by Richard Kemp
The two leaders walked out of earshot. Broomfield said, ‘He looks quite bad. Corporal Adlington reckons he was pretty much OK ten minutes ago and now he can’t even speak. I’m sure he’ll be fine if they keep working on him. What worries me is if he does get worse – I mean really bad – how the hell are we going to get him CASEVACed? We can’t even get out of this compound with everyone running and shooting. There’s no possibility at all of carrying a casualty.’
‘I agree. Absolutely no chance at all,’ said Browning.
Browning looked over at Hill, propped up by Muley, eyes rolling, very, very pale. His panting seemed to be getting louder and faster. ‘I think I’ll radio the sergeant major and see if we can get the doc to give us some advice. See if he can tell us how to make sure Hill doesn’t get any worse.’
Browning waited for a pause on the company command net then spoke into his PRC-355 radio. After a couple of minutes he got the medical officer on the radio. In a clipped message to minimize traffic on the extremely busy net that Aston was using to control the rest of the company, Browning rattled out Hill’s symptoms and the treatment he was being given.
The doctor said, ‘Keep giving him water. Soon he will stop shaking and he should start breathing normally. After that he will get his speech back. Let me know if this does not happen within two hours, especially if he doesn’t recover his normal breathing soon. And good luck. You’ve been doing the right thing so far. Out.’
Everything that the doctor said would happen did happen, almost precisely in the time and sequence he had predicted. After two hours, Hill was fully dressed and equipped, back on his feet and doing his job.
15
Carver’s plan had been to move A Company through the desert in the north, keeping roughly level with B Company in the Green Zone. A Company remained in their Vikings and moved forward without opposition, shadowing B Company as they fought slowly through Deh Adan Khan from compound to compound, resisted by the Taliban every step of the way.
Carver came up with a plan that he hoped might unlock the situation, allowing Aston to move through the Green Zone more rapidly. He knew the Taliban usually withdrew if they thought they were being outflanked and faced being cut off from behind. He discussed with Biddick on the battle group command net the idea that A Company would drive east, and feint into the Green Zone, well beyond B Company’s forward troops. A feint is a military term for a fake move. The idea was to create the impression that they were going to strike into the Green Zone, but they would actually stop short.
Carver hoped this might panic the enemy into retreating in front of B Company. It would potentially catch them in the open where they could be destroyed from the air. He had Apache attack helicopters waiting.
Biddick suggested an even more audacious plan. A Company’s objective for the next day was the Taliban stronghold of Habibollah Kalay, a village right on the edge of the Green Zone, around 1 kilometre north-east of B Company’s current position. He said, ‘I can attack and hold HBK today. There will be time to do it before last light if I move now. It will also create the impression that we are moving to cut off the Taliban. Two birds with one stone.’
Carver liked the idea, but there were issues to consider. HBK was assessed to be a significant Taliban stronghold. He had no doubt that A Company had the capability to clear the enemy out of the village.
But with B Company already embroiled in a tough fight, there was a risk that committing A Company to a potentially serious battle at the same time would stretch his limited resources very thin – especially air, mortars and artillery. And the day was drawing on. It would be dark in a couple of hours, and taking just part of the village then having to go firm at last light risked all sorts of nightmares as the Taliban attempted night infiltration attacks around the rat-runs of HBK. On the other hand, presenting the Taliban with a second concurrent threat could certainly unlock B Company’s battle. And keeping up the momentum now might well deny the enemy the chance to concentrate resources and do damage to the battle group the following day. It was a tough decision, which could have profound consequences either way. But taking tough decisions was the battle group commander’s job. Carver spoke to Biddick on the radio: ‘Attack Habibollah Kalay. Attack as soon as you can, but if you don’t secure the whole of the village by last light, be prepared to withdraw to the desert and go in again in the morning.’
Biddick had been keen to attack the Taliban, although his enthusiasm was tempered somewhat by A Company’s experience in Nowzad a week earlier. Seated in the front of his Viking, he acknowledged Carver’s orders and switched straight to the company net, ‘All stations, this is Zero Alpha. We will assault HBK. H-Hour not before 1530. O Group 1500 at callsign Two Two Alpha’s vehicle. Out.’
Kicking up clouds of dust, he drove forwards in the Viking to a position where he could overwatch Habibollah Kalay. He took out an air photo of the village and drew a schematic of his attack plan. The village sat in the desert, right on the edge of the Green Zone. A Company would move up from their current position to the south-west and assault from that direction. It was the best-covered approach.
Biddick motored back to the Company 2IC’s Vector, positioned beside a compound to the rear of the Red Fort. Captain Paul Steel, the 2IC, had assembled the commanders.
It took Biddick less than ten minutes to give orders – ‘Quick Battle Orders’ according to the book – for the company group attack, involving three rifle platoons, Fire Support Group Delta under Captain Ollie Ormiston, the Recce Platoon, snipers, engineers, air and indirect fire support. As he rattled through the plan, enemy mortar shells landed near by. A Company had been harassed by mortars and rockets all day, and were now inured to them. Biddick continued his orders without even acknowledging the blasts a few metres away.
He concluded, ‘H-Hour for the attack is confirmed as 1540 hours. If the fire support team can’t arrange fires for that time, then H-Hour might slip, but work on 1540 unless I tell you otherwise.’ He looked at his watch. ‘That gives you less than fifteen minutes to brief your men and get down to the FUP. I assume there are no questions. Good luck.’
Scrambling across the desert with maps and air photos in one hand and rifles in the other, the commanders and sergeants raced to rejoin their platoons. Fifteen minutes was just – but only just – long enough to do everything they needed for the attack. But they knew time was critical. They were also used to Biddick demanding the impossible and knew better than not to deliver it.
The Vikings moved across the desert to the debussing point, shielded from Habibollah Kalay by the high walls of what looked like an old fort. They were about 400 metres from the village.
It is too dangerous to move vehicles much closer to an urban or densely vegetated area without infantry on the ground, as they are vulnerable to RPG fire. One well-aimed missile could severely damage a Viking and injure or kill the men inside.
It was a relief for the A Company soldiers to get out of their Vikings. They had been sitting in them for most of the day, waiting to move forward. They had also been listening enviously all day on the company net to reports of B Company’s fighting and wanted some of the action for themselves.
Second Lieutenant Nick Denning’s 1 Platoon moved rapidly on foot to a vantage point 50 metres from the Green Zone. Their mission was to act as flank guard. They would protect 2 Platoon from fire out of the Green Zone as they broke into the village. Lieutenant Bjorn Roses’s 3 Platoon remained with the vehicles as company reserve, ready to react to enemy interfering with the attack, reinforce one of the other platoons or echelon through to exploit.
Lieutenant Graham Goodey led 2 Platoon into the attack. Corporal Niphit Sawasdee’s section, with their engineers, blew a gap in the perimeter wall with a half bar-mine. But as the platoon assaulted into the village, a heavy weight of machine-gun fire poured out of the Green Zone.
Major Biddick was up on the high ground to the west, with the FSG. Immediately identifying the enemy firing positions he blaste
d fire back with his SA80. Straight away, every GPMG and .50 cal machine-gun in the FSG, as well as Biddick’s Viking gunner, joined in, hosing the Taliban with bullets.
Led by Goodey’s 2 Platoon, A Company blasted their way through the village, compound by compound, attacking at state red. The place was deserted. The Taliban had all left. At first the troops saw no civilians. But when they got through towards the far side of the village, they found a group of locals sheltering inside one of the buildings.
Biddick ordered the company to switch to state green, assaulting into compounds without explosives or hand grenades to avoid causing civilian casualties.
Biddick had sent Colour Sergeant Al Thurston, Recce Platoon 2IC, with his four Scimitars, off to the west. Their job was classic recce work – monitor for enemy reinforcements moving in and warn the company. If possible they would cut them down with their machine-guns or Rarden cannons before they got anywhere near Habibollah Kalay. They were also there to cut off any Taliban who tried to escape from the besieged village. But in Biddick’s mind the most important part of his plan for the Recce Platoon was to draw enemy mortar and rocket fire on to their Scimitars and therefore away from the dismounted infantrymen. If handled properly the Scimitars, protected armoured vehicles capable of high mobility and fast movement, were far less vulnerable than infantry soldiers on their feet in the desert terrain. Biddick knew he was asking a lot of the Recce soldiers, but for him, emotion didn’t enter the equation. It was straight, logical military judgement, and it made absolute sense.
Thurston moved east across the desert, in front of the Green Zone. He then deployed on to a high point, covering the eastern side of Habibollah Kalay, able to observe across the top of the built-up area and down into the Green Zone. His four vehicles were joined by WMIKs from Ormiston’s FSG, redeployed after the initial break-in to HBK. Thurston was also joined for a time by the Recce Platoon commander, Captain Wilde, and by Sergeant Jamie Hill, in their two Scimitars. They were recceing the next position for Carver’s Tac HQ.
As Thurston looked across the Green Zone, he realized that Carver’s plan to induce an enemy withdrawal looked as if it was beginning to work. Expecting A Company to move south from Habibollah Kalay and drive into the rear of their fighting positions, the Taliban realized they would be caught in a trap between them and B Company’s relentless advance.
They could not escape to the south, or they would be cut down in the open by Goodman’s Viking machine-guns and the circling Apaches. Their route north across the desert was blocked by A Company’s Vikings, the Recce Platoon and two FSGs.
In front of Thurston, almost 2 kilometres away, was a wide gap in the trees – like a massive fire-break – extending across the entire width of the Green Zone. And in ones and twos, carrying AK47 assault rifles, PKM machine-guns and RPG-7 launchers, Taliban fighters began to move as fast as they could from right to left across the gap, exposing themselves to the guns of more than a dozen Royal Anglian vehicles.
The WMIKs opened up first with their heavy machine-guns, sweeping back and forth across the fire-break. Thurston was determined that his Scimitars would not let a single fighter escape. These men had been attacking B Company all day, and those who survived would continue trying to kill Royal Anglian soldiers and Afghan troops and would carry on terrorizing the local population.
Thurston knew that his Scimitars’ machine-guns, GPMGs adapted for an armoured turret and called L37s, were inaccurate at this range. An area weapon, the bullets would fall across a wide cone, known as the ‘beaten zone’. Running through the beaten zone, you might well die, but you could be lucky and survive. Luck didn’t come into it with the 30mm Rarden cannon, the Scimitar’s main armament. Or, more precisely, the Rarden combined with one of the most effective pieces of technology available to the Royal Anglians, the BGTI, or battle group thermal imager.
Thurston gave fire control orders to his Scimitar commanders, dividing up the ‘killing area’ between them to avoid overkill on any particular target and make sure all were hit. In Thurston’s line, commanding Iron Two Four, was Corporal Ash Hill, the NCO who had led B Company down to the FUP twelve hours earlier. Since then he had come close to death when an RPG missile fired at him from 70 metres whizzed just inches over his head. The other Scimitar in Hill’s section, Iron Two Four Alpha, commanded by Lance Corporal James Ryan, had killed the three-man Taliban group with its L37.
Hill had not had any sleep at all the night before, and had been on the go non-stop for thirty-five hours. Like the rest of the Recce soldiers, he was filthy dirty, covered in dust, grime and oil, unshaven and dripping sweat in the turret of his vehicle which, for all its gunnery technology, had no air conditioning and was hotter than any sauna. He told Lance Corporal David Cadman, his gunner, ‘We’re firing HE.’
Cadman flicked the gunner’s selector switch from coax to main armament. He peered into the BGTI’s monitor, squinting in the bright sunlight that poured through the vehicle’s open hatch above. The monitor resembled a small TV screen, with a green thermal picture. As soon as the first fighter entered Iron Two Four’s sector, Cadman illuminated him with the BGTI’s laser rangefinder. The ballistic aiming mark, a black dot, appeared over the fighter’s figure. Cadman knew that, at that range, you put the dot on the target, push the button and it hits. Every time. Or virtually every time.
The 30mm high-explosive shell blasted from Iron Two Four’s gun barrel towards the Taliban fighter at 1,070 metres per second. Less than two seconds after Cadman hit the firing button the shell exploded into the man’s body.
Over the next forty-five minutes, the Recce Platoon and the FSG killed at least thirty Taliban fighters who were retreating in the face of B Company’s advance and the feared threat from A Company.
Hill said, ‘You know, Cads, I almost feel sorry for them. They’ve got absolutely no chance out there.’
Then he thought about his close shave a few hours earlier and said, ‘Actually I don’t feel sorry for them at all. Any of this lot could take a pot shot at us tomorrow, and maybe we’d get more than the extra parting we got in our hair today courtesy of that RPG.’
16
By 1730 hours A Company had secured most of Habibollah Kalay and were reorganizing, preparing to move again if Carver gave them a new task. They had not encountered any enemy in the village, but nevertheless it had been hard work in the oppressive afternoon heat. Running from position to position with their heavy battle loads, diving through doorways and holes blasted through compound walls, moving fast, keeping low. And not knowing what was round any corner, they were also using up huge reserves of nervous energy.
As were B Company down in the Green Zone. In line with Aston’s plan, 5 and 7 Platoon continued their brutal clearance through the compounds of Deh Adan Khan towards 6 Platoon, leap-frogging from building to building.
Aston knew from the battle group command net, and from reports by his own platoons and the air, that many Taliban fighters started fleeing to the north-east soon after A Company entered HBK. He was determined that as many as possible would be killed as quickly as possible. He had learnt during the day that every extra second these resourceful and determined fighters were given would significantly increase their chances of survival. So he hatched a plan with his JTAC to deal with some of them up close to B Company’s forward troops.
Aston called the platoon commanders on the company net. ‘All stations, this is Zero Alpha. Apaches now on station overhead. I want to use them to mince as many Taliban as possible in the open. All callsigns to go firm now inside the compounds you are occupying. No further movement until ordered by me. One Zero, Two Zero and Three Zero, you are each to mark your positions with smoke, and keep that smoke coming until I order you to stop. The Apaches will hit any and all identified enemy not in locations marked by smoke.’
On Aston’s command the Apaches swooped over the Green Zone directly in front of his platoons, peppering all signs of enemy movement with devastating blasts of fire from their letha
l 30mm chain guns.
Once the attack helicopters had done their work, 5 and 7 Platoons continued to push forward towards 6 Platoon, without further resistance. Pouring sweat and exhausted after battling through the Green Zone all day, the platoons linked up. The 5 and 7 Platoon soldiers were jubilant that they had got through. Many of them had mates in 6 Platoon and they were all dreading the idea that the Taliban might move in and kill them.
Aston was also very relieved that his worst fears had not been realized, and as soon as the link-up had taken place and 6 Platoon resupplied with water and ammunition, he ordered the company to move forward again.
Earlier in the day Carver’s Tac HQ had come under accurate fire from Taliban 107mm rockets and had moved north-east through the desert. They were now positioned near the Red Fort. As A Company were completing their task in Hababollah Kalay, Brigadier Lorimer, commander of Task Force Helmand, arrived at Tac.
Lorimer confirmed to Carver that Task Force 1 Fury, an air assault battalion from the famous US 82nd Airborne Division, would be landing to the north that night. They would aim to engage the Taliban and prevent them moving south to interfere with the construction of permanent patrol bases, scheduled to begin as soon as the Royal Anglians reached their limit of exploitation. Carver briefed the Brigadier on the day’s most significant events, and his immediate intentions. Lorimer was impressed by the speed at which the Royal Anglian Battle Group had advanced through the Green Zone and the desert, which had significantly exceeded his expectations for Operation Silicon.
When Lorimer departed, Carver called Aston on the battle group command net. A Company had reached their limit of exploitation, a line on the map known as Report Line Purple, running north to south from the desert through the Green Zone and down to the battle group’s southern boundary. They had entered HBK and cleared most of it. With darkness not far off, Biddick decided to move the company 800 metres north, back out into the desert, to avoid the threat of Taliban infiltration in the compounds and alleyways of the village.