Themes

Commander Iain Henderson on how the Royal Navy helped the United States with its amphibious knowledge. (RNM)

Transcript: “We had a very close working relationship any way, and they do appreciate our expertise and I know that Commodore Craig made invaluable contributions to their thinking. From what I gather the Americans did display a lot of naivety in their assumptions and the way in which they planned the odd sort of operation. And I think, certainly with the American amphibious forces - and of course we didn’t know – and it seemed that no one knew virtually - that there was going to be an amphibious assault on the Kuwaiti coast, or on Failaka Island, or not. But of course, the effect of at least having this force afloat was that it distracted, or drew, a number of Iraqi divisions onto the coastal strip in case there was an amphib attack. So, I mean it was a brilliant sort of poised, posture which stopped the enemy concentrating on part of the land campaign. But I think there were plans which were just – “send these amphibious ships straight into the Kuwaiti coast”, well, I mean, they all would have been sunk by mines. Certainly Commodore Craig intervened on a number of occasions to make other suggestions.”

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