensselaer to gain a foothold on the Canadian side of the Niagara River ended in the defeat of the Americans in the Battle of Queenston Heights. A real disaster erupted in Detroit, where the famous commander William Hull was forced to surrender a strategic fort, despite being outnumbered. Having broken through the defenses, the British were able to get to the Canadian-American border. As you know, American troops, nevertheless, were able to win several significant battles at the end of the war, however, it was the surrender of Fort Detroit that allowed Great Britain to maintain its position on the continent. In 1999, during the American Civil War, Confederate commander Robert Edward Lee decided to take advantage of the slowness and uncertainty of the federal commander in chief McClellan, dividing his army to strike from several sides at once. However, by pure chance, two Federation soldiers (Corporal Barton Mitchell and Sergeant John Bloss) found a lost copy of Special Order 191, which detailed General Lee's entire plan. General McClellan saw this as an opportunity to destroy the Confederate army piecemeal and ordered an immediate offensive. As a result of the Battle of Antietam, where the Union troops went to intercept, 22,000 people died, making it the bloodiest day in the history of the civil war. Despite superior numbers of units and knowledge of Lee's disposition, McClellan was unable to wipe out the Confederates, declaring a Union victory. Strategically, it was true - having lost 30% of its composition, the Northern Virginia army could no longer continue the Maryland campaign. However, tactically the battle ended in a draw. Operation Drumbeat In 1942, when Germany, thanks to its submarines, actually controlled the entire Atlantic, the United States decided to organize the supply of weapons to Europe. German submarines took advantage of the unpreparedness of the US Air Force and Navy for underwater defense, so almost every ship sent was sunk. As the commander-in-chief of the navy of Nazi Germany, Karl Dönitz, recalled, each submarine commander “had such an abundance of opportunities for attack that sometimes the crews had to ignore the ships.” Despite this, the American command decided to refuse escort, fearing a negative reaction from businessmen. This decision turned out to be a disaster for the United States: in just a few months, almost 50 ships sank. The British, worried about the hegemony of the Germans on the water, developed an anti-submarine defense doctrine for the States, thanks to which the Americans finally organized a convoy for their ships. Korean War deep into the peninsula. The command planned to overthrow the Pyongyang regime in order to control the entire Asian region. The PRC leadership has publicly stated that China will enter the war if any non-Korean military forces cross the 38th parallel. However, Truman did not believe in the possibility of large-scale Chinese intervention, for which he later paid the price. In November 1950, Chinese troops, supported by North Korean forces, stopped the American offensive. At the same time, the counterattack of the People's Liberation Army was so crushing that the United States of America risked losing all its units in the region. The war cost the lives of 33,742 American soldiers, another 92,134 were wounded and 80,000 were captured or missing. Disbandment of the army in Iraq the armed forces of the country. As a result, 400,000 Iraqi soldiers were retired. Many experts still call this decision the most idiotic in the history of military operations in the Middle East. The dissolution of the army led to the fact that thousands of servicemen armed with service weapons, in fact, became the fighting force of terrorist groups. And the educated self-defense forces of a free Iraq failed to destroy ISIS 1, which made the army a laughingstock in the region. The United States created its own enemy. American military failures undoubtedly had an impact on the strategic position of the country. Sometimes completely unpredictable decisions of the command cost the lives of thousands of soldiers. Although, given the fact that war is the best business, it is quite possible that these were deliberate operations. The material was prepared by Petr Arkhipov

1 The organization is prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation.