Datamining Afghan War Diary: Matching with media reports

[little grey rabbit]

sigh...if an assault goes in and the troops happen to have fixed bayonettes it hardly makes it a bayonette charge.

One of the versions was they ran out of ammunition and had to fix bayonets and charge. Alas, you know how hopeless Arabs are, even when the British had no ammo the Arabs were unable to hit even one of the collection of 007s that was bearing down on them

US warfare experts inspired by bayonet charge by British troops - Mirror

Warfare experts in the US are using a famous bayonet charge by British troops as an example of how to tackle insurgents.

They were inspired by the heroic assault by 20 members of the 16th Air Assault Brigade in Basra in May 2004.

A convoy was ambushed by more than 100 members of the notorious Shia militia, the Mahdi Army. When they started to run out of ammunition the Brits fixed bayonets and charged at the enemy positions screaming.

Many of the Iraqis fled the British onslaught, which left more than 20 dead.

Just a handful of British soldiers were wounded and the incident is now being hailed as a major triumph for shock tactics.

The Urban Warfare Analysis Center said: "The attack captured the element of surprise. Enemy fighters probably believed propaganda stating that coalition troops were cowards, unwilling to fight in close combat."

Blah, blah blah

 

[WildCat]

Yes, I'm aware of the story. In what way is it 'fictional', as you put it?

As far as I can tell, he's upset that medie stories don't read like after action reports, or the other way around. Hard to tell.

 

[Big Les]

Well one of those stories quotes what is virtually an after-action report, i.e. this.

 

[little grey rabbit]

It is written five years later and a classic example of garbage in/garbage out.

If you want to believe it fine, don't feel personally offended if others are more skeptical.

 

[little grey rabbit]

The British soldiers charged across 600 feet of open ground toward enemy trenches.6 They
engaged in intense hand-to-hand fighting with the militiamen. Despite being outnumbered and
lacking ammunition, the Argylls and Princess of Wales troops routed the enemy. The British
troops killed about 20 militiamen in the bayonet charge and between 28 and 35 overall. 7 Only
three British soldiers were injured.8 This incident marked the first time in 22 years that the
British Army used bayonets in action.

Does anyone seriously believe that 100 fighters in trenches are unable to hit ONE british soldier over a 200 meter charge?

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

Does anyone seriously believe that 100 fighters in trenches are unable to hit ONE british soldier over a 200 meter charge?

The portion you quoted states the enemy hit three of them.