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| Afghanistan |
| The Battle of Washiran |
| 2010-11-27 |
| A day of heavy fighting left 25 insurgents dead in a former haven in northern Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand. The story of the Battle of Washiran can be told for the first time after soldiers described the assault. Surveillance first identified eight fighters readying their weapons for attack in a compound that was targetted by RAF Tornado with a 500lb satellite guided bomb. The Paras were then ordered to fight through the village but met with fierce enemy resistance and roads laced with hidden IEDs. Lt Sam Whitlam, commanding 5 Platoon, B Company, 3 Para, decided to outflank the Taliban fighters by moving a troop of Mastiff armoured vehicles through fields free of IEDs. By mid-afternoon a hole was punched in the first of four compound walls by engineers using an anti-tank mine. The 27 ton, six-wheeled Mastiffs punched through the gap the infantry followed behind immediately coming under heavy fire from machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.. L/Cpl Andrew Wiltshire, 25, one of the Paras in the advance described it like a scene from the wartime drama Band of Brothers. "The blokes were ducking down behind the Mastiffs with rounds coming in hitting the sides. We were trudging through fields trying to keep up with the vehicles with mud clogging our boots. You certainly got an idea what it was like for an infantryman to be following a tank while under fire in World War Two. Either you stay behind it or you get shot." With the Mastiffs ahead of him Lt Whitlam, 25, had to lead his men for 100 yard slog across an open field. As they got to a muddy patch in the middle a Taliban machine gun team opened up a short distance away to their left. "It was a nightmare, we were wading through mud up to our knees while putting rounds down on the enemy position," he said. Mortars dropped smoke grenades into the enemy bunker to "flush them out" and a few minutes later an American F15 jet screamed down making the first of three strafing runs landing cannon shells 50 yards from the soldiers. "The rounds were literally snapping over our heads," said Lt Whitlam. "But we are Para Reg so we went forward and finished the job." By 8pm, as darkness covered the picturesque landscape of irrigation ditches lined by trees, the soldiers had taken compounds that had been the enemy stronghold for months. Just two miles away Lt Col James Coates, the commanding officer of 3 Para, was in town of Naqilebad Kulay with a small force holding a shura meeting with local elders Well-trained and heavily armed Taliban withdraw from the village but were tracked by powerful aerial surveillance systems tracked them for an hour until two American A10 ground attack aircraft moved in. The aircraft made four passes sending 600 rounds into the Taliban leaving no survivors. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #6 When I saw the headline, I thought it was going to be an article about the ties between the administration and the Hamas front, CAIR. |
| Posted by: Throluger Lumumba2674 2010-11-27 13:56 |
| #5 It's the "well-trained and heavily armed" that's important. It means that it'll cost the Taliban and their sponsors money and especially time to replace their losses. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2010-11-27 13:52 |
| #4 gotta love Warthogs. I hope they didn't die too quickly to feel the fear and pain of Allah forsaking them....but I'm sure they did |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-11-27 12:14 |
| #3 Let's see. 600 rounds of 30mm equals, uh... 18,000mm! That's about 59 feet of ouchie! |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-11-27 11:58 |
| #2 four passes sending 600 rounds into the Taliban leaving no survivors. Don't you just love a story with a happy ending! |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-11-27 10:03 |
| #1 Well-trained and heavily armed Taliban withdraw from the village but were tracked by powerful aerial surveillance systems tracked them for an hour until two American A10 ground attack aircraft moved in. Died tired. Good. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-11-27 01:22 |