Letter from Afghanistan
Subject: Update in Afghanistan
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:39:39 +0000
I thought that I would send another update for you everyone. So here it is
Over the past month and a bit, I was deployed with my troop to an area in
the Northern area of Kandahar Province, near the Kakriz District Centre. We
initially deployed there with two teams of American Special Forces and two
companies of Afghan National Army with their American training cadre. The
operation was called Operation Adalat and its purpose was to disrupt Taliban
activity near an area called the belly button. The belly button was a round
out crop of mountains approximately 20 Km in diameter with several passes
through them. It was a main supply route for the Taliban bringing fighters
and equipment south to Kandahar and Helmand areas. The Americans requested
our guns because of the good showing we had made earlier in Helmand area
when we had fired in support of their operations there. Right now we have
the largest calibre guns in theatre and everyone wants them.
We deployed on the 2nd of June and arrived at our fire base on the third.
Immediately we began construction of shell scrapes for protection, which we
eventually developed into Hesco Bastion walled bunkers with walls 2 m deep
by 1.5m thick. Each gun detachment had a bunker as well as the command
bunker. We Canadians dug like fiends for the first week making the positions
as safe as possible. The Americans thought we were crazy. Their defences
were significantly less developed. During the first few days we were
rocketed and mortared many times. The Talban hit us with 81mm mortar fire
and 107mm rockets. The Americans are brave and smart but they joined us in
the bunkers when they could. We eventually silenced all of Taliban mortars
and rocket firing positions with counter battery fire from our guns pounding
them daily with high explosive and airburst fires. I give the gunners full
credit as they stood by their guns while taking mortar fire, loading and
firing for all they were worth. Bravery like that is seldom witnessed. We
also supported the American Special Forces to the extreme North West of us
when they were ambushed numerous times by the Taliban. The targets were so
far away that we had to use rocket assist projectiles to achieve the range
required. My troop set the distance record of 30 067m for the Canadian
artillery with 155mm guns shooting 67m farther than the round is rated for.
By day six we had more or less silenced their mortars and rockets, so the
Taliban tried to attack our Southern flank with small arms and RPG fire. The
attack lasted only a few minutes as the Americans and ANA poured so much
fire down upon the Taliban that our observer had to mark the mortar targets
with smoke in order to determine which explosions were our mortars and which
were those of the American grenade launchers. The Taliban drove away so fast
that we could see their trucks jumping over the wadis. Over the span of the
first two weeks, we shot many missions in support of the Americans clearing
the area around us and continuing to ensure that the Taliban did not try to
reoccupy their firing positions in the mountains to our north. We monitored
the Taliban communications and used there chatter against them. Quite often
using the chatter to pick or adjust our artillery fire. The Taliban always
collect their dead, this was a terrible disadvantage to them as we would
quite often engage their clean up teams. On one of the clearing patrols the
Americans went up into the mountains to check on the suspected firing
positions. They found clothing and bandages all covered in blood along with
a lot of shrapnel from us firing. While clearing the area the Americans
found a daisy chain of mortar bombs all linked together designed to blow up
anyone exploiting the Taliban hide out. The Taliban booby trap everything
they can. The American Special Forces are fortunately trained to look for
traps. It is amazing to listen to them on the radio and watch them operate.
The next day after the Special Forces came down from the rocket positions,
an American armoured HUMVEE hit a large IED. The HUMVEE was torn in half and
all four occupants were killed. The Special Forces immediately spotted the
Taliban spotters and ambush squad and our guns once again rained steel and
havoc upon the Taliban Forces. The Americans had become our friends while at
the fire base and the gunners put an extra effort into engaging the enemy.
The enemy was completely suppressed if not destroyed. It was a sad day for a
lot of families both American and Taliban.
With the high rates of fire, the resupply of our troop became a priority.
The first resupply convoy send to our position hit an IED and was ambushed
killing one soldier. The convoy never made it to us and now we were cut off
from ground resupply. Helicopters are a premium here and we found that ammo
was the only thing making it to us. We received two ammo resupply by Chinook
helicopters which arrived just in time. We went 28 days without food or
water resupply and it started to get tight near the end. We also recieved 5
CDS drops from C130 Hercules aircraft. They would fly over and drop fuel
resupply to our positon. The tanks which later joined our operation required
10000 L of fuel every three days. We hated these CDS drops because we would
be out all night picking up these packages with our trucks and cranes. We
were happy though for the fuel.
As we approached the final phase of the operation, two troops of tanks and
an infantry LAV company joined us. The armoured echelon brought us another
much needed ammo resupply of rocket assist projectiles and more importantly
shitter bags and toilet paper. The final assault on the belly button had
four American special forces teams, two troops of tanks, an infantry LAV
company, two companies of ANA and the engineering assets to go along with
it. The attack was divided into three prongs with the tanks, the LAV
company, one Special Forces team and one ANA company in one force. One
Special Forces team, an ANA company in the second force and finally one
Special Forces team in the North as a blocking element. The tank companies
plowed new roads everywhere they went in order to stop IED attacks. This
proved most successful as they were traveling in a highly mined area and no
one hit an IED. In preparation for the attack the forward observers for both
the Canadians and the JTAC for the Americans produce over 80 predetermined
targets which we spent all night producing data and target traces for.
Day one of the push saw the most firing from our guns. Immediately off the
start point, we engaged Taliban observation positions. We shattered their
position with impact and air burst ammunition. A recce element determined
that we had killed four Taliban, destroyed an RPG team and they recovered a
radio from the position. This was probably a higher level Taliban observer
given the resources and protection he had. The Taliban were now blind to the
movements of the columns as it approached. The only serious resistance that
was met came near the middle of day one when escaping Taliban forces ran
into the blocking forces in the North. Again our guns engaged and for the
first time the forward observers called off the Combat Air Support in favour
of quick and devastating response from the guns. The guns also provided more
of a devastating moral impact on the Taliban as we are fast to respond day
and night, and our presence is obvious to everyone in a 30 Km radius because
of how loud they are. Each time we fire we could here multiple Taliban
calling each other on the radio to make sure each was ok. Sometimes our
target results were obvious when fighters did not respond to repeated calls
from their commanders. Even if we were not engaging a particular Taliban
operating cell, they would run for cover just in case.
The operation came to the end of day one with all of the coalition forces in
their expected positions. Resistance was lighter than expected and the tanks
made quite a impression firing and moving keeping the Taliban on the run.
Both columns legered up for the night close to the main objective of the
operation which was a suspected Taliban strong hold near the centre of the
belly button. The next morning at 0400 the operation restarted with both
columns pushing north with the tanks hitting the main objective. Not
surprisingly during the advance, no Taliban resistance or fighters were
found at the village strong hold. The town was mostly deserted and all that
was left were "farmers" tending their fields. Conveniently they were all
fighting aged male farmers though with no females to be found. The village
was searched and many obvious Taliban facilities were destroyed. The second
column to the East had tough going as the ground was canalizing to the
existing roads and the column was forced to use dismounted patrols in the
front of the convoy to search for IED's. Several observation points were
engaged with heavy machine gun and rocket fire as the column inched forward.
The guns could not be used because of the proximity of the two columns. At
the end of day two the armoured column had reached the second leger and met
up with the Special Forces team to the North. The second column was still a
few kilometers short as there progress was slowed by terrain. Day three and
held a operational pause as the tanks and LAV's stopped for maintenance. The
combination of tough terrain and old tanks had taken its toll. The armoured
column had a 25% vehicle casualty rate, and they were out of petrol. The
Americans had to blow in place one of their HUMVEE's as it had slipped down
into a rock wadi and was impossible to pull out. They salvaged all they
could for spare parts and sensitive material and equipment before they blew
it. Another CDS drop with parts and fuel was sent on day four and by day
five the armoured column was ready to move again. In the mean time, the
eastern light column had turned west and had moved through the armoured
column to occupy another Taliban strong hold five kilometers away. Again
very light resistance was met and all enemy activity was dealt with by
A10's, Apache helicopters and heavy weapons from the vehicles. On day six
the aromoured column caught up with the light column to form one big
coalition column moving west across the top of the belly button. Light
resistance was met along the way and the guns continued to track their
While the attacking columns continued to make their way around the belly
button the guns continued to hammer the known mortar and rocket positions on
our side of the belly button. Constant movement and Taliban radio chatter
let us know that they were still active in that area and trying to engage
the guns with mortars and rockets in the hopes stopping our firing. We as a
troop were relentless in our engagement of the enemy pushing our rules of
engagement to the limit. Although we never did anything illegal, we did
everything that was possible to ensure our own safety. The best defense
after all is a good offence.
It took two more days for the columns to make it back to the fire base. No
significant actions were fought on the way back South even though the
columns past through the most dangerous part of the belly button. We had
broken the will of the Taliban to fight in the belly button. One American
Special forces team sprinted forward to the fire base the night before the
main element arrived. They assisted us in receiving one more CDS drop of
fuel to get everyone home. That night we receive 30000 L of fuel which was
all used up by the time the entire force was home. That day we fired our
last mission of the operation as we engaged the Taliban rocket and mortar
positions before the helicopters arrived to fly our guns back to Kandahar
The next day the rest of the elements arrived and legered up in the fire
base. We were happy to have them back as we were all tired from long nights
of protecting the fire base on our own. The next day the tanks again did
maintenance on their vehicles and everyone made preparations as the officers
planned the move home. For those who read my description on how we made it
to our fire base, you know it was a huge deal to get home. We had
approximately 80 vehicles in the convoy home. The following day the Badger
which is a tank chassis with a plow and back hoe destroyed all of our
defences. It is phenomenal how much power those tanks have. They push over
our 1.5m thick hesco bastion walls with out a problem.
The next morning at 0400 on the 2nd of July the convoy broken down into five
packets began the long trek back to our various locations home. The tanks
leading with anti mine rollers were first along with the Badger to plow new
roads. The column had all of the vehicles including the eight civilian large
trucks that the Americans use to transport all of their equipment around. We
chose a different route home as the route we came up on we knew would
definitely be mined by now. Unfortunately the route home was not good for
the civilian trucks. We traveled down eight kilometers of a huge wadi. A
wadi is a river bed which is usually dry in the summer but can range from a
small ditch to a huge gouged river course with a loose gravel bottom. The
civilian trucks were stuck right away in the wadi. The tanks were providing
protection to the column and the artillery vehicles (M113 variants for all
you military geeks) were the only other tracked vehicles. So all of the
artillery fighting vehicles hooked on to one civilian truck each and pulled
them the eight kilometers down the wadi to the hard packed road. The tracked
vehicles had no issues moving along the river bed, but all of the other
vehicles some. Although no one except the civilian trucks got stuck, it was
slow going. The tanks continued to lead, rolling the ground as they went
Approximately three kilometers along the wadi, one of the Ford Ranger ANA
trucks got stuck. The large 10 ton ANA truck (International) behind it left
the tank tracks to go around the stuck truck and hit an IED. My vehicle was
about 200 m behind the explosion which sent a huge ball of smoke and flame
into the sky. Because the truck was so high off the ground, everyone in the
truck survived. However the truck was nearly cut in half and the cab of the
truck was crushed to about half the size it normally is. The crater from the
blast was 2.5m deep and 4.5m in diameter. The wheels of the truck were
amazingly all intact. The blown truck was hooked up to another 10 ton truck
but it could not haul the destroyed truck. Then an infantry LAV was also
unable to pull out the truck. Finally my command post was the only tracked
vehicle left, so we hooked up to the truck and hauled it the remaining five
kilometers to the hard packed road. We passed off the wrecked truck to
another ANA 10 ton truck and reformed our convoy now that the civilian
trucks could drive on their own. The rest of the drive home was relatively
uneventful. Although we only traveled 85 Km, it took us 17 hours with all of
the breakdowns and incidents. We were all burned out by the time we got
back. The inside of our vehicles averaged about 55 degrees and I personally
consumed 8 litres of water.
The operation lasted one month and we expended almost 900 rounds of
ammunition of all types including 70 rounds or rocket ammo. The estimated
death toll of the Taliban was set at 300, with the artillery given credit
for 75%. The Taliban radio transmissions intercepted by us said that the
Taliban were absolutely terrified of the guns and we heard one mortar crew
decline to engage us for fear of being destroyed. Once again the Canadian
artillery has proven its value and the infantry and armoured shook our hands
after witnessing our destructive power. The Americans told us that of all
the assets they had with them, the guns were by far the most valuable. They
said that we were the least likely to break down, fast at producing heavy
fire fit neatly into their standard operation procedures of moving fast
though attacks. Although the pin point accuracy of the aircraft can not be
replaced, the average wait period for aircraft support for troops in contact
was 15 minutes as compared to 4 minutes of the guns. Most of the American
engagements were over in 15 minutes. Finally as I indicated before, the
American Special Forces had become our friends. In the now famous words of
the Special Forces Sgt Maj. as he was adjusting targets with our guns
"You'all Canadians make war fun".
We spent the next four days in KAF refitting and fixing our equipment as
well as restocking everything. We received our orders to move out and on 7th
of July we moved out to our next position. With the Infantry LAV company in
the lead we traveled fairly quickly to the next fire base. Approximately
eight kilometers west of Kandahar city one of the end infantry LAV's hit an
IED. Again, we were only a couple of hundred meters behind the expolosion.
No one died but the crew of the LAV had to be medevac out. We spent four
hours on the road as the Explosive Ordinance Disposal team cleared the area
and conducted an investigation. CTV news cameras were on the scene trying to
push through our cordon. The last thing we needed was one of the media to
trip another IED so we tried to encourage them to stay back.
Yesterday we were sent out on a three vehicle convoy to another FOB to
deliver some vital equipment. We took three tracked fighting vehicles that
were able to travel fast for army vehicles and were well armed with heavy
machine guns with turrets. I was in the last vehicle and was responsible for
rear security. At the last moment we were held back due to an IED scare from
intelligence assets. An hour later they sent us out with the all clear. We
traveled at high speed and thirty minutes later we arrived our destination.
Three hours later we found out that we had driven over two IED big enough to
destroy any vehicle we have in our fleet. We were lucky that they were not
finished setting the triggers.
It is pretty exciting here as you can see. We are all doing well though
making light of everything we can. We make it a sport of making fun of each
other with everyone joining in at the first scent of blood. We all look
forward to coming home. I look forward to seeing everyone again, getting