In this unbelievable video, a team of Dutch marines reclaims a German ship from the infamous Somali pirates.
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This was (apparently) expert and humane work on the part of the Dutch marines and—the root causes of piracy aside—it's great they were able to reclaim the ship.
But what should we think about footage like this? As Popular Science says, it's "not hard to imagine many more soldiers of the future equipped with cameras so that commanders can have multiple on-the-ground views of rapid response operations carried out in real-time." How much of that footage should the public see?
On the one hand, this video looks a lot like a first-person shooter. Wired's Alexis Madrigal finds that "deeply distrubing." And to the extent that footage like this might trivialize war, we should be careful with it.
At the same time, the more we know about what our armed forces are doing, the more we can do to keep tabs on them, and to appreciate the full moral costs of war and other armed conflicts. That seems really valuable. The Wikileaks video—distrubing though it was—forced a certain amount of accountability in a way no written report could have.
At any rate, it seems clear we will be exposed to more battlefield footage in the future. Perhaps the most important thing is to make sure we're not fooled about its veracity. There are cuts in the video above. Who knows what happened in the footage that's been excluded?
Can a Dutchman give me the jist of what they are saying please
When I watched it I couldnt help thinking if that was the SAS anti terror squad those guys with there hands up would of been shot... 0 survivors for the win pal
'Somalia April 5 2010: German trade ship Taipan is liberated from pirates by HMS Tromp
The boarding team's leader provides explanation for the footage made with a helmet cam during the action'
(boarding the Lynx)
Our team got the assignment to free the motor vessel taipan from the pirates.
There were 10 pirates on board, that had hijacked the vessel, and there were 15 crew members on board that were securely in the ship's safe room.
(inside the Lynx)
The sensor operator now throws the sling out of the helicopter; he will also support the people that slide down the sling.
I'm currently firing with the MAG to provide covering fire to ensure that the pirates that are on deck cannot fire at us.
To the right you can see HMS Tromp
(landing on the containers)
From this moment on covering fire is also provided from the containers' roofs for the people that still need to slide down
You can also see that the stacked containers provide quite some cover for us, so in case we need to change mags we can step aside and change them under cover, after which they can reopen fire at the bridge.
(moving starboard side)
From there on we went to the ship's aft and we went to the bridge to liberate the Taipan.
(screaming through window)
Having arrived there we first arrested 6 pirates that were under deck, we let them come out the window. The window was broken and there we saw people move that were addressed and we had 6 pirates come out, and we cuffed all 6 and secured them.
(pirate walking from aft)
At some point they heard voices from the aft by one of the team members to which they responded, they addressed them and then twice more pirates came around the corner. They were unarmed as well, we took them and cuffed them as well, and in the end we had 8 pirates from that deck.
(view of priate walking down stairs)
At this moment one of the pirates is ordered to come down, and he walks down while being watched by one of the team members, with his hands up, and as soon he's down he's taken and cuffed and in the end we had 10 pirates.
(bridge is shown)
We went up with three team members to the bridge, and through the bridge which we still had to clear since that was our main point. When he bridge was cleared we went down and searched the crew's accomodation for remaining pirates.
(accomodation is shown)
They had turned the accomodations upside down. Everywhere there were laptops on the floor, doors wee kicked in, there doors that had been shot through, doors they couldn't open. They made quite a mess during those 4 hours throughout the ship. There indeed were armed, they had dropped averything, and it varied from RPGs, RPG7s and AK47s to pistols
(team leader shown watching footage)
The German captain decided to open the doors, and he came out with his entire crew, and obviously they were very relieved. We gathered them at the ship's aft port side. There we briefed them all what had happened, how we had boarded. We received an applause, yes they were very happy to see us.
looks like some of the guys captured had already been taken by the Dutch previously but they couldnt find any country to prosecute them so they were released.
The london seige was different as they were terroists, Id imagine if they had put up much resistance they would have died too but as the Dutch are trained soldiers and not thugs with guns, they follow strict rules.
looks like some of the guys captured had already been taken by the Dutch previously but they couldnt find any country to prosecute them so they were released.
The london seige was different as they were terroists, Id imagine if they had put up much resistance they would have died too but as the Dutch are trained soldiers and not thugs with guns, they follow strict rules.
Tap, taaap ... Scum like that should be shot.
Thugs with guns??? give it a rest pal, these are trained nutters that do a job to keep everyone safe without expecting a thanks or any recognition...Whats the matter because most of them are scottish you dont like them you english scum??? lol
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