Timeline of the Battle of Mogadishu

October 3-4, 1993 Battle of Mogadishu timeline — as provided by the U.S. Army.

Main article: October 3, 1993 Battle of Mogadishu.

October 3, 1993

Afternoon.

1449 — Two principle targets, Habr Gidr clan leaders, spotted at a residence in central Mogadishu, Somalia.

1532 — Official force launch. The force launches: nineteen aircraft, twelve vehicles and 160 men.

1542 — Official assault beginning. 1st SOFD-D soldiers hit the target house. Four Ranger chalks rope in. One Ranger, Private Todd Blackburn, misses the rope and falls 70 feet to the street.

1547 — Large crowds of Somalis converging on the target area.

1558 — One of the vehicles, a five-ton truck, is hit and disabled by a rocket propelled grenade, several men are wounded.

1600 — Forces of armed Somalis converging on the target area from all over Mogadishu.

1602 — Targets acquired: assault force reports both clan leaders and about 21 others in custody. As the force prepares to pull out, three vehicles are detached to rush the wounded Private Blackburn back to the base.

1615 — Fighting and confusion delays loading the prisoners and pulling out.

1620 — First helicopter crash (Super 61): Black Hawk Super Six One is hit by a rocket propelled grenade and crashes five blocks northeast of the target.

1622 — Crowds of Somalis racing toward Super 61 crash site.

1626 — HUMVEE convoy starts moving. Prisoners loaded, the convoy and ground forces all begin moving toward the downed chopper. Black Hawk Super Six Four, piloted by Michael Durant, takes the downed chopper's place in orbit over the fight.

1628 — Search and rescure of Super 61: search and rescue team ropes in to assist the downed crew. Both pilot and copilot are dead.

1635 — Convoy gets lost: convoy makes a wrong turn and begins wandering lost through city streets, sustaining heavy casualties.

1640 — Second helicopter crash (Super 64): Mike Durant's Black Hawk, Super Six Four, is hit and crashes about a mile southwest of the target. Hostile crowds begin moving toward it.

1642 — Shughart and Gordon drop down to Super 64 crash's site: two snipers, Sergeants Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon, are inserted by helicopter to help protect the injured Durant and his crew.

1654 — HUMVEE convoy abandons Super 61 search: the lost convoy, with more than half of its force wounded or dead, abandons its search for the first downed Black Hawk and begins fighting its way back to the base.

1703 — Emergency convoy dispatched from Command and Control: a smaller, emergency convoy —Quick Reaction Force— is dispatched in an attempt to rescue the men stranded at Durant's crash site. It encounters immediate obstacles.

1734 — Emergency and HUMVEE convoy decide to return to base: both convoys, battered and bleeding, link up and abandon the effort to break through to Durant. The remainder of the ground force of Rangers and commandos are converging around the first crash site, sustaining many casualties. Ranger Corporal Jamie Smith is among those shot.

1740 — Shugart and Gordon killed: Somali crowds overrun Durant's crash site, killing Shughart, Gordon, and every member of the crew, except Durant, who is carried off by militia through the city.

1745 — Both convoys return to the base. Ninety-nine men remain trapped and surrounded in the city around the first downed Black Hawk, fighting for their lives. Corporal Smith bleeding heavily, medic requests immediate evacuation.

1908 — Black Hawk Super Six makes a daring re-supply run, dropping water, ammo and medical supplies to the trapped force. It is badly damaged, cannot land to evacuate Corporal Smith, limps back to base.

2027 — Ranger Corporal Jamie Smith dies.

2100 — Joint Task Force Command requests assistance from other commands: giant convoy, two companies of 10th Mt. Division troops along with the remainder of Task Force Ranger, Pakistani tanks and Malaysian armored vehicles, forms at Mogadishu's New Port, and begins planning the rescue.

2323 — The giant rescue convoy moves out, blazing into the city.

October 4, 1993

Early morning, Rangers are still trapped inside Mogadishu.

0155 — Rescue convoy reaches the trapped Ranger force. A second half of the convoy reaches the site of Durant's downed Black Hawk. There is no trace of the crew.

0300 — Forces still struggling to remove the pinned body of Cliff Wolcott, pilot of Super Six One.

0530 — Rangers start moving from the city to the Pakistani Stadium, on foot: Wolcott's body is finally recovered. Vehicles roll out of the city. Ranger force is left to run out of the city through gunfire, "The Mogadishu Mile".

0630 — The force returns to the Pakistani Stadium. Eighteen dead, 73 injured.