1st time Battle footage! S.A.S. Battle Honor Shah Wali Kot offensive

[mickk]

http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/vbtube/upload/thumb/675_81468.jpg (http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/vbtube_show.php?tubeid=3626) Footage just broadcast, nothing on ADF sites as yet. This is the battle that Roberts-Smith V.C. M. G. won his V.C. in.

Some now IDENTIFIED footage of battle.

Sting in the tail, recent battle has resulted in 4 Diggers under investigation for putting too many rounds in the enemy or something, nothing known as yet. 4 dead KIA, no Civvy casualties, cant be anything bad?http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/vbtube/images/play_thread.png (http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/vbtube_show.php?tubeid=3626)

[Bad Company]

vary interesting and some good battle footage. nice post mickk

[serpa6]

nice post mick keepin coming mate

[Kevwyo]

When was this particular battle fought?

[mickk]

More details released top the media. It seems 12 medals were awarded for that battle. From the Victoria Cross down, every medal worth winning was awarded.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2zqvolv.jpg

[mickk]

More details released top the media. It seems 12 medals were awarded for that battle. From the Victoria Cross down, every medal worth winning was awarded.

Now we know that a Battle Honor is to be awrded, the first since the Vietnam War, but the cunts in the Government wont tell us where or when.
For sniper team leader Sergeant Garry Robinson - a veteran on his third deployment to Afghanistan - it was the most intense fighting he had experienced.

The commandos were surrounded by more than 100 Taliban fighters and were pinned down by withering rocket propelled grenade and machinegun fire at one of the enemy's most secure fortresses in southern Afghanistan, the village of Chenartu in Shah Wali Kot.

The rate of fire raking the dangerously exposed Diggers shocked even the most hardened soldiers in their ranks.

Men like 2nd Commando Regiment sniper team leader Sergeant Robinson who occupied a high knoll as the "eyes and ears" of his boss the commander of Alpha Company, Major 'M' (his identity is protected)

"It was tense, hot and arduous," Sergeant Robinson said.

"It was kill or be killed. They were trying to kill me so I have no remorse at all," he said.

On more than one occasion Sergeant Robinson, who was severely wounded in a fatal chopper crash later in the operation, feared he would be overrun as heavy fire and rockets rained down from three sides as they sought cover on the sparse ground "digging holes with their eyelids".

It was June 10, 2010 and four days later a large Taliban force had been routed, several key leaders and dozens of fighters were dead, truck loads of enemy weapons had been seized and the local people were engaging with authorities for the first time in years.

The Eastern Shah Wali Kot offensive that included the Battles of Chenartu and Tizak, will go down in the annals of Australian military history alongside Tobruk, Long Tan and Kapyong.

Almost three years after the most intense fighting of the war took place in Northern Kandahar Province, the army has finally released details of one of the most successful counter-insurgency operations of the entire campaign.

The two key combat elements were a 25-strong force from Number 2 SAS Squadron and about 100 troops from the 2nd Commando Regiment.

The SAS operators provided speed and stealth and the commandos the "sledgehammer" effect. In support were the Special Operations Engineer Regiment and the Logistics Squadron. Working with the Australians were Afghan Special Police and helicopters from the US 101st Airborne Division.

The Australian force was honed to a fighting edge and was well motivated after two combat engineers, Sappers Jacob Moerland and Darren Smith had been killed just two days earlier by bombs built from components coming through the Shah Wali Kot area.

During the so-called "shaping phase" several Bushmaster vehicles were destroyed as the special forces operators prowled around country that had been impenetrable to coalition forces. It was so wild that in some isolated valleys the locals had not seen foreigners since the Russian war of the 1980s.

By June 6 the bait had been laid and the Diggers waited and watched before 120 commandos moved "into the lions' den".

On June 9 the trap was set and early the next morning the enemy unleashed their firepower.

Sergeant Robinson and his sniper team had the honour of claiming the first Taliban kill and before long nine enemy lay dead and women and children were moving away from the village. That meant just one thing - big trouble.

At 10am every Australian position was exposed to a hail of gunfire and RPGs. The diggers counter attacked and drove the enemy out of the area.

The enemy mounted another huge counter-attack and Major `M' was forced to call in an American A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft to break up the hostile force. The enemy again withdrew to lick their wounds as night fell.

An expected attack the next morning did not eventuate and intelligence reports indicated that a senior Taliban commander was in the nearby village of Tizak planning a major attack to wipe out the diggers. 'E' troop from Number 2 Squadron SAS was launched on four Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache attack choppers on a "kill/capture" mission.

As the birds landed, they were engaged by withering small arms and RPG fire from a force three times their size. Two men were wounded and all four Blackhawks and one Apache were damaged.

Soon afterwards, Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith and his team leader Sergeant 'P' took decisive action to eliminate the enemy machine guns that had most of the force pinned down. They ran across 40 metres of open ground and in a fierce fight took out three machine guns and killed more than a dozen enemy fighters.

"It was absolute valour and courage to achieve that," Colonel Burns said.

"These were well trained foreign fighters, not low-level fighters. They were very fanatical.

"The guys systematically broke down that position and destroyed every single enemy machine gun position and every enemy in that village."

Roberts-Smith was awarded a Victoria Cross and Sergeant `P' the Star of Gallantry for their extreme valour.

Luck had been with the Australians throughout the month-long mission and it stayed true until the very last raid of the operation on June 21 when a Blackhawk crashed killing commandos Ben Chuck, Scott Palmer and Timothy Aplin and gravely wounding Sergeant Robinson.

No prisoners were taken during the battles and the number of enemy dead and wounded was estimated at about 100.

INDIVIDUAL HONOURS FROM SHAH WALI KOT

1 Victoria Cross

1 Star of Gallantry

1 Medal for Gallantry

1 Commendation for Gallantry

1 Bar to Distinguished Service Cross (DSC)

1 DSC

2 DSM (including Sergeant Robinson)

4 Commendations for Distinguished Service

[mickk]

An expected attack the next morning did not eventuate and intelligence reports indicated that a senior Taliban commander was in the nearby village of Tizak planning a major attack to wipe out the diggers. 'E' troop from Number 2 Squadron SAS was launched on four Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache attack choppers on a "kill/capture" mission.

I think a Troop is still 16 men, crazy bastards, 16 men against the heaviest guarded man in the area!

Imagine the Ops briefing, "theres about 300 armed insurgents in the village............. were going to need 16 men.

I dont know whether to shit spew or go blind. Australia should bottle their semen and sterilize the rest of the male population.

[mickk]

Another report with a bit more detail.

SOTG, officially referred to as Task Force 66, had been given the job of securing the northern approaches to Kandahar city as the Australian part in a major coalition operation to oust insurgents from their heartland.

It started with raids on insurgents in isolated villages, some so remote the locals thought the Australian troops were Russians, though the last Russian troops had departed Afghanistan in 1989.

SOTG had a good idea what they were getting into on June 10 and 11 in the two villages of Chenartu and Tizak.

"This was not a simple contact with the enemy that just got big. This was actually a very carefully orchestrated sequence of events designed to draw the Taliban into an operationally decisive battle for his defeat at the time and place of my choosing," Lt Col Burns said.

In the early hours of June 10, helicopters landed 100 Australians of the 2nd Commando Regiment in the middle of the insurgent stronghold in Chenartu, which had repulsed earlier coalition incursions.

Sgt Robinson and his team took up a position on an exposed knoll. It's likely he fired the opening shots in an engagement that killed three Taliban fighters moving towards his location. He has no regrets.

"It's either kill or be killed. They were trying to kill me. I have no remorse over it at all," he said.

The commandos successfully fought off a series of probing attacks. Then all hell broke loose.

"At 10am precisely every single position was exposed to a hail of gunfire, heavy machine-gun fire and RPGs," Lieutenant Colonel Burns said.

Sgt Robinson had never been in anything so intense. Insurgents approached within 50 metres of his position.

"They couldn't physically see us until they were pretty much right on top of us. They knew we were there," he said.

Yet his strongest recollection is of the oppressive Afghan summer.

"Mostly the heat. It was dry and dusty."

The fury of the Taliban attack left a lasting impression on Major M.

"It was just the noise. We were aware they were going to do something and we got into a position where we could defend ourselves. The noise of the machine guns and rockets ... that's probably my major memory," he said.

The commandos held their positions under sustained attack then launched aggressive counter-attacks, eventually pursuing the much-depleted enemy as they fled north.

Five kilometres away, on the morning of June 11, another battle was unfolding at the village of Tizak. Intelligence indicated a high-level insurgent commander was there and Burns dispatched a troop of 25 SASR soldiers, accompanied by Afghan special police, on a kill-or-capture mission.

They encountered a maelstrom of small-arms and RPG fire. Outnumbered four to one, the soldiers were "digging holes with their eyelids" as insurgents in the village and surrounding high ground blazed away. Helicopters were riddled with holes.

Soldiers inched forward under fire. Then Cpl Ben Roberts-Smith dashed across open ground, destroying three enemy machine gun positions.

"The guys systematically broke down that position and destroyed every single enemy machine gun position and every enemy in that village," Burns said. The fighting continued for 11 hours.

The Australian Defence Force doesn't reveal enemy body counts, but some reports put the overall toll well into triple figures, including a number of senior commanders. One Australian, one Afghan soldier and one Afghan civilian were wounded.

The Taliban propaganda machine claimed this as a great victory. SOTG knew otherwise.

"We did get indications that they took a pretty heavy hit," Burns said.

For a victory of this magnitude, which significantly degraded insurgent capabilities in the region throughout the 2010 fighting season, SOTG had escaped remarkably lightly. It wasn't to last.

On June 21, in one of the final operations of this campaign, three Australian commandos and a US crewman died in the crash of a US Black Hawk helicopter.

Seven commandos were wounded, some with terrible injuries.

Garry Robinson lost a leg and suffered a traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures.

He remembers nothing of this night-time crash, or the week before it. He's still working hard at getting better.

"I'm getting there, still going through the recovery process now, three days a week. It might be a while before I'm back at work, one day. I want to stay in the army," he said.

[cromagnumman]

thanx for extra info....would love to read a book on this offensive...great stuff....true bravery

[SgtJim]

thx for all Mickk
nice job as always :D

so, here is the Ben Roberts-Smith interview, uploaded to my youtube acc in 2012.Feb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc-mmnLXGok

[mickk]

Nice work Sarge.