“Irene. I say again, Irene”

Most airsoft players will have seen the film Black Hawk Down. I love it, it’s a superb film and the actual event behind it is awe-inspiring. The loadouts of the US Rangers and Delta Force are iconic. And when an opportunity comes up to play a Gothic Serpent inspired event, you can’t say no. So, when Defiant Events in the UK decided to launch “Operation Irene”, I got together with a few good friends to give it a go.

First of all, I want to talk kit. There wasn’t much choice for a historically accurate kit – I’m a big fan of that Delta loadout so it absolutely had to be as close as I could get, but on a budget. Supported by my man Bubba, and using repro and surplus, I managed to hash together something pretty close. This is the one kit I’ve been wanting most since I started airsoft back in the 90’s and I wish I’d done it sooner, so the dream was achieved this summer. If you’ve been following my social media, I’ve been showing a lot of it as I’ve built it up from almost scratch – I only had the tricolour desert shirt and pants. I’ll do a more in-depth look at the loadout in a separate article.

But there we go. My life is complete.

For the event, though, the gang and I are placed into Ranger Chalk 3 with another team of three guys giving us 9 troops in total. I’ve never done a Defiant event before (none of us had) but the information and organisation in advance was spot on. We got a map, a list of all callsigns’ radio frequencies, order of battle (squad lists) and they set up WhatsApp groups for the teams and the event. It was very strictly events questions only, and mostly just referred people back to the website which meant we had to open other channels just for general chatter, but the information was all there in one form or another.

The site we’re playing at is a disused former Royal Air Force base in Driffield, Yorkshire. It’s one that I’ve been to before for sniper-related shenanigans but this is the first time playing an event. It’s huge, derelict, and plays superbly for airsoft – much better than throwing a load of players into a shopping mall for example. We arrive for the most part on Friday night ahead of a 10am start on Saturday. We’re told to drive behind an escort vehicle on arrival which guides us through the winding roads around the site and is reminiscent of the intro video to the original Modern Warfare. I get a lift with Bubba and we’re happily listening to Jump Around by House of Pain on arrival so it isn’t quite the same sombre vibe. The escort leads us to a set of garages that serves as the Task Force Ranger (TFR) base which was Mogadishu Airport in the real thing. After unloading the cars, everyone is asked to drive the cars out of the game area to another car park at the main site entrance, and the drivers are brought back on convoy vehicles. This is a really great touch to remove the cars from the site altogether. Convoy vehicles are needed because otherwise, it’s a very long walk!

The garages are split by chalk, so you have to set up camp with your teammates which is good and really helps with organisation the following morning when we’re all trying to gear up. On the Friday night we get beds up, and have a quick mess about with kit but it’s likely we’ll be up at 6am anyway which leaves us plenty of time in the morning for that sort of thing. Not like we’ve been spending months getting kit ready for it anyway…

It’s still quite warm in September which gives us a good night’s sleep, which is important because it’s a 24hr event where we’ll be playing, not sleeping, through the Saturday night. The first morning is filled with loading mags, adjusting straps and frantically trying to program radios. There’s no phone signal on site due to jamming (technically Ministry of Defence land and there’s an active facility next door) so there’s no card-payment-enabled shopping to be had, although pyro is available for cash – worth noting if you ever play here. Additionally, there’s no electricity or running water so be prepared and don’t forget anything important; but the site is absolutely worth a visit.

We get briefed on the mission, which we all know inside out and back again anyway, and the convoy is set up. Obviously, there’s no fleet of Black Hawk and Little Bird helicopters available so we’re in (off) road vehicles which perform the same function. A mix of military Snatch Land Rovers, off-road vehicles and an ambulance are available to drop us onto the first objective, but first we have to spend time practising getting in as a squad (in full kit, not as easy as you’d think), driving around the US base and then learning to quickly get out and set security. Vehicles with roof hatches were given support gunners to fire from the roof, simulating the heavier weapons on the helicopters in the real op. The convoy was essential throughout the game, with the armed vehicles being called in for gun runs and fire support, but more importantly, they would collect “dead” players from pre-arranged casualty collection points, drive them back to base and then deliver them as reinforcements back into the action, constantly looping around even in the dead of night which must have been a relief for the dead players to see! A big thank you to all the drivers for that. There’s a nice, relaxed and helpful atmosphere all morning from all staff and players which is great to see.

Once ready to go, Irene is called to get onto the target building at 12:31. The plan is to drop the four Ranger chalks as security around the building while Delta goes and blow doors up, breaches and secures prisoners for extraction. However, the vehicles end up dropping us all in a straight line together instead of on the corners, and so there is a lot of confusion over who is providing security where. Delta breach the wrong doors, but hey this is milsim and so you have to deal with the unexpected. It’s quite a difficult event to organise, as cool as it is, because there’s a story to follow and so the Task Force Ranger players are basically playing out “set pieces” throughout the event. Once the initial hostage rescue is done, and the first Black Hawk goes down, the event finds its rhythm as we move deeper into Mogadishu.

The enemy force of Somali Militia is limited in number to 25 invited volunteers. To simulate higher numbers, they’re given medic rules that allow them to drop back out of the action and then come back in again so that the action is relentless. I don’t know what other instructions are given but there are some great liberties taken with enemy hits and it’s a bone of contention with a lot of TFR players. Personally I had a situation where two enemy came to the top floor of a building, hands raised (as dead airsoft players do) to collect some gear they’d stashed, which is fine, only to keep a hand raised while picking up a gun and then engaging. I know there are a lot of after-action reports on social media praising absolutely everything about the event, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it when I know what the TFR guys were saying during the event, and that’d be me not reviewing honestly – the OpFor and their rules need a good look at before the next event. I understand it’s a numbers thing and they’re probably given licence to do whatever they want to “f*** TFR up” but some clarity on hits, respawn rules etc would have helped both sides.

Rather than waves of massed attacks, the combat is sporadic and largely limited at night to single enemy players quickly darting into buildings, causing a few casualties and then either being hit to try again, or disappear out of a window. It becomes apparent that quite a few have gone to bed early and the action stops for several very long hours. I stay awake to keep security on a stairwell with the Delta players still in the fight, and there’s a lot of sitting around but in that kind of derelict environment every creak and rustle, every real or imagined footstep is investigated which keeps TFR on high alert throughout the night, and despite the lack of contact is actually a lot of fun. If you come to a milsim, this is what it’s all about. Patrolling and securing – it’s not some high-speed shootout at your local indoor cqb room for 30 mins. Kit selection is vital here, and I’ll cover that in another blog soon.

The following morning, Opfor get up to finally hit the building we’re holding and they do take it, which starts a bit more contact and finally gives TFR a more sustained challenge. The action on the second day is more frequent, there are some good firefights as the final pilot extraction is complete and the convoy prepares to leave for one final time. Bubba and I know what’s coming – the “Mogadishu Mile”. In the real operation, Pakistani and Malaysian armour rescue US forces but with so many casualties, there’s not enough space to fit everyone in and a few US Rangers and Delta are forced to walk alongside the armoured vehicles but with fire still raining down, they are soon left behind to run a mile back to safety on foot, pursued by the militia. Although there are seats in the convoy, we run it out all the way back to the Airport to end the game. Somebody videoed it apparently so I’ll have to try and hunt that down.

It’s been a brilliant weekend, and despite the issues with the Somalis, we’ve all enjoyed it. Defiant did this event really well, it was a good milsim regardless of the theme, and Driffield is an amazing site to host any event. I can’t wait to get back for some more events soon, and we’ll be building a team up to do more milsims (if anyone in the UK is interested, send me a message). The experience has been excellent and I really recommend getting onto a Defiant event if you can. I’d love to see how they go with a Greens vs Tans “RAID” event later this autumn, with more balanced teams and a bit of freedom to play the site a bit more.

Nice one guys, thank you to all who attended.