The Battle of Mogadishu: Black Hawk Down

Early October 1993, as Americans went about their daily business, many were stunned to hear of the dramatic events that had taken place thousands of miles away in the impoverished, war-torn country of Somalia involving their own troops in a city few of them had ever heard of. Fought on the streets of the Somali capital, the Battle of Mogadishu, as American history books refer to it, took place on the afternoon of October 3rd 1993, through the night and into the next morning. For American forces, it would prove one of the most intense urban battles since the Vietnam War two decades earlier. Consequently, they suffered more dead and wounded in a matter of hours than in recent years of operations combined, culminating in the shootdown of two US Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters. 

Yet, despite these factors, the battle itself is considered a tactical success for the US forces involved, for despite daunting odds, political restrictions in the planning stage, and unforeseen mishaps, a force of less than 100 US troops held off more than 10 times their own number of heavily armed hostiles who poured streams of bullets and rocket-propelled grenades at their positions in an intense, coordinated ambush. In today’s episode, we will examine the events leading up to the battle, the battle itself and the fallout from the whole affair, known around the world as the Black Hawk Down Incident.

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