Billion Dollar Base: Army Base in Afghanistan | Free Documentary

camp bastion a fortress built to fight the taliban for eight years the powerhouse of uk and u.s military operations in afghanistan now britain's biggest military base since world war ii is closing a town the size of reading with a massive infrastructure airport hospital fast food restaurants it's got to be dismantled bolt by bolt and sent back to the uk as i say imagine building all that and then decided to put it in the box and take it home again that's a lot of work what's left will be handed over to the afghans they need to go know what you guys get up to when it's a long lonely night in afghanistan and they've only got four months to do it that's really annoying someone's just dumped that but with 300 troops leaving every week all the military hardware being shipped out bastian's defenses will be stripped down to the last man so it's a deadly race to get everyone out on time good morning afghanistan we're going to open bfps radio station at cambassium in afghanistan with just about the most positive tune you [Music] [Applause] [Music] could [Music] [Music] [Music] one man is charged with immense task of bringing this town home lieutenant colonel lawrence quinn a former bomb disposal expert 32 years in the army with tours of duty in northern ireland iraq and afghanistan the colonel came here in 2006 to build bastion now he's back to take it apart i've moved house 15 16 times in the army you know and so with my wife and i got a really slick drill you know count the kids yep got them all right get in the car you know and pack it all up it's pretty it's pretty slick in 2006 in the middle of a desert the british built camp bastion what started as a few tents and 57 men soon grew into a city with three districts the british encamp bastion the americans in camp leatherneck and the afghans in camp shoreback it has an airport the size of gatwick with a 130 million pound runway and over 600 flights every day bastion is kind of the jewel in the crown closing bastion is a key piece and i get to do it you know and that doesn't happen very often for infrastructure officer and to have your own town that you can play with is just great pity i'm taking it down a secret date has been set for the handover to the afghan forces bastian day code name b day colonel quinn has four months 120 days to close the base we've been digging this up all day uh we've got to get a song on for him sergeant alex wilco is going to be 30 today he's working away at the bio wash sergeant wilkie this is for you 40 of the equipment in camp bastian is being flown back to the uk all vehicles go through the biowash a process that can take up to four days per vehicle [Music] what's left is either auctioned or sold as scrapped to the locals but before it leaves the wire it goes to a special place to be demilitarized [Music] sergeant yuri hill a former professional cricket player from jamaica just just clear this area for us so you can get it ten years in the army four tours of duty two in iraq and two in afghanistan he is the gatekeeper at warlike scrap most of this has come off the ground from the guys who are out on the ground so it just come here and we demilitarize it that's my job to just smash them up so all this get caught up private contractors are hired to help demilitarize equipment and sell it outside the wire they employ local afghans to do the hard graft the taliban have a history of infiltrating coalition bases so yuri has to be vigilant for my peace of mind i always have someone watching over them ensuring that they're cutting every bits and pieces anything that can be used against us are coalition forces in the future so nothing escaped this compound you're getting rid of the tubes once they're crushed yes and then these these i'm just going to smash them up some more take the the trigger mechanism off yeah yeah and and the sides so they don't look and then just kind of like general ways and it just got a general bracelet how much work is that that is a lot of work [Music] the popcorn machine destroys out-of-date ammunition by cooking the bullets till they explode that's that's the actual um round going off exploding and being contained and then come out as crap sell it as arm brass ammunition too big for the popcorn machine it's dealt with step by step in a different way [Music] [Music] all military hardware is being repatriated to the uk [Music] but getting rid of weaponry in a war is a dangerous game in 2012 14 taliban managed to breach the fence and get onto the runway the attackers were carrying automatic rifles rocket propelled grenade launchers suicide vests and were wearing u.s army uniforms the firefight lasted three hours when it was over two u.s marines were dead along with all but one of the insurgents the perimeter fence is critical to bastion [Music] [Music] rifleman fox is 30 years old this is his first posting the biggest threat we have at the moment is a vehicle born suicide ied yeah that's the biggest threat so is that often does that happen much um recently yeah i think there's been one or two cases but um luckily there was no fatalities no casualties obviously just the one guy who decided to blow himself up yeah this is two kids on the on the berm they're just tripping storms and stuff there you are i'm sure most of the scrappers just come just to try and salvage some some metal from the fences and stuff but i don't know it could be that they're getting the kids to do it because i know that we won't sort of harm the kids or anything just to kind of test our reactions and things like that so the insurgents are sending kids it's possible it won't be the first time no it wouldn't be the first time like in the last couple of days we've had quite a lot if they're behind it we don't know but there's been a lot of incidents where kids have just came over the berm and just started pulling pickets out of the ground and all we can do is shout at them and fire players [Music] for the men on the watch towers things are only going to get more dangerous with 50 troops being repatriated daily bastion's military might is depleting but these men on the perimeter fence are here to the last [Music] with just over three months to go the clock is ticking come on look at this this is a tier two what look at this wall colonel lawrence quinn the man responsible for packing up bastion and handing it over to the afghans right we haven't just horsed this in look at that line there look at that concrete line there the concrete walls aren't like this like bad dental work you know it's been done properly it's a really huge concrete wall and it's important that you get the foundations right and you and you don't have gaps that fragments can fly through so this place has been built really well you know we've cared about it so i'm really proud of this base i've been here long enough now and i think i'm going to be handed over with the rest of the infrastructure they'll sign for me i think along with the generators and toilet processing all right we'll leave the barriers in here leave the barriers in between the aircraft and those little shelters at the front those are actually recyclable so you need to send those back to the uk that's fine um and obviously you can see from this side there's a lot of murals here and there's a lot of talented people if you look at that one down there that's a phenomenal that's a phenomenal bit of art all the squadrons that come through have painted their own thing on on a piece of wall some are really amazing um but unfortunately our policy is to paint out all any form of graffiti or artwork just to make sure there's no offense caused by anything that might be on the walls and you know our culture may not be the same as those of the afghans and things that we might find reasonable might they might not do that's great shame i bought one of these in lego you know [Music] military kit that isn't being repatriated [Applause] ends up at war like scrap they're making sure it can't drive again look at this why are you doing that because we can't seem to be gifting stuff to the locals that's why we cut it up smash it up as much as as we can that's the rules do you know why that is i don't know i don't it's from higher so they make the decisions i've just read orders and and follow it basically yuri's orders also state that wire must be cut into 30 centimeter lengths to prevent it being used by insurgents to make bombs yeah you're gonna have to cut these men before i can receive them cut them yeah so just cut them straight on the middle i know i don't ask me how you're gonna do it because it's the same it's the same story we've got here right yeah i only have three guys so can i send some guys down to cut here what i don't wanna do is take them off you and then mate just run off and not come back yeah and then i left it in trouble that's what i can't do you know i mean so the units have to cut them from now on because i'm not taking any more wires or cables so what do i do i need this here or no no i'm looking for push do you think this is a car i won't see it or what huh [Music] with half of the 10 000 strong army already repatriated and troops leaving daily life is changing for the brits at bastian there's no more chicken meat it's finished no more chicken at its height bastian served over 34 000 meals a day in three massive canteens have you all cleared this side is because of the risk of insurgents poisoning the food all supplies are flown in from abroad and every week bastian's appetite is voracious [Music] they're now down to one canteen and some of the luxuries are running out with the drive to get everything out by the deadline camp bastian is tightening its belt we keep talking about austerity austerities out now is that the word has gone it's it's now expeditionary what does that mean then it's a redundant reduction the comfort that we that were that used to please don't whinge at the end of the day we still have aircon we've got wi-fi we've got comfortable accommodation we've got hot food i mean we're almost in luxury commando wants me to mention this and it pains me to say this because i even cringe when i think about it we must ensure our soldiers are changing their socks and pants you laugh i cringe and i have to mention it the commander is getting to that level of detail so make sure as section commanders and indeed troop seniors that we are ensuring um that we change our socks and pants um i'll leave it at that if you can own that one [Music] [Applause] now i haven't really done the weather today because it feels a little bit irrelevant but i have to remind you if you are in afghanistan camp bastion today highs are 40 degrees uh heat stress index is 24.5 bastion in the summer one of the hottest places on earth the one thing they can't afford to ration here is water [Music] but with b-day looming they've had to close the water bottling plant and ship it back to the uk [Music] so they've stockpiled 8 million bottles to see them through to the end [Music] the military used private contractors to take tents down and clear the land parcels a key part of the remediation process is getting the units out of their accommodation out of the facilities they're in and we do that through a process called a board of officers or a boom and um obviously i get my staff to do that and uh captain dog barkley is the guy i get to do most of the board of officers the booze he's kind of like the lead shock troop of the infrastructure branch all your wooden furniture needs to go just get your rsm to get a grip of them come and get that razor wire please as long as we keep the contractor moving and fed with all the stuff without having to pause we'll get out on time love the rockery but can we get rid of it it is like riding a tiger and the tiger tries to turn around and bite you every day so you gotta push it back onto track do the lights still work all hard standing buildings are being left for the afghans this is a building designed by nato to provide training against ids so how do you have your search to make sure you're safe you know searching tunnels stitches culverts that kind of thing [Music] they're probably dying to me can we leave the door open no i'm going to lock it sir get out from the top okay sorry they're fine dogs are moving end of this month they've moved some of the search dogs already down to white and green i feel sorry for these dogs look at that don't get take their coat off i've got a black lab at home there's nowhere near as obedient boris i got a rottweiler i've got a lambretta so i called him scooter were you a mod back in the day oh never a mod mods are for pretty boys more of a a rude boy i'm into the old jamaican scar and stuff like that the specials really yeah northern soul and we're a solid boy you probably mugged me at school [Music] great swathes of bastion are being returned to desert but there's still a logistical mountain to climb before b day there are just two months left until bastian gets handed over to the afghan forces seventy percent of the british troops have left along with two thirds of the heavy weaponry the man in charge of the move is lieutenant colonel lawrence quinn he's been an infrastructure specialist for 32 years but first and foremost he's a soldier how's that uh that's actually a bit off so if you're in the bottom center of the white patch no it's in the top there you're in the top of the right patch in which case that's bang on good stuff suppose i try for perfection you know i recognize that uh um i never quite achieve it's like being a piper you know i wanted to be a really good piper but i realized i've got no sense of timing no sense of rhythm and i've got no ear for music there's something vile in my chanter so i'd just be the best i could be at it you know which is probably a core member of the band because i really enjoy it [Music] while the british are packing up to leave the afghans over in camp cherbach are still at war [Music] these recruits are being mentored by british and american soldiers this training mission started by nato in 2009 means that afghanistan now boasts a security force of 350 000. the afghans and sharabak have limited resources and with their allies leaving soon they are desperate to hold on to as much military and logistical hardware as possible [Music] a delegation of afghans is on its way to visit camp bastian the base they are soon to inherit colonel koshid is quinn's counterpart head of infrastructure in shoreback this whole equipment support facility has its own set of generators [Music] does that facilitate power to all to all these buildings yes to all these equipment support buildings we did have a plan to extend this high voltage system to run all of bastion but we decided not to in the end perhaps we'll do that next time we come back [Laughter] oh thank you [Music] so is that going to be left behind yes some gym equipment will be left behind it's a lot of chocolate sponge pudding foreign on the space cam busting looks very nice good infrastructure so from every point of view so very good thank you [Music] they just want to take everything that's great you know and they really like it you know like we've done the place it's fantastic that's why [Music] warlike is closing in six days the individual units are responsible for getting rid of their own scrap so the pressure is on yeah i think it's dead now what does that say yeah are you going to let low cause this was that no you got to take them back excuse me dude it says 5k in here not 20. what's this i think a what the hell do you do with this look at his eyes i know it's that heavy he just buckled in the middle see what happened when you don't follow them around that's what happened just chuck it on the floor you had a busy day you very very i think the closer we get to the end the busier it is yeah today been real today i mean it's non-stop the guys go for lunch come straight back and straight into it with less than a week to warlike closes there's a scramble to get rid of kit even out on the perimeter just check things make sure they're getting rid of all their their junk for their warlike scrap shots captain dog barkley has 36 watchtowers to get ready for the afghan handover all right guys you're right you're gonna have a quick look around we're not going on to the top deck hello you're right yeah it's not too bad not too ready when you're bugging out just take all the maps though yeah i want everything off the walls mate that's good stuff like this you need to get rid of there's a lot of [ __ ] just laying around things like that need to go mate any made furniture if it's not das we need to get rid of the problem you've got is wall like scrap shuts yeah and once warlike scrap shuts it's going to be three days time it's gonna be an absolute nightmare to get rid of it comes with a jacuzzi this one all right cheers guys let's go to the next one there's only only 22 left don't want to see fhm on the walls mate basically i want it as when you're gonna walk ape know what you guys get up to when it's a long lonely night in afghanistan all right so let's get a mate oh we can i just don't want to incite anything really they come here and they'll see that and they'll just um i don't know get the wrong impression of us and it isn't it's we've got abide by their culture really so it's just taking them all day it's playing the game nice and clean good to see did i like being at the town i think i do because um you don't get the [ __ ] out here you can do uh what you want there's no one picking you up for your dress and stuff like that although you should be dressed appropriately but they can relax a little bit but obviously they've got an important job to do and they're looking out for their threat all the time and they will remain right until the last minute when we get out with the threat of a taliban attack before b day the british are flying dummy missions to give the impression of a fully operational base but in reality bastion's armor is getting thinner by the day [Music] there's just over a month till b day when camp bastian is finally handed over to the afghans forces are down to 1500 troops and much of the military hardware is gone now the primary objective for the british is to make a clean exit without any loss of life but just 70 miles away from bastion the afghan security forces are head to head with the taliban and they've already lost 4 400 men just this year [Music] on route to the perimeter colonel quinn is keen to show colonel koshid the vip block good morning good morning welcome to my home yeah built by the foreign and commonwealth office the british have decided to leave it for the afghans as a token of goodwill and everything in these rooms is staying sorry they all have televisions it all comes on automatic when it gets dark dixie is obviously planning for his next career as an estate agent all right [Music] you've seen the incinerators we're leaving we're leaving the incinerators behind foreign [Music] the last british troops to leave bastion will be the ones defending the towers this will be the most vulnerable part of the handover it's a much bigger perimeter than the afghans are used to defending m do you have like cctv cameras all over this place you've got cctv not just we haven't done no you see there are integral assets basically yeah seriously a after five months sergeant yuri hill is shutting up shop so far it's over two and a half million kilos of material being disposed through the wildlife i think me and the lad did awesome job out here y'all looking empty now good feeling is it yeah smashed it it's done is that a tear i see never never i would never oh my god you don't know how happy i am so yuri worst case scenario this country doesn't you know manage to hold back the taliban how would you feel it it would of course yeah it would it would be sad because we come here and we help them so much and and then to see the taliban take over it will be a sad sight you know but hey we tried [Music] happy days after 13 years of war britain's most expensive overseas military base is coming to an end it's going to get a little bit emotional i'm trying not to get emotional but it is my last show from our studios here in camp bastian just keep safe keep up the good work and i'll catch you on bfbs soon [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the memorial wall before us has become a bastion for our collective memory of those whom we have lost during this campaign its rightful and timely transfer from this land to ours will ensure that the memories of a foreign field are brought home in the right way and will endure for future generations of soldiers sailors and airmen ah black [Music] how am i gonna get this stuff in here normally my wife packs my bag i'm utterly useless at this so i'm just kind of ramming it all in hoping it'll go in there somewhere we're down to i think it's about 720 mercury people here in in bastian and um and you walk around and you can walk around you know a long way through us and not see a soul so um fortunately we've got a very secure perimeter which is great but it's radically different place it's sad to see it go because it really is the end of us such a major part of a british operation there's a piece of history being written and to have a be able to write one or two words in the book of history it's just it's awesome yeah so in that way it's really great and not only that i'm i'm coming to the end of my career and um and they've given me a job in in headquarters army lovely job but it just won't compare with this so really i suppose this this is yeah this is a highlight of my career i've only waited 31 years for it 32 years really for this [Music] seven years after he first set foot in camp bastian colonel quinn is leaving we're leaving here really proud of what we've done in southern helmand and i'm really proud of what we've achieved here in camp bastian so yeah it's been a heck of a challenge the brits are leaving afghanistan with more schools better roads and tighter security around some of the cities but elsewhere the taliban are stronger than ever and determined to retake helmand over the next few days the last of the equipment gets sent home cambastian is now a shadow of its former self the only thing remaining 300 british troops ready for the final handover [Music] oh they're here with all their equipment weapons everything ready to go so we're just now in a position where we're basically just uh waiting for them to command their guys onto the trucks and then start occupying the towers with just seven hours left before the brits are due to be out of bastion the afghan army are gearing up for the takeover and the sovereign pack is now moving through 200 soldiers are on route to secure the perimeter the key to bastion marks the formal transfer of the estate here at bastion back to afghan ownership as the british step down the afghans immediately take their place but without the high-tech surveillance equipment the towers are more at risk so the afghans are stationing 10 men in each one twice what the british had the taliban have threatened to attack the base on b day so apache helicopters constantly patrol the skies an hour later and bastian is in the hands of the afghans [Music] foreign six apache helicopters fly overhead securing the runway as the final 30 troops leave and the very last man wing commander matt radnell has the honor of bringing the union flag home britain's biggest military campaign since world war ii is over [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

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Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), military, military documentary, army base, billion dollar base, military base, billion dollar military base, biggest military base, biggest army base, us amry, uk army, us military, uk military, worlds biggest military base, Camp Bastion documentary, Camp Bastion, Camp Shorabak documentary, Camp Shorabak, Afghanistan, afghanistan base, afghanistan army base

Id: sWY2v3Mwcvs

Length: 47min 44sec (2864 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021