Chapter 4

We all went into the canteen and filled our travel mugs, the Yanks had great coffee. Then we went to the armoury and grabbed cases of rounds and some more spare magazines.

Ship also told us to take more grenades. The Armour suggested if we needed some firepower that we take some M72 LAW Rocket Launchers. These are light, one-use-only rocket launcher that is highly effective against soft-skinned vehicles and light armour, up to a range of around two hundred meters. It would also be good if the Taliban had machine gun nests or we need to take out mortar teams.

Ship said we should take one each. Weighing just 2.5kg they would not slow us down too much. They would be strapped onto the back of our Bergans.

We headed back to our tent and got our kit together. We filled our water bottles and put more ration packs into our Bergans. I made sure I had a first aid kit; Band-Aid was the brick medic but it did not hurt taking a bit of extra kit.

Then we sat on the deckchairs and loaded mags, all SAS troopers preferred to load their own mags, and then they knew that the job had been done well.

We all made sure we had plenty. We heard the choppers; they were half an hour later than expected and they landed the Intel Major came over to give us a heads-up.

“Right lads, latest info,” he said a grim look on his face,” the Yanks are worried about sending in aircraft, and Paras are taking a real hammering!”

“So, I guess we need to get on the ground ASAP!” Sacka chipped in.

“Yes ... that’s the idea, quick sharpish” The Major replied. It is funny how the guys who never saw the front line were always eager to send troops up to the coal face.

“Right, lads are we ready?” Ship asked.

“Yes Boss” we all replied. We grabbed our Bergans and weapons.

As we all jogged over to the helipad, we saw Taff and his team coming over. They all looked up for it and were ready for action.

We all fist-bumped and wished each other the best of luck before boarding the choppers.

The British Intel major waved us off. The choppers flew with each other for an hour then the pilots broke away, we went one way and the chopper carrying Taff and his lads went the other.

We flew on for another half an hour.

The chopper’s gunners looked very wary as the pilot dropped toward the ground. They were wearing NVGs as they scanned the desert. We heard one of the gunners shout out.

“Two minutes lads!”

We started to get ready to go into action, checked our NVGs, and slapped our mags to make sure they were well seated.

It was a dark night, the gunners were scanning the ground, their gun barrels always moving. If anything, or anyone moved below us they would be in series trouble.

“One Minute” The gunner shouted.

We edged closer to the doors, two on either side.

“Go GO Go” the gunner shouted.

We jumped into the darkness; we must have been less than two feet off the ground. We fanned out making a defensive circle. We heard thumps behind us as one of the crew threw out our Bergans.

The roar of the helicopter filled our ears and we were covered with dust as its rotor blades picked up speed and slid off into the night. The silence was deafening.

We stayed in our defensive positions for half an hour, looking, watching, and listening. Ship broke the silence.

“Right Guys let’s make a move” he said into our earpieces.

We all picked up our Bergans, mine had my sniper rifle in its carry case and the M72 LAW Rocket Launchers strapped to the back.

We all had the coordinates loaded into the GPS units on our wrists. I took a swig of water and then got my Bergan onto my shoulders.

“Right lads, I will lead, then Rosie, then Band-Aid, then Sacka” Ship said into our ears.

“Roger that” we all replied.

Then ship led us out of our little base. We made good time; we knew that the faster we got into the fight the more Paras lives would be saved. We could TAB at a fair rate, in the Paras you have to pass a fitness test, and marching with full kit is part of that. In the SAS we were trained to work harder and to TAB faster, even with our full Bergans we could knock off a ten-minute mile, terrain permitting.

The noise of the battle was obvious after just twenty minutes of walking.

We had been walking for forty minutes when Ship stopped and used a hand signal to get us all to take cover. By my reconning, we were on the left-hand flank of the battle.

“Two mortar teams are setting up around fifty yards up the track” we heard him whisper into our earpieces.

We had already started to take off our Bergans and get ready to go into battle. I had my Ultra Compact Individual Weapon (UCIW) ready. I checked my belt kit. I had six spare Mags, two grenades and two flashbangs as well as my first aid kit.

I also had my Glock and my knife.

“Right, Sacka you and Rosie go to the right and Band-Aid and I will go left!” Ship said, “I will give you the word when we are ready to go in!”

Sacka and I worked our way toward a stand of rocks, then edged around them and onwards toward the Mortar crews. We could see them using our NVGs, there were around ten men at each of the mortars. There was a truck about ten yards to the left of them but there did not seem anyone with it. We got into our firing positions. I made sure that my Ultra Compact Individual Weapon (UCIW) was set to semi-automatic.

We waited until Ship and Band-Aid got into position. We kept our heads down but to be fair the Taliban soldiers setting up the mortars were so busy they would not have seen us.

“Right, lads on my three” Ship said into our earpieces.

He started to count and has he got to three rounds barked from our weapons. We were all trained to use three-round bursts no matter what weapon we were using.

My first burst took out a man who was standing guard, he had an AK47 in his hand, my first round hit him in the chest, and the next two smashed his head. Before the man had hit the ground I had fired at my next target, all three rounds crashed into his torso. He was dead before he hit the ground.

Switching to my next target I put three rounds into his chest, my next target was picking an RPG up off the ground, he was dead before he hit the ground, three rounds to his torso.

I aimed at a stand of men who were grouped up around one of the mortar tubes. I fired a few three-round bursts at them as did Sacka. We killed around five of them before the rest of them took cover.