ON THE LINE

ON THE LINE

PART 1

Steve Crane is fictional, but his story is based on first hand experiences of certain recent serving members of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces in Afghanistan.

Please be aware some of the scenes depicted in these true life accounts are quite distressing and of a violent and extreme nature.
You are advised to proceed with extreme caution….

Our arrival

I stared out of a dust stained window as our transport touched down onto the runway at Camp Bastion.

Camp Bastion is the main British military base in Afghanistan. Accommodating 21,000 people it is situated northwest of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, and exists to be the logistics hub for operations in Helmand.

It is the largest British overseas military camp built since World War II.

Built in early 2006, the camp is situated in a remote desert area, far from population centres.

Four miles long by two miles wide, it has a busy airfield and a field hospital and originally had full accommodation for the 2000 men and women based there. The base is divided into 2 main parts, Bastion 1 and Bastion 2. Bastion 2 includes two tenant camps, Camp Barber (US) and Camp Viking (Danish).

Bastion also adjoins Camp Leatherneck (US) and the Afghan National Army (ANA) Camp Shorabak.

Apache and Chinook helicopters are forward-deployed at the Heliport.

In November 2006, then Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Camp Bastion, and, while addressing a gathering of British troops, described it as "an extraordinary piece of desert" "where the fate of world security in the early 21st century is going to be decided.

The first thing you notice is the tension, its everywhere, not just from us newbies/rookies, fresh to this type of environment, but from most people stationed here at Camp Bastion.

We would be here for a couple of days and then we would be airlifted to a place called Sangin…

This is where most of the fighting was taking place and this is where I would receive my first taste of the action so to speak..

4 days later
Sangin Helmand Province

We had all been briefed on ongoing operations and for the first time we were about to get our first taste of what it was like to engage the Taliban.

Most of the time you can’t see them, the problem is, they can see you.
They hide in the trees, almost invisible to the naked eye, or blend in among the many white washed houses that dot this harsh barren landscape.

Most of these dwellings have been made from dried mud and packed together, some six feet thick in places and can form an impenetrable barrier, even against rockets.

The idea being that a lot of Taliban fighters dress all in white and then lie flat against the walls in a sort of camouflage..

Sounds crude and a bit silly, trust me its anything but and in searing bright sunlight, unable to see clearly against all those white reflecting walled buildings lies several highly motivated killers pointing rocket propelled grenades [RPGs] at anything that moves…

Once they have fired their rockets they swiftly disappear among ordinary villagers making it extremely difficult for NATO forces to engage them.

The first tour is usually uneventful, they take you out in stages..
One being a tour around the villages safely ensconced inside 8 inches of toughened armour.

The next one is a foot patrol, but with air support hovering overhead in the form of Apache attack choppers.

It’s the third and the one where it really hit home how fucking dangerous and terrifying it really is out there in Afghanistan..

Two weeks after deployment
Helmand river valley  

We were on foot and a call had been received that a pocket of Taliban insurgents had been sighted just south of a village we were about to investigate.

Normally we would just shout for air support and a few minutes later, a couple of F15s would flatten everything in sight including anyone that just happened to be in the way…

That you can’t do now and though the Americans tend to shoot, bomb, kill first and ask questions later, we British aren’t allowed to and have to follow the hearts and minds mantra set out by mainly European governments involved with NATO.

Without any warning they arrived, dozens of them, some were carrying machine guns, some just ordinary old style 303s.

Still kill you though and three of my buddies were and almost in the blink of an eye.

Two were shot through the head, one in the left eye, the other in his left ear, two were unlucky enough to run toward a hidden improvised explosive device or more commonly known as IEDs.

One had the calves of his legs blown off, the other lost both arms and legs…

The one with his calves blown off survived, the other poor sod didn’t. He could have probably survived if we had got him to a chopper there and then, but there is an unwritten law out there that if you are reduced to a cushion, such as losing all your limbs, then you’re left to bleed out…

Sounds callous, but if you think about it, who wants to be propped up on a couch for the rest of their natural being spoon fed by your crying wife and kids.

Dying means the Missus gets a nice pension for the rest of her life and the kids get free university or college..

So, that’s what happens and seeing carnage like that and for the first time really does bring home how horrific war really is and the effects it can have on your psyche…

Getting back to the fire fight, we retaliated almost instantly and with having superior firepower swiftly put paid to whatever insurgents were still stupid enough to hang around…

Some were captured, then tortured by the local ANP [Afghan National Police and subsequently executed, usually in a most horrific fashion.

Talking of prisoners…

A few days later, A batch of newly captured prisoners entered the compound at Sangin and one of the lasting memories I will ever have is hearing two of the captured Taliban talking in BRITISH ACCENTS.

One was a Brummie, one was a cockney, well their accents were anyway and I had to really keep my self together...

What the fuck was going on here? I mean they had familiar accents, but yet here they were, obviously of Asian/Pakistani descent and fighting for the very people we were trying to kill.

The usual procedure were to hand over any "foreign" Taliban fighters to the Afghan National police [ANP]

That for them to be honest spelled the death sentence, these people were utterly abhorred by native Afghans and dealt with accordingly..

Pushed down into wells and phosphorus poured onto them, or and a time honoured favourite was an unexplained accident whilst traversing a 200 foot ravine..

NONE EVER SURVIVED...

The cocky Brits fate...WELL I'll let you figure out that CLIFF hanger..

Whilst serving over there one of the everlasting memories will be of the night sky.

Its incredible, especially if you’re out on patrol and dug in for the night.

Its practically impossible to sleep if you’re staring skyward, millions and millions of tiny shiny pin pricks set against the blackest background you’ll ever see..

Staring up there sort of reminded me of how really insignificant we all are in the general scheme of things and yet again made me question why human beings try to kill other human beings at any given opportunity..

Helmand river valley
Anther patrol


We were off on another patrol and this was again to investigate insurgent activity in and around local villages..

Another sight which will stay with me until the day I depart this planet was seeing dead people, beheaded and suspended from various house walls.

These were according to one of the villagers, collaborators for the “infidels,” the NATO forces  that were fighting the Taliban.
Heads hacked off in the crudest of fashion, the remaining carcasses were then suspended by rope or twine and then hung out to dry, just like a side of beef at the Butchers.

No one was allowed to take them down, hence the reason they were still there when we arrived.
The reason being this was a clear message as to what happens to collaborators and enemies of the Taliban…

We left them there, we were supposed to have removed them and buried them with all the proper dignity afforded to them.

But the repercussions for the rest of the villagers would have meant certain death, so we left them.
Stinking and rotting in the putrid heat, crawling with maggots and parts missing after being got at by certain wildlife…

Yep, like I said, a sight I will never ever forget and again brought home the savagery of what these folks are capable of…..



PART 2 OF ON THE LINE COMING SOON…..