S.B.S., S.R.R., Gurkhas & The Paras: Operation Ilois | June 2006

in april 2006 the first elements of a battle group centered around the third battalion the parachute regiment began arriving at camp bastion in helmand province southern afghanistan their arrival marked the start of 16th aerosol brigade's deployment to the region but as the unofficial history of operation herrick staves for the remainder of april and all three may the remainder of the battle group began to arrive in packets this was highly unsatisfactory and lieutenant colonel stuart tutu the battalion's commanding officer chaffed at the manner in which his troops are being delivered to the theatre of operations it seemed amazing that the raf liked the resources to fly 1 000 men and their equipment to afghanistan in anything less than a month by the 11th of may the bulk of the battle group had deployed to helmand with his primary mission being the protection of the reconstruction efforts taking place in the centre of the province within a week however this mission slowly began to expand as concerns from the governor of helmand regarding taliban activity in the north of the province compelled the british to send troops into this region to deal with this threat which in turn resulted in considerably overstretching the battle group as the unofficial history continues lieutenant colonel tutu really only had around 400 infantry to meet all the commitments phonetim and hellmund in an area of roughly 60 000 square kilometers or yielded one soldier for every 150 square kilometers it was a hopelessly inadequate number although fully aware of their deficiencies in manpower and holding reservations about the extension of their mission the british committed themselves to the northern expansion and on the 21st of june a company of paratroopers was deployed to the town of sangion at around the same time a platoon of gurkhas from the company the 2nd battalion the royal gurkha rifles was deployed to ford operating base robinson where on the 27th of june it was unexpectedly called into action on that day a force numbering 16 uk special forces operators drawn from the special reconnaissance regiment and from sea squadron the special boat service had launched operation eloy and successfully captured four senior taliban leaders alive however as this composite unit began to return to their land rovers they were ambushed by significantly larger taliban force estimated to have numbered up to 70 fighters immediately the 16 men took cover in a nearby irrigation ditch and began returning fire whilst one of them got on the radio to third battalion's battle group headquarters and requested for reinforcements unfortunately given the secrecy of operation eloy no one within the battle group have been informed of the mission prior to receiving this call for help and as such there is no dedicated quick reaction force ready to assist with the operation if necessary nonetheless the petunia gurkhas at tefo-b robinson was ordered to move of all possible speed to the site of the ambush and reinforce their counterparts in the sbs and the special reconnaissance regiment after a short while the gurkhas arrived on the scene but were likewise pinned down by the weight of the taliban fire who knocked out one of the land rovers with an rpg and still retained their numerical superiority realizing this and that their position could not be held the gurkha sent another message to battlegroup headquarters requesting for air and artillery support to enable them and the special forces to extract themselves out from the area after the necessary arrangements had been made artillery fire began to hit the taliban positions followed by the appearance of two apache helicopters two harrier gr7s and one a-10 thunderbolt which strafed and bombed the taliban forces thus enabling the british ground troops to withdraw back to fob robinson on returning to the ford operating base a headcount was conducted to ensure everyone was present during which it was discovered that two men were missing in action consequently early the following morning on the 28th of june elements of b company the third parachute regimen boarded an raf chinook and were flown back into up in the ambush site to try and find the two men after several minutes two apaches which have been tasked with escorting the chinook into the area spotted two heat signatures near to the irrigation ditch and guided the british paratroopers onto their location sadly the heat signatures turned out to be two bodies which on the 4th of july 2006 will be identified as captain david patton and sergeant paul bartlett an investigation into the events of the 27th june 2006 will later reveal that sergeant bartlett had attempted to reach the land rovers when he was cut down by enemy fire whilst captain patton had become separated from the unit at some point during the ambush and had fought a last stand before he was tragically killed in action in addition it was learnt that captain david patton had been due to return to his home in northern ireland a week prior but instead he had volunteered to remain in the theater for an extra seven days and continue to help out his colleagues his wife paula later commented i was buzzing with excitement about his return impatient for the phone to ring to hear his voice from the army plane but that call never came you

Channel: Liveth For Evermore

Views: 411,220

Keywords: British, Military, History, Education, Army, Air Force, Navy, Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, Liveth For Evermore, LFE, Special Forces, UKSF, UK Special Forces, United Kingdom Special Forces, SBS, S.B.S., Special Boat Service, SRR, S.R.R., Special Reconnaissance Regiment, Gurkha, Royal Gurkha Rifles, Parachute Regiment, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, A-10, Harrier, Apache, Chinook, Gurkha's & Paras: Operation Ilois | June 2006, Operation Ilois, Royal Marines, SAS, S.A.S., Operation Herrick

Id: cbZw1HBi6Ic

Length: 7min 1sec (421 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021