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Authors: Andy McNab
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whatever number you were given, you divide it
by three at least, because the Afghans do exaggerate just a
touch. The colonel wanted to know the true picture – the lie
of the land – so he sent some people down to see what was
actually going on. This was at the peak [of the 2006 Taliban
resistance] because the summer was a lot busier than the
winter months. It was hot, 60°C plus on some days. It was
horrendous. There was a captain in charge of us. Fourteen
headed down in four wagons, all WMIKs. Off we went for
what was supposed to be twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
But we came back ten days later because of different things
that were happening. We had to have resupplies down there.
We got mortared, shot at. We called in Apaches on different
targets that we had. We were literally one of the first patrols
to Garmsir. We were the 'Dirty Dozen', as we called ourselves.
We were there to sneak about and have a look and see
what was going on.
We were all senior men. There were a few warrant officers,
one colour sergeant, a couple of sergeants, two corporals, and
there were a couple of officers and we were just like: 'We're
too old for this. What are we doing?' We were just thrown
together.
During the drive down across the desert, we were trying to
keep out of the way of different villages. The drive took six
to eight hours. We took four vehicles from the Afghan
National Army with us. We were mentoring these people as
well, so we said we'd take them with us. So at night I would
put them in a harbour position, a good old-fashioned triangle
harbour position. We would be in a small triangle in the
middle and then we would stick them on the outside. One,
for protection, and two, to mentor them on what a harbour
position was all about. We slept in the wagons, or next to the
wagons in sleeping-bags.
On one of the very first nights, these lads came running up
to us with the interpreters, saying they'd seen someone in the
dead ground. And they wanted to go and investigate. We
used to take turns to stay up just for questions like this. So,
me and my mate said: 'Take five of you and don't go out any
further than you can still see us, and then come back.' And
this one bloke was notorious for being quite a switched-on
kiddie. He was younger. Whereas the others used to group in
the evenings and smoke, just like a Cub Scout evening, this
bloke actually did want to learn and he wanted to go places.
He disappeared and went a little bit further, then he went out
of sight. We were watching him through our night goggles
and he just disappeared. And I looked at my mate, Tommy,
and I was like: 'This is a mistake.' He'd gone. We'd lost him.
Then half an hour later he appeared about a K to the left –
we'd got our thermal imagery out – and walked back in. A
perfect patrol. I said: 'Where have you been?'
He said: 'I saw them [the Taliban]. I just wanted to follow
them: they scattered off this way. There were eight of them.
They were watching us.'
I said: 'You only went with five men.' So we gave him a bit
of a telling-off, and we said: 'Where was your map? Where's
your compass?'
He replied: 'I haven't used it.' And he had just walked out
a good two K in the desert, turned left, done a big box around
with no compass. His local knowledge and his whole background
of tribal warfare were amazing. So he came back in
and that was that.
Because we knew we were being probed and looked at, we
called in air. He [one of the pilots] said there were about eight
Taliban and we could see vehicles out on the horizon. There
was a B1 bomber in our area. We decided, for a show of force,
to ask him to drop a few flares. A show of force, that's all
we wanted. We gave them our grid so that they didn't
accidentally drop anything on it. But he dropped the flares all
over our harbour position. So now we were lit up at three in
the morning, like a circus. He'd got the grids back to front. So
we had to get up and move quickly because we had
completely given our position
by three at least, because the Afghans do exaggerate just a
touch. The colonel wanted to know the true picture – the lie
of the land – so he sent some people down to see what was
actually going on. This was at the peak [of the 2006 Taliban
resistance] because the summer was a lot busier than the
winter months. It was hot, 60°C plus on some days. It was
horrendous. There was a captain in charge of us. Fourteen
headed down in four wagons, all WMIKs. Off we went for
what was supposed to be twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
But we came back ten days later because of different things
that were happening. We had to have resupplies down there.
We got mortared, shot at. We called in Apaches on different
targets that we had. We were literally one of the first patrols
to Garmsir. We were the 'Dirty Dozen', as we called ourselves.
We were there to sneak about and have a look and see
what was going on.
We were all senior men. There were a few warrant officers,
one colour sergeant, a couple of sergeants, two corporals, and
there were a couple of officers and we were just like: 'We're
too old for this. What are we doing?' We were just thrown
together.
During the drive down across the desert, we were trying to
keep out of the way of different villages. The drive took six
to eight hours. We took four vehicles from the Afghan
National Army with us. We were mentoring these people as
well, so we said we'd take them with us. So at night I would
put them in a harbour position, a good old-fashioned triangle
harbour position. We would be in a small triangle in the
middle and then we would stick them on the outside. One,
for protection, and two, to mentor them on what a harbour
position was all about. We slept in the wagons, or next to the
wagons in sleeping-bags.
On one of the very first nights, these lads came running up
to us with the interpreters, saying they'd seen someone in the
dead ground. And they wanted to go and investigate. We
used to take turns to stay up just for questions like this. So,
me and my mate said: 'Take five of you and don't go out any
further than you can still see us, and then come back.' And
this one bloke was notorious for being quite a switched-on
kiddie. He was younger. Whereas the others used to group in
the evenings and smoke, just like a Cub Scout evening, this
bloke actually did want to learn and he wanted to go places.
He disappeared and went a little bit further, then he went out
of sight. We were watching him through our night goggles
and he just disappeared. And I looked at my mate, Tommy,
and I was like: 'This is a mistake.' He'd gone. We'd lost him.
Then half an hour later he appeared about a K to the left –
we'd got our thermal imagery out – and walked back in. A
perfect patrol. I said: 'Where have you been?'
He said: 'I saw them [the Taliban]. I just wanted to follow
them: they scattered off this way. There were eight of them.
They were watching us.'
I said: 'You only went with five men.' So we gave him a bit
of a telling-off, and we said: 'Where was your map? Where's
your compass?'
He replied: 'I haven't used it.' And he had just walked out
a good two K in the desert, turned left, done a big box around
with no compass. His local knowledge and his whole background
of tribal warfare were amazing. So he came back in
and that was that.
Because we knew we were being probed and looked at, we
called in air. He [one of the pilots] said there were about eight
Taliban and we could see vehicles out on the horizon. There
was a B1 bomber in our area. We decided, for a show of force,
to ask him to drop a few flares. A show of force, that's all
we wanted. We gave them our grid so that they didn't
accidentally drop anything on it. But he dropped the flares all
over our harbour position. So now we were lit up at three in
the morning, like a circus. He'd got the grids back to front. So
we had to get up and move quickly because we had
completely given our position
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