Storming with Norman

Fighting the 1991 Gulf War as a Detachment Commander

Jeremy John Witts, Les Hendry

• Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781911714774
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

Personal recollections detail RAF Tornado operations during the 1991 air campaign, highlighting frontline experiences, leadership challenges, and the arduous realities of low?level strike missions over desert environments.

Since 1991, many books have been written about the Gulf War. Most have dealt with the politics of the situation and many have covered the now famous ‘100-Hour’ land campaign. Despite it lasting ten times longer, few books have concentrated on the enabling air campaign, and none have dealt entirely satisfactorily with the Royal Air Force’s part in it. This book will go some way to redress the situation. By no means a definitive history of the 1991 air war, it is a gathering of personal recollections from one of the many unit commanders involved. Lacking the benefits of hindsight, it is an honest attempt to ‘tell it how it was’ and the words used and views expressed are entirely the author’s own and those of his subordinates.

As clocks in London heralded the 17th January 1991, he and his two fellow Tornado GR1 detachment commanders found themselves at the head of their respective formations, flying in total darkness, at high speed and very low level on their way to attack enemy airfields. Apart from it being their first wave of the main air war, given their extensive training in the low-level strike/attack role in North West Europe, there should have been nothing particularly remarkable about this, except that:

they were about to drop a type of weapon that they had never dropped before
• they were flying faster and lower than had ever been permitted in training
• unless their nav kits were completely up the creek, they were flying over a desert, far outside the NATO area, and well and truly east of Suez

Jerry died in 2020 from a debilitating neurological disease and this book was left unfinished. Several of his friends involved in the conflict have decided to complete it for him as a legacy to honour his outstanding leadership of 31 Squadron and particularly his wider command responsibilities during the Gulf War.

Jerry was the officer commanding 31 Squadron, a Tornado GR1 unit based at RAF Brüggen,West Germany and was the GR1/1A detachment commander based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War with aircrew, groundcrew and aircraft from seven Tornado squadrons. Les was his senior engineering officer.

Table of contents

• Cover
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• PROLOGUE
• Chapter I - THE STORM IS COMING
• Chapter II - A NEW BASE: KAAB DHAHRAN
• Chapter III - OFFENSIVE COUNTER-AIR
• Chapter IV - MOVE TO MEDIUM LEVEL
• Chapter V - ASSISTED PRECISION: THE MOVE TO LASER DESIGNATION
• Chapter VI - HOMEWARD BOUND: JOB DONE
• Chapter VII - DAILY STAR AWARDS
• Chapter VIII - A FINAL VIEW BY LES
• Chapter IX - AFTER THE WAR
• EPILOGUE
• APPENDIX A - DIARY OF EVENTS AFFECTING DHAHRAN DETACHMENT
• APPENDIX B - TYPICAL TORNADO SQUADRON ORGANISATION 1991
• APPENDIX C - DHAHRAN RAF DETACHMENT ORGANISATION
• APPENDIX D - GLOSSARY OF TERMS (AS AT 1991)
• APPENDIX E - AIRCREW INVOLVED
• APPENDIX F - DHAHRAN HONOURS AND AWARDS
• APPENDIX G - DHAHRAN TORNADO GR AIRCRAFT STATISTICS
• INDEX