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NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2008
● 3 Troop, Whiskey Company, 45
Commando, rest at their base in START as you mean to go on. While the Commando Reconnaissance The ultimate goal is, of course, to bring
Sangin after their fi rst patrol The very day the men of 42 Commando Force and Afghan troops seized a knife-edge stability to a country which hasn’t known
were declared ‘operational’ amid the heat
ridge which dominated the landscape before peace for three decades.
and dust of Afghanistan they were rolling into
moving in on the enemy HQ, helicopters To that end, the battle group can strike at
action against the Taleban in the insurgents’
ferried Kilo Company – The Black Knights Taleban ‘safe havens’, provide a reassuring
one-time stronghold.
– into the edge of the village of Nakonay, presence during voter registration for
A column kicked up huge clouds of
which was captured after a impending elections, and deliver
sand as drivers using night vision goggles
series of fire-fights with the humanitarian aid before the
steered the armoured vehicles through the
foe. Afghan winter sets in.
south-western suburbs of Kandahar.
For the next five days “Such is the geographic range
Overhead helicopters served as the
there were sporadic clashes of our area that we may well be
‘eyes in the sky’ for Lima Company and
with the Taleban, but the the first International Security
a small group of Afghan National Army
combination of the marines’ Assistance Force personnel
troops.
firepower and strikes people have encountered – in
The aim: to patrol an area of
from Apache gunships fact, this has already proven to be
Kandahar – once the capital of the
finally brought an end the case,” said Lt Burlingham.
Taleban’s empire – and upset the
to the fighting around 42 Commando’s operations in
insurgents who were using the cloak
Nakonay. Kandahar are distinct from the
of the religious periods of Ramadan
The net result: a rest of 3 Commando Brigade,
and Eid to hide their activities.
vast haul of ammunition which has now taken over
The commandos found a weary and
(subsequently blown up command of British forces in
downtrodden populace eager to shake off
by Canadian engineers), Helmand from 16 Air Assault
the Taleban yoke.
equipment, bomb-making kit, Brigade.
And that’s something they might do
plus reams of intelligence gathered for It is 18 months since the brigade was in
thanks to a ‘surge’ into a nearby stronghold
future operations. charge of Task Force Helmand.
held by the fundamentalists.
The battle done, Canadian armour That six-month tour of duty was hailed
After the initial foray into the suburbs
ploughed a new road home to Kandahar by General Sir Richard Dannatt – the Chief
of Kandahar, a combined Anglo-Afghan-
airfield for the ground troops; the Black of the General Staff – as “among the finest
Canadian operation – codename Aray –
Knights clambered back into their aircraft. pieces of soldiering I have ever seen”.
struck in force in a six-day clash which
“Kandahar airfield is best described as Eighteen months down the line, the
threw the enemy off balance.
a multi-national zoo,” explained Lt Alex commandos have a lot to live up to.
Aray began with 42 Cdo and 3rd Battalion
Burlingham, “populated by all manner The important thing, says Brig Gordon
Royal Canadian Regiment approaching
of nationalities, headquarters and Messenger, 3 Cdo Bde’s Commanding
a suspected Taleban staging post and
capabilities.” Officer, is to “continue the momentum”
headquarters south-west of Kandahar.
42 form one element of the Regional created by the British Army’s operations
The Anglo-Canadians overcame the
Battle Group (South), a force with a mission – the most high-profile of which was the
enemy’s screening force – which prompted
as broad as its battlefield: it stretches across successful delivery of a turbine to the power
the main Taleban units to show their hand,
southern Afghanistan from the borders with station at the Kajaki dam.
and present targets for Allied airpower.
Pakistan to those of Iran. “The sterling work by 16 Air Assault
● Two DROPs trucks throw up clouds of dust as they race across the steppe at
sunset and (left) Kilo Company, 45 Commando, head off on patrol
014-015-NN_Nov.indd 1 20/10/08 17:45:20
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