Corporal Bryan Budd & the Siege of Sangin | Victoria Cross | August 2006

in april 2006 as part of the expansion of coalition operations in afghanistan a british battle group led by the 16th air assault brigade and centered around the third battalion the parachute regiment deployed to helmand province the aims of the deployment as laid out by secretary for defence john reed was to support reconstruction efforts within helmand and protect them from taliban activities the strength was estimated to have numbered no more than 500 fighters this figure however was significantly underestimated as later intelligence showed that there were at least 3 000 fighters in the region in early 2006. which was over three times the fighting strength of the british battle group commanding the third battalion the parachute regiment at the time was lieutenant colonel stuart tutu who explains even if our operations could be limited to the region around the key cities as we planned there's still a huge area for the limited number of troops that i'd have at my disposal matters were made complicated when the governor for helmand province requested that british troops deploy into the northern towns to prevent them becoming taliban strongholds leading to a company of the third battalion deploying to sanjin on the 21st of june remaining here for a little over a week a company rotated out with b company in early july prior to return into the town at the end of the month on both occasions a company faced almost daily attacks by the taliban with author david reynolds commenting that a company's second stay in sanjin lasted 35 days off which 31 days witnessed contacts with the taliban as the situation deteriorated and the fighting grew more intense such contact took place on the 20th of august 2006 when a company's first platoon headed to an area just north of sanjin to conduct a routine patrol supported by two 50-count mounted land rovers the platoon set off on their mission with two sections moving out to cover the flanks whilst the third advanced up the center commanding the section on the right flank was corporal brian budd who'd only joined a company two months earlier having previously served in the pathfinder platoon leading this section through high dense vegetation corporal bud soon identified three taliban positions directly to his front when one of the land rovers on the left flank was ambushed by another enemy force immediately on hearing the outbreak of gunfire just a couple of hundred meters away to his left corporal brian budd ordered his men to follow his lead in an assault on the taliban positions he had identified moments earlier however no sooner had they set off did they too come under heavy fire forcing the paratroopers to get to ground and begin returning fire among them lance corporal paul roberts i dropped onto one knee and i engaged the enemy with my rifle my rifle at that time was set to automatic and i fired two to three short bursts [Music] in the ensuring engagement lance corporal roberts was struck in one of his shoulders followed in quick succession by two other paratroopers one of whom was hitting his body armor vest whilst other incurred wounds to his face and one of his arms pulled into cover the three were checked over for their wounds prior to the section second in command given the order to withdraw into a more favorable position that enabled the wounded to be evacuated as his men began to execute this withdrawal corporal brian budd decided to assault the enemy positions alone grabbing his sa-80 moving out from cover and charging for the vegetation on the other side of the field he stormed into one of the enemy dugouts where he engaged and killed three taliban fighters before being knocked onto the ground as he was hit by a stray bullet meanwhile the rest of his section had managed to disengage from the contact and transfer the wounded to a nearby british aid post where it became apparent that corporal bud was missing in action as a result first platoon's third section which had been initially advancing at the center switched over to the right and moved forward in an effort to locate the corporal but were likewise engaged by withering enemy fire and suffered free wounded within several minutes [Music] back in sanjin news of the unfolding situation began to reach the rest of a company he drew together a composite platoon made up of paratroopers raw engineers snipers and military policemen to go out reinforce first platoon and find corporal brian budd coming in from a different flank this makeshift platoon made contact with the taliban and similarly became pinned down leading to a request for immediate air support unfortunately the close nature of the fighting ruled out a bombing run by fighter jets leading to a couple of apache helicopters being dispatched to the area on arrival over sanjin the apaches began targeting the taliban positions thus opening the way for elements of a company to move forward secure the enemy's strong points and locate corporal brian budd was found seriously wounded in the taliban dugout he was single-handedly secured lifted onto the shoulders of one of the british paratroopers corporal bud was evacuated to the regimental aid post where sadly he was pronounced as killed in action shortly after arriving [Music] you

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Keywords: British, Military, History, Education, Army, Air Force, Navy, Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, Liveth For Evermore, LFE, Special Forces, Corporal Bryan Budd, Sangin, Afghanistan, British troops Helmand, Helmand, Operation Herrick, August 2006, 3 PARA, 16th Air Assault Brigade, A Company, 3 Parachute Regiment, The Parachute Regiment, Victoria Cross, VC, Corporal Budd, Corporal Bryan Budd & the Siege of Sangin | Victoria Cross | August 2006, Stuart Tootal, Apache, Siege of Sangin

Id: CxIGtyztkKY

Length: 7min 5sec (425 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 27 2020

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