Honourable Warriors by Streatfeild Richard;

Author:Streatfeild, Richard;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Modern / General
ISBN: 1822677
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Published: 2014-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

The FSG picked their way back through the minefield and I got a set of orders for the defining operation of the tour. Operation Ghartse Gahadme 4 or GG4 for short. Opening up route 611 to Sangin.

Chapter 10

The Road into Hel(mand)

In the headquarters above us the cogs were now whirring fast. GG4, as the operation became known, was simple in concept – open the road for uninhibited ISAF and local use – but difficult in practice. It was ground that we didn’t know, or not in the kind of detail to compete with our enemy. Halfway between Inkerman and Blenheim, just on the desert side of the road, lies a series of old Russian trenches. I don’t think the irony of being about to emplace two patrol bases either side of the Russian trenches was lost on anybody. Nor that we knew the local Taliban were playing ‘at home’.

The CO’s intent was to place three patrol bases about one kilometre apart between 2 Platoon in Blenheim and A Company in Inkerman. In order to achieve this I would need an extra platoon and so the Battlegroup took a platoon from C Company in Kajakai and gave it to A Company. 7 Platoon, commanded by Lieutenant Rob Fellows with Serjeant ‘Billy’ Bain as his 2IC, arrived. We got a bomb disposal team in at the same time. 1 and 3 Platoon would go to Sangin and make their way up a newly-cleared 611 under command of D Company 3 Rifles. They would be dropped off in Viking vehicles to compounds that had been identified either by recce or from a map, where they would stay and permanently picket the route. Once established they would then come back under my command.

Our part in all of this was to use 7 Platoon and the FSG to put in another patrol base at the far end of Sareagar on the 611. We would do this after we had taken in a large resupply of the stores required to fortify the compounds. We would also get more ammunition, helium and other essentials to be able to sustain the patrol bases without resupply for thirty days. That included thirty days’ worth of bottled water at six litres a day for each of the thirty-five men. If it was simple in concept the logistics were epic – 15,000 bottles of water was just the start. The combat logistics patrol bringing this stuff in from the south through the desert could only leave back down the 611. We did not have the troops to keep both routes open. So failure to open the route out, down the 611, was not an option.

Before all this got underway we needed to celebrate Christmas. It was the last time that the majority of the A Company group was going to be together. The previous resupply had brought our Christmas food six weeks early, so after a quick chat with the Company Sergeant Major and Ben, we decided that now was as good a time as any.

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