Murder hole. Aperture bored into a Compound wall just big enough to shoot through, thereby offering a sniper protection and concealment.
Naafi. Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes. Soldiers’ shop, café or bar on a base or in a barracks.
ND. Negligent discharge. The unintentional firing of a weapon by its user. This is a grave sin punishable by the loss of up to a month’s wages and one that can destroy a soldier’s reputation. Soldiers are terrified of being killed not by enemy fire but by the mistake or slackness of one of their own friends.
Net. The radio channel being used to communicate.
OC. Officer commanding. The officer in charge of any group of soldiers smaller than a battle group, such as a company or a platoon. The officer in charge of a battle group is known as the commanding officer.
O Group. See Orders Group.
OMLT. Operational mentoring and liaison team. Pronounced ‘omelette’. Small groups of British soldiers embedded with the ANA, responsible for the coordination of their operations with ISAF forces. A demanding and challenging role guaranteed to give excitement and plenty of action.
Op Bronze. Slang for trying to get a suntan. ‘I’m just deploying on Op Bronze’ meant one was off to sunbathe for a few hours.
Op Cat Flap. Escaping from a party without being detected.
Op Herrick. The code name of the British operation in Afghanistan. There was an iteration every six months: summer 2006 was Herrick 4, winter 2006/2007 Herrick 5 and so on.
Op Minimize. Procedure initiated in the event of a fatality or very serious injury and applied to all troops on Op Herrick. To ensure that the family of the victim discovered the news through official channels and not through rumour generated through emails or phone calls, all compassionate communication with the UK was suspended until the casualty’s family had been notified.
Ops room. Operations room. The place in battle group or squadron headquarters from where operations were run. In BGHQ this could contain up to twenty people, and was always teeming with activity. Only for a few hours at night would it ever be quiet.
Ops/Int. Operations and intelligence officers, both senior captains. The two closest advisers to a commanding officer, responsible for drafting his plans of attack and the picture of enemy forces respectively. Perhaps the two busiest people in BGHQ.
Opsec. Operational security. The attempt, often forlorn in Afghanistan, to keep details of operations secret.
Orders Group/O Group. Formal process following a rigorous format by which a plan is verbally delivered to soldiers to be acted upon.
Osprey. Body armour worn by UK soldiers in Afghanistan, replacing the earlier CBA. Two heavy ceramic plates one each on the chest and back.
PB. Patrol base. A base smaller than a FOB accommodating groups of soldiers ranging in size from a company down to a platoon. Anything smaller was usually designated a checkpoint.
PID. Positive identification. To identify someone not only as an enemy fighter but as one with the intent to attack friendly troops. Only once a target had been PID’d as being such could they be engaged.
Pink mist. The immediate aftermath of a head shot, when the brains and blood of the deceased spray out from the exit wound to create a fine mist.
POTL. Post-operational tour leave. Pronounced ‘pottle’. Leave after a tour to Afghanistan, lasting about five weeks.
PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder.
QRF. Quick reaction force. Group of soldiers kept in a FOB or PB on standby to help other troops already on the ground should they suddenly need help.
R & R. Rest and recreation. Two-week break in the middle of a tour when soldiers could return to the UK.
Rad Op. Radio operator.
Rarden. The main armament of a Scimitar, firing 30 mil shells either automatically or in single shots. An excellent weapon with great range and accuracy, in the hands of a skilled gunner it could hit targets up to three kilometres away.
Rear idler. Part of the running gear of the track on a CVR(T).
Rear party. Elements of a unit deployed overseas remaining in the UK for administrative functions.
Rebomb. To reload with ammunition.
REME. Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. The British Army’s experts on vehicles and technical equipment. In Afghanistan each squadron in an armoured regiment had about five of them attached, under the command of a Tiffy. They were the hardest worked of any squadron personnel; while everyone else slept they would be up repairing vehicles.
REMF. Rear-echelon motherfucker. Derogatory term for those not deployed on the ground.
RESA. Royal Engineer search adviser. Commander of a REST.
REST. Royal Engineer search team. The part of a Brimstone team tasked with sweeping an area for IEDs and marking them for the ATO to deal with. Close-knit and dedicated, RESTs were admired by every soldier they came in contact with.
RHQ. Regimental headquarters.
RPG. Rocket-propelled grenade. Fearsome if inaccurate weapon used by the Taliban.
RPK. 7.62 mm light machine gun from the Kalashnikov family of weapons. Used by the Taliban.
RSM. Regimental sergeant major. The senior non-commissioned officer in any regiment, who has served for at least eighteen years. Feared and respected by everyone.
RSOI. Reception, staging and onwards integration. Week-long period in Camp Bastion at the start of deployment to Afghanistan, allowing troops to acclimatize to the weather and environment, conduct exercises and learn final lessons before deploying on the ground.
SA80. Standard-issue rifle used by Britsh troops. With a magazine of thirty rounds it can be fired either in single-shot or fully automatic mode. If looked after and cleaned well, a fantastic weapon.
Samson. CVR(T) variant used by REME, equipped to rescue and repair damaged or broken-down vehicles.
Sangar. Fortified position in any base used to watch for enemy activity and to act as a main firing point. Protected with a mixture of Hesco and sandbags.
Schmoolie. Handheld rocket flare which, when fired, shoots about sixty metres into the sky, bursts and floats down on a parachute, brilliantly illuminating the surrounding area for thirty seconds or so. An excellent piece of equipment.
Schnell machen. German, meaning, ‘Move fast.’ A legacy from the British Army’s long Cold War association with Germany.
Scimitar. CVR(T) variant armed with a Rarden and GPMG, used for reconnaissance and fire support for dismounted infantry.
Scoff. Food.
Scrapping. Fighting.
Selly Oak. Hospital in Birmingham where casualties from Afghanistan were treated.
Shoot and scoot. Typical and effective Taliban tactic of engaging troops with small arms and then swiftly retreating from the area, often by motorbike, to avoid being decisively engaged.
SHQ. Squadron headquarters.
Sitrep. Situation report, usually delivered over the radio.
Slipper city. Slightly derogatory term for any area away from the fighting.
SQMS. Pronounced ‘squimce’. Squadron quartermaster sergeant. The second-highest NCO in a squadron and responsible for rations, water, fuel, etc.
SSM. Squadron sergeant major. Senior NCO in an armoured regiment squadron. Equivalent to a company sergeant major in the infantry.
Stag. Sentry duty.
Sultan. Command variant of the CVR(T) family, used by the squadron leader and the 2ic, equipped with powerful radios and map tables.
SVR. Support vehicle recovery. Large truck capable of lifting and removing damaged or destroyed vehicles from the battlefield.
TB. Taliban.
Terp. Interpreter.
Threebar. Sergeant. From the three chevrons that denote the rank.
Throw a track. On a tracked vehicle, to have a track come off its wheels (known as the running gear). Usually a disaster, as it requires at least an hour to shoehorn it back on. Also used to describe an outburst of anger.
Tiffy. Artificer. The soldier, usually a staff sergeant, in c
harge of a squadron’s REME detachment.
TTPs. Tactics, techniques and procedures.
UAV. Unmanned aerial vehicle. Drone, used to deliver ordnance or for surveillance.
Ugly. Callsign for an Apache helicopter.
Ulu. Slang for ‘jungle’ and broadened to mean ‘the field’. Amazingly, this is probably derived from the ancient Greek ule, meaning ‘forest’.
USMC. United States Marine Corps. By the time of Tom’s tour of Helmand, the USMC was about to surge into Helmand in force, relieving the pressure on the British.
Vallon. Metal detector issued to troops and the primary equipment for finding IEDs.
Vehicle docs. Vehicle documents. Each British Army vehicle has a plethora of documents that must be assiduously gone through and signed before it can be handed over to another individual or unit.
VP. Voice procedure. The correct way to talk on the radio, obeying certain conventions such as never using full names (see Zap number), not swearing, keeping messages accurate, brief and clear, only using the word ‘repeat’ when calling in artillery, and a host of other rules.
VP. Vulnerable point. Any obvious place to site an IED or mount an ambush, such as a bottleneck in a road or a doorway that troops would have to pass through.
Widow. Callsign for a FAC.
Zap number. The number used to make it easy to identify soldiers over the net without using their name, in an attempt to increase security and also to depersonalize injuries. Formed of the first two letters of a surname and the last four digits of a soldier’s army number. So, Tom Chamberlain’s Zap number (given that his army number is 25186816) would be CH6816, spoken as ‘Charlie Hotel Six Eight One Six’. This number was also written all over clothing to enable quick identification should a soldier be disfigured by a wound.
Zero. Term used on the radio to describe any commander. ‘Get me Zero’ is a request to speak to the senior commander on that net.
THE BEGINNING
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MICHAEL JOSEPH
UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia
India | New Zealand | South Africa
Michael Joseph is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
First published 2015
Copyright © Barney Campbell, 2015
Cover typography: www.headdesign.co.uk
Jacket photograph © shutterstock
The moral right of the author has been asserted
ISBN: 978-1-405-92120-6
Rain Page 32