NAVY NEWS, FEBRUARY 2009 21
Stinging in
the rain
I
T began by night. By to the hub of British operations
barrels during the attack); Allied Commando Reconnaissance men worked in mud up to their
helicopter.
in Helmand, Camp Bastion.
mortars and missiles joined in Force – were determined to knees, usually under enemy fire;
It continued by day. On foot.
Sond Chara opened with
the hellish concert. secure part of the town so the Taleban weren’t too chuffed ● (Above) The essence of war
By helicopter. In armour.
a helicopter assault by 42
The firepower engineers could set up that compounds they had once in Helmand... Men of Whiskey
It ended on Christmas
Commando to the south of the
had the desired forward bases from held were now being turned into Company, 45 Commando,
morning. By helicopter. On foot.
city, and a weapons stash/drugs
effect. The which Allied troops Allied bastions. make their way back to Forward
And when it was all over an
factory in the Nawa district
Taleban, one could conduct their With the engineers striving Operating Base Jackson at
area the size of Glasgow had
which fell into the green berets’
Danish officer patrols. to build up the two bases, 42 Sangin in the fading light after
hands.
observed, “were Nad E’Ali had Commando’s Lima Company a particularly arduous fi ve-
been wrested from the hands of
Stealth saves lives – on both
dealt a stinging – the number of been, if not a Taleban struck to ensure the Taleban hour patrol. Winter rain turned
the Taleban.
sides. Not a shot was fired by
defeat”. stronghold, then would not return. ploughed fi elds into mud baths.
3 Commando Brigade
After the
tank shells fired
the 42 men during the raid which
certainly a district As dawn began to cast light 45’s offi cial cameraman LA
launched one of its largest
caught the enemy “on the hop”.
battle, a pause. during the battle rarely visited on the town that Thursday (Phot) Nick Tryon accompanied
and most concerted attacks
As 42 were taking stock of
For three days, by Allied forces morning, Lima and Afghan the patrol and “almost didn’t
since the invasion of Iraq when
the Allied
of Nad E’Ali
their haul – a number of home-
during their soldiers were striking at known take” this picture so exhausted
it unleashed the two-week-
forces halted seven years in insurgent routes between the was he lugging his kit around.
long Operation Sond Chara
made bombs and ‘wet opium’
operations out of respect for the Afghanistan. two fledgling fortifications. “Glad I did, though,” he says.
against unsurgents in southern
worth around £2m – eight miles
Muslim festival of Eid. With winter set in, conditions And a stone’s throw to the “In my mind it summed up the
Helmand.
to the north-west of Lashkar
With the religious celebration at times resembled the west an eclectic Anglo-Afghan mood out here for the men of
More than 1,500 troops – Gah, Danish armour was rolling
passed, Sond Chara resumed in Somme or Flanders more than force pushed into another one- 45 Commando.”
Britons supported by Danes, through the desert and into the
earnest. 21st-Century Afghanistan. time Taleban stronghold, Shin
Estonians and Afghans, Nad E’Ali district.
The air and armoured assaults Heavy rain turned the dirt and Kalay. ● (Below) Members of the
bolstered by Danish Leopard The Leopard tanks were had merely been the prelude. dust to mud, the tracks became Proof that the 11,000-strong Commando Logistic Regiment
tanks – were committed to the engaged by Taleban rocket- The main offensive began quagmires. local populace was delighted work on their vehicles under the
offensive whose codename is propelled grenades, machine- in the dark of December 11 Two forward bases were built to cast off the fundamentalists’ blanket of night
Pashtu for ‘red dagger’, the guns and, in the latter stages with a combined air and ground by the sappers of 59 Commando yoke was immediate; Shin
brigade’s legendary insignia. of the fighting, 107mm rockets assault, again at Nad E’Ali. Royal Engineers – the marines’ Kalay’s inhabitants raised green
The emphasis of the entire – none of which was a match This time the marines – Kilo dedicated engineer unit – in flags of celebration all over
operation was the region for the Danish tanks’ 120mm Company, 42 Commando (aka grim conditions. The rain at town.
surrounding Lashkar Gah, home main guns (31 shells left the The Black Knights) and the time was torrential and the Continued overleafmarina
0021-023_NN_Feb.indd 121-023_NN_Feb.indd 1 221/1/09 15:01:091/1/09 15:01:09
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