Apache. Ed Macy

Teams 3 and 4: Si Hambly.

      SECOND PLATE SECTION

       Page 1:

      Ammo Sgt Kev Blundell paying his respects on Christmas Day: Sgt Kev Blundell.

      A message for the Taliban at Koshtay from arming point 2: Si Hambly.

      Ed and Carl’s Hellfire page: SSgt Carl Bird.

       Pages 2 and 3:

      An Afghan National Policeman overlooking the Lashkar Gah Green Zone: AFP/ Getty Images.

      Rockets fired in quads: © Crown Copyright/MOD. Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

      Hellfire fired by Ugly Five One and guided by Ugly Five Zero at Jugroom Fort: © Crown Copyright/MOD. Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

       Pages 4 and 5:

      Mountains that surround Now Zad and the Green Zone: LCpl Mathew Ford RM.

      The rescue team for Jugroom Fort: Sgt Garry Stanton, RAF.

      The rescue briefing in the desert: Sgt Garry Stanton, RAF.

      Lt Col Rob Magowan MBE RM – the loneliness of command: Sgt Garry Stanton, RAF.

      On the wings of the Apache ready to go: Sgt Garry Stanton, RAF.

      Ugly Five One with Capt Dave Rigg and Mne Chris Fraser-Perry riding to the Fort: Sgt Garry Stanton, RAF.

      Ugly Five Zero with RSM Hearn, filmed by Ugly Five One: © Crown Copyright/MOD. Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

       Pages 6 and 7:

      A true account of the rescue by the military artist David Rowlands, Ed Macy (with pistol) in front of Mathew Ford: David Rowlands.

      The Jugroom Fort before and after January 15th: © Crown Copyright/MOD. Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

      Taliban village next to Jugroom Fort before and after January 15th: © Crown Copyright/MOD. Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

       Page 8:

      3 Flight – Charlotte, Darwin and Nick where the marines strapped onto the Apache during the Jugroom Fort rescue, and FOG: Si Hambly.

      Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace: Charles Green Photography.

      Lance Corporal Mathew Ford, Royal Marines: LCpl Mathew Ford RM.

MAPS

      

       CUTAWAYS

      The following is an account of operations involving 656 Squadron, Army Air Corps, in Afghanistan over several months in 2006 and 2007. At the time of going to print, some inquests have not yet been held into the deaths of British Army and Royal Marine personnel reported in these pages. The author has, to the best of his knowledge, reported events faithfully and accurately and any insult or injury to any of the parties described or quoted herein or to their families is unintentional. The publishers will be happy to correct any inaccuracies in later editions.

      Identities have been obscured in a few cases to protect the individuals and their families.

PROLOGUE

       27 June 2006

       08.49

      I flicked a glance at the digital clock top right on my control panel. Shit. The Paras had been on the ground for almost thirty minutes now, and I was starting to sweat. The longer we stayed in one place, the more time it gave the Taliban to put together an attack.

      Maintaining the same gentle pressure on the cyclic stick, I continued our broad right banking turn into the sun. I felt its warmth on my face through the cockpit’s Perspex window. It was going to be another scorching day.

      Two thousand feet below us, the Paras were about to finish sweeping the first field. It was twice the size of a football pitch. They had another one as big to do next. Half of them had fanned out across the length of it, weapons at the ready; the rest provided cover from the bushes and undergrowth along the southern edge. The company commander and his signaller followed closely behind the line, moving from west to east.

      A crop had been planted, but not long ago. For once, it wasn’t opium. Much of the field’s surface was bare, dark earth, making the search easier, but the Paras still had to move painfully slowly, looking for the slightest clue as to the whereabouts of the two missing SBS men. Anything could help – a strip of clothing, spent ammunition shells, dried blood.

      We’d seen no sign of the KIA or MIA since our arrival. It didn’t bode well.

      Our flight had been scrambled at dawn to relieve the pair of Apaches up at Sangin before us. They – the Incident Response Team (IRT) – had been scrambled three hours previously. It had been a long night.

      We’d been given a quick update on the ground as we were firing up the aircraft.

      In complete secrecy, a small SBS team had lifted four Taliban organisers from a village near the northern Helmand town at 3am. The team were from Force 84, the British contingent of the Joint Special Forces command. They hadn’t notified the local Para garrison in Sangin’s District Centre about the mission – the usual SF drill to ensure total operational security. They were no different when I used to fly them around the Balkans during the 1990s.

      The arrest had gone without a hitch. But on the way home the snatch squad was ambushed by a large and very angry Taliban force who wanted their people back. The team’s lead Land Rover was destroyed by the first enemy RPG, kicking off a massive fire-fight and a desperate chase through the fields. The elite SBS team had been pursued by at least seventy Taliban.

      They only got out of there three hours later, thanks to a platoon of determined Gurkhas, who fought their way through the Talib lines twice, and close air support from two Apaches, an A10 jet and two Harrier GR7s. The Apaches stuck a Hellfire missile down the throat of their abandoned Land Rover to deny it to the enemy.

      In the chaos, the SBS team lost a couple of their prisoners. More importantly, two team members were separated from the main group: SBS Sergeant Paul Bartlett and Captain David Patten, attached from the Special Reconnaissance Regiment. Though their whereabouts were unknown, Patten was seen going down hard while sprinting across a field, and was already presumed Killed in Action.

      The battle over, our task was to escort a company of paratroopers carried by two Chinooks