On The Front Line: Fighting The The Taliban (Modern Warfare Documentary) | Real Stories

I saw firsthand how British troops were outnumbered overstretched and under-equipped one of their biggest battles against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan the situation is getting quite critical let's go back on dispatches tonight the story of the Battle of garum sir a six-day battle the Ministry of Defense didn't want you to see a battle that raises questions about Britain's war on terror in Afghanistan [Music] 17 British troops 100 Afghan soldiers and police plus a contingent of eight Estonians began the assault on the strategic town of Gaza in Helmand province the British were part of a omlt an operational mentoring and liaison team their job is to train and support the new Afghan army the British commander was hoping the operation would be a quick one we'd like to try and get this operation completed today but fighting this kind of battle plenty of our names Kadena how many Taliban are in the area the moment we don't know how well fortified those positions that they hold are or indeed whether they're any booby traps or what we pull our 80s around so that could snow off focus [Music] the Ministry of Defense had banned me from travelling with the soldiers at the very last minute they were no doubt concerned that their peacekeeping mission wasn't going that well and had in fact now turned into a war I got around that by hitching a ride with the Afghan National Police instead in a white luxury Jeep Selam aleykum bodegas a long forget it sing a shamed the sengai I soon regretted it having a little rich way we get up we were just driving along the ridge and came under fire these trenches the Taliban were in these trenches about half an hour ago an hour ago now we're in them they're firing us well today is the 5th anniversary of 9/11 the 11th of September and five years after we were supposed to have deposed the Taliban and defeated al Qaeda Here I am sitting in a trench the Taliban a counter attacking British forces intense fight they've been in this is the end of Korea NATO's the Falklands and Iraq and I think it's best to keep moving we took up a position on a small hill overlooking the town to get a better view of the battle being fought ahead of us just stop filming and a rocket hit our position bullets flying around us we thought this little area was clear thomas is screaming [Music] the bottom of his leg the next you come here right right come here ready 1 2 3 corporal anthony caole is the team's medic the afghan national army of volunteers but only get six weeks training from the british we moved off again the NA set fire to outlying houses to flush out the Taliban while the National Police or a and P swept behind clearing the fields you must leave 10:00 a.m. P to look after the bridge British was supposed to be acting in a supporting role captain Doug Beattie had to take charge the Afghan forces almost from the start clothes colder yeah yeah I got fired on that Ridge and then have to jump off yeah well we've had a few near misses with an RPG those beauties flying over our head there was RPG Millie problem we've got Taliban infiltrating back across here yeah that's why I've come back just to get the the na na MP to secure the bridge here so they can't get in behind us right once we get into the district centre they'll find themselves pretty much caught up and then have to withdraw okay they were here they were quite close haven't ya thank you very close thankless but damn yeah I'll shoot up now rocket attack tell me think it's okay we come under fire and I was taking a photo [Applause] this is good I'd hate to see what's bad nice meat we from Kabul Jalalabad Kabul worried from Kuna yeah I like Kuna otherwise he's a good idea you can use yourself with Shan Shan I like beautiful I wanted to get the British vehicles but my path was blocked by a seemingly impenetrable wall of noise [Applause] the incoming round sounded like Chinese firecrackers as they broke the sound barrier the British held their ground deliberately drawing fire so they could locate the Taliban positions and lay down mortars these vehicles are unarmored I looked over just in time to see a bullet go through one of the Land Rovers the British commander called in airstrikes to bomb the Taliban now about close air support post these Harriers just fly Fifi above the ground twisting and turning last night the A&P were talking about a thousand Taliban in the garum say the British soldier said well they didn't know where they suspected that was an exaggeration the whoever how many there are they're putting up a big fight the Afghan army paused to take care of their dead some of the friends of the dead soldier Afghan National Army soldier behind me I met them last night and even this morning he looked really eager and up for the fight I'm quite happy but em was looking really exhausted now the face is covered in sand and they're sitting there with their dead friend the airstrikes cleared the PARP ahead and we moved on to Garmsir the town is strategically important because it's near the border with Pakistan and is a key supply route of the Taliban into Afghanistan I think won't be till in time don't know that's what they're saying what you're eating it on there I did like it yeah you said it as well at the beginning you said before we left he's good good oh we do the same happy these a party and don't go in there Tony come from how I succeeded I finally got a close look at the faces of the men I'd been following into battle it was time to move on the town had been cleared of Taliban and the Afghan police were able to move back into their headquarters we drove the district center and set up camp for the night having survived the day and now gathered round at the unit a sergeant major Johnston called the men for a debrief everything Kandahar sends a cruisee since each time I saw nothing tomorrow morning let's see what thumbnail done head appear for 107 and what the Taliban control everything south of gone sir down to the Pakistan border and had been firing 107 rockets and mortars into the town every night for months we were all on edge the British and Afghan forces had achieved their objective Garmsir had been retaken but it was going to be a long night I was with 17 British soldiers and the Afghan army as they fought the Taliban in the batter of dancer we had been to you to pull out by now well carry on further south keep going yeah tasks yesterday was to declare to tear this out which we've done and then push further south so that we can stop the the problem was before problems before that we were getting more the town was just getting watered daily and nightly so if we can push them far enough down and push their mortars far enough back and it makes this little more secure I'm so gonna push down and get some MP checkpoints put him down there to stop the Taliban feel filtering back up and actually give us a I sort of thought mind further forward in the front of this town today I was a great disappointment I heard him say we're gonna stay here again tonight okay yeah I had my socks kind of my morale booed here we have to get all the ticks in the box today otherwise we can't [Music] we headed off but only reach the edge of town before mortars Pinder's down again taking incoming fire heavy incoming fire from the east our eastern boundary rush so far we are taking increasingly accurate mortar fire on our western boundary and our Western move advanced as ground to a halt we need some air to try and get this I get some forward momentum again over I asked one of the British soldiers about the last time they'd been pinned down about contacting sangeun and my a was damaged for about four or five days when you went on patrol you got here or when you were in the base we we got hit when when I'm sure well who's going to recover it down mask you how intense it was is Sangan this is a more flies over our head yesterday we were taking the fight to them it feels like they've dug in and they're firing at us today quite accurately the first casualties of the day were brought in we're not quick we're gonna have to to other Afghans were less seriously injured the medevac helicopter took the casualties to Camp Bastion the main British base in Helmand the British were sent to war in Afghanistan with only eight Chinook helicopters so they were always in short supply as the mortar attack continued a few of us pulled back to a former Agricultural College on the outskirts of the town the rest of the team had got up the canal Ridge just a few hundred yards in front we're now taking fire from three sides antique here energy up folks I'm completely yesterday I was what so pumped with adrenaline was fine I was ducking and diving and running around today I'm all over the shop yes I mean yeah you do every moment so you feel low as soon as incoming round like and wakes you up of it it was like joining the stomping against results the next lulled and went to a sensible security start dozing off he's the love okay of it just received incoming [Music] yeah these Estonians are pretty much all that NATO could muster to help the British in Helmand doesn't really understand you try to explain it it's the best you can no matter how hard you try they don't they don't do you talk about if your wife yes yeah I'm gonna went back on our off she need well-being I pushed up and sank him I said yeah I broke down read on the phone to it what happened I think that's necessary yeah I said well you spoke to the other person are you why should well list it down and chat they had a glass of wine or you know pull the heart out really right I thought you went home well no no oh yeah good to explain I'm just said I don't child and a lot better for art yes more casualties were brought in from the canal Ridge I soon lost count a medivac helicopter was urgently needed but the only one available had been sent elsewhere we can't carry so much only someone these two can do the helicopter had been called away as another British unit had just hit her mine that's not here though in this field of operations it's no no don't clash your word is blue and sent through on the radio it's called the tail end of it but it means there sir they were called before I call for this Mesa come on no for a cue a ssin for the casualty here so it might take a war for that Journal no it's multiple mine strike yeah they're number of casualties right I don't know the severity finally getting some sustained air support to Apache helicopters m8n Apache and a tenth tank buster and I think maybe it's a disturbing sound but bizarrely very welcome we've been on the ground now for eight hours stuck here they're going into saw the mouth does they're all Taliban dirt dug in just beyond that mosque looks like the a-10 is going in for another dive now never heard such noise Tamar is at least it sounds good it's a good sound cause he died from the other side [Music] but to be honest you're not really concerned about the other side grounded the moment they know the ground they've been there for months and they've got quite well prepared positions so taking an awful lot I was yesterday this is virtually new ground for them when US ground we could shift them off it pretty close there pretty easily it's much more difficult getting out of entrenched positions and they're not running away and today that's all that fight it to the lowest say the geyser the am Pierre having to fight ready to run how's the house I was taking a walk and clearly take you to talk it's another long day yeah a wounded Taliban fighter had been captured and was brought in for medical treatment so yeah I'll give me here before handing over their knee brace that way we can get food and start for the same Medical kids you know once you've done that keeping other coins of it observation they tell you I could join let's get ready to go back the word quickly spread to the Afghan army that there was a Taliban prisoner back at the compound just make sure that nobody gets down gets the cinematical kill right cuz I know they won't kill him but that guy gets medical treatment first before anything else the unis commanders come and no that guy gets medical treatment first before he gets abused no afghan-pakistani Punjabi nay Afghan the casualties were still waiting to be evacuated and medical and other supplies were now running low hopefully the resupply will come tonight by each item I have gone crazy okay so hopefully we have enough enough for maybe three or four more days we now pretty much running out of things it'll be very difficult now to a sustainer a really bad p1 country Wilo an ammunition some items that people like more than I'll save up day but could become well yeah Sotomayor they're gonna be supplies by a helicopter so they become Basque drivers we thought this would be by name so all the pains with aviation assets the men were being briefed by Patti Williams after another long day spent under fire up on the canal okay at the moment captain Petey's down by the second canal bridge was just down here I think some of you guys joined another one the MPR gonna secure that bridge both sides of it all over Helmand other British soldiers were facing the same problems they simply weren't enough men or supplies to go around but they're gonna be occupying that series of buildings up there eastern flank is pretty secure we've got weather numbers it's just the west I looked at their faces and saw how the fighting had taken its toll if we're down here we're just pinned down most of time we can't even bring our weapons to Bursa anyway so that's us we need to be ready to react basically throughout the night to push down the casualties were finally evacuated but the new supplies hadn't arrived the soldiers gathered all the ammunition they could they're getting out all their anti-tank missiles because there's still a lot of Taliban we're expecting a lot of incoming tonight and they're just thinking how much munitions they've got is our second night here and garam say and it's a dying Taliban prisoner behind us are they giving medical aid to we're pulling out dougie sorry we're pulling out yeah no we're steak push thing you wish you wish were appalling I'd tell you I'm not laughing at the moment no well we're here for 24 hours and this is three days so far so now we're gonna be gonna be here for a while I think but if you need to pull out so you just come and see me and say hey we need to go now and I'll get all the guys you off a helicopter take me all right I'm ready to go you all leave you're just waiting for me yeah I didn't tell you but you said to us when we ciders here we're only here for your your personal protection and the other 100 a.m. P and a and a are here to do their own thing so we're here for you so it's the middle you say we can go just that's normal for some about ready to go actually ready to go two days ago instead Dougie got ready to head back up to the canal overnight Taliban reinforcements have crossed over from Pakistan and we're now dug in this is a school inside him and I saw something incredible look at this this is something the school children drew before the school was occupied by the Taliban and this the river of garam say and there are cars and houses and trees I have a look at one of these cars up in the canal Dougie had run into trouble [Music] just coming under fire quite serious fire again yes he is yeah he's just been engaged from from both sides of the canal like we heard there was a British casualty I headed up there with the Estonian medical team to retrieve him [Music] maybe just drive along that rich it came on sustained heavy fire RPG and we're seeing on fire nor the NP were running along the ridge British casualty I was almost hit myself [Music] gunshot wound to lower forearm got some very poor pale cold and clammy just initial shock I think we need to assess him again check them all over for potentially you're lonely go on TV if you want why did you give it to the wife [Applause] more than 40 british soldiers have lost their lives so far in Afghanistan and thousands of Afghans have been killed the situation is getting quite critical with the advances stalled and encountered quite heavy resistance the AAA have taken fairly heavy casualties their commander was killed and they have three serious casualties who we're trying to get back to back to my location to to be treated the ANP have already suffered a casualty and essentially we are back now to the 4-3 northern while Kaz is called in and but at the moment unless we get a H on station for a reasonable amount of time we're not going to be able to move this fort and this is just gonna become a bit of a step before we must put tourniquet laughs as well see you back home day it was the end of the third day and the push forward had stalled the Afghan army had stopped fighting food and ammunition were running low and we had begun stripping the fields of corn the Taliban don't have such problems with resupply the Taliban pretty much control everything to the south of us apart from the bit that we've just cleared all the way down to the Pakistan border and a place called Barham char and they use that to put their their manpower across their weapons across for their poppy yield to go across so they can get money to finance their their operations that's their main supply routes right and they have pretty much free access to free movement Gunners so it's easy for them to resupply men south from here is Taliban territory so in six months time or a year's time will this town it's gonna be fought for time and time again I don't think we're gonna lose it again it's too important to lose again I think you can see the importance of it on it so it's not gonna be lost again but that's doesn't say this is gonna be an easy time here it's gonna be a hard board no matter which way you look at it and whether it's politically correct to say that or nada I'm not too sure but somebody who's been in the Army for 25 years this is a war zone and there's no two ways of looking at the things that we've got that what we have to do is we have to make an Afghan solution to the problem that we have here after a day's fighting soldiers spent all night dealing with casualties the team just heard the Taliban will come into a ton of districts a night so again that's it that's about it however we get that sort of thing through quite a lot so I don't know change from anything any other time right it was going to be another long sleepless night I require predator missile or medication I say again two times a non-rebreather bull masks to go with the oxygen cylinders we're supposed to be pulled out now what do they say when are we gonna be pulled out security threat 72 oh yeah make it coming longer make sure lot depends on security Weston guess what [Applause] we are getting resupplied with Russians and ammo are going through fast rate [Applause] for the men and having to wash their filthy socks man got a pair of socks another moment I've run through mine and I'm just washing them [Applause] last ones if I get up there this is the last last one was the last one what's the NA we tried to put them forward to mount a checkpoint and they've been engaged from from an enemy position just off to the to the western flank so we're just gonna whup their ass even get eyes on calling some loser support clear the moat so we can get the checkpoint it it's important we get this checkpoint in this is a choke point for all vehicle of movement so we're just gonna go and do it once again the guys are having to go out of the canal there's a little canal over there where this Taliban dug in on all three sides so every time they go out there and they're going out three four times a day they're getting hits and three sides with RPGs small arms fire and mortar it's incredible to see their determination because they were supposed to be pulled out of here three days ago and we were told we will be pulled out yesterday the reinforcements were coming but the latest news is that there are no reinforcements coming I heard the Afghans and the British soldiers were about to achieve their final objective so I hitched a ride up to the canal I couldn't help feeling that here was Britain's grandiose foreign policy laid bare to unarmored land rovers on a ridge taking fire if either had been hit the strategically vital town of garbs they could have been lost to the Taliban once more and in front of you and then to the left yeah whatever still it's a three these are bombing they're still there yeah Fernau farm orders now it over the top in depth problem sample from of this is your room seven seven alvaro 77 i can confirm [Music] guys pack up bring it forward in the gun what I'm after Steve as you come down you'll break into the open if you look to your left you'll see a tree line swinging off away from you at the edge of the tree line [Applause] [Applause] Ellen Ellen he has achieved as much as he's going to achieve we have no more to support him with so he's totally best he's cleared what he can to come back night Kalyn he must do it in an orderly manner orderly not to run back but patrol back we own this round this is our brother how do I get in sorry if I kick don't worry dougie yeah it's my last tape is this her last tape what the whole thing wrapped up before the tape ends well well here's the one for you they finally achieved their objective here for 24 hours four days later they finally got there yeah they did yeah when they were where they got to was their objective the swung around right no they can't go any further side was far too many Taliban you can you heard the fire yourself yeah but they worked hard to achieve their objective so that's good it's good effort well we have to be careful of noise they've infiltrated along the eastern flank of the canal right careful of ambushes to the right okay you keep your head Dougie was right we were ambushed [Applause] and just when we needed it most the 50 caliber gun jammed not for the first time that week the British government had hoped not a single shot would have to be fired by British troops but in just one week these men had called in a record number of airstrikes 57 and old and fired a record number of rounds over in the corn fields taking corn yesterday last night the look was just arrived the soldiers are in just opening this bag I'll show you this pop-tarts oranges beef jerky bottle of hot sauce and some Kate what a beautiful sight is and I think that's a measure [ __ ] it is being out here so we were just looking at that as those all our Christmases have come true come Rob get in [Music] what do we say garam saved at last it was time to go home having achieved the final objective we prepared to pull out but then we heard the bad news tomorrow morning along with the omelets it's gonna be a small continued alpha of ice are forces staying behind until about midday tomorrow that's myself from party and the Estonians and then then we will leave at some time by 12 o'clock tomorrow the problem we have is because CAF Kandahar isn't supporting us with the follow-on actions here the MPS way that's they had NASA headquarters in behind a heart because they're not following the sort of follow on and supporting what the a na and a MP have achieved here the a MP can't hold this place and they're going to leave at the same time we leave so after six days fighting we're going to give this place back to the Taliban and that's pretty hard to swallow at this moment looks like the AAR pulling out and the NPR pulling out as well which means there'll be no one here to defend guarantee big mistake massive mistake then he's they do need the foundations of troops here too to protect this area as you've seen yesterday there's been people have been moving back into the houses how does it make you feel knowing presumably we all pull out I've wasted so many days it's to be all being a waste a massive waste and it makes me quite demoralized to feel that given these soldiers a lot of medical support and and now we're pulling out somewhere that could if this is true that could potentially fall again that's cutting man yeah so happen the MP have said it that they're gonna pull out and so now paddy is trying to convince them otherwise a few of the British remained behind so the Afghan police agreed to stay Dougie felt let down by the military command but I felt they had both been let down by the lack of support from the government back home ganster is still surrounded by the Taliban and under siege we had won the battle three of the men received medal for outstanding bravery but it felt like we were losing the war

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 5,582,379

Rating: 4.6819487 out of 5

Keywords: taking on the taliban, Modern Warfare Documentary, Fighting The Taliban, documentary taliban, Sean Langan, taliban documentary, Real Stories, full documentary afghanistan war, documentary afghanistan war, afghanistan war documentary, documentary war afghanistan, full length documentaries, war on terror documentary, documentary war on terror, modern warfare, afghanistan, taliban, Helmand province, war documentary

Id: rtC1hVA7pXE

Length: 48min 26sec (2906 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 08 2017

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