Posted on 11/15/2007 8:19:44 PM PST by PotatoHeadMick
The intensity of combat in Afghanistan has been laid bare as one Army regiment revealed that it had fired one million rounds, killed 1,028 Taliban and lost nine men in a six-month tour of duty.
At times, fighting saw 1Bn of the Royal Anglians having to "winkle out the Taliban at the point of a bayonet", said Lt Col Stuart Carver, the commanding officer, at the battalion's medal ceremony.
At times the fighting was on a par with that experienced in the Second World War and the casualty rate was similar, with nine men killed and a further 135 wounded.
In a moving speech given by a former commander of the Anglians, Major Gen John Sutherell said they had completed the "most demanding tour" ever asked of the regiment.
"In spite of the heat and privations you have taken on a hard and fanatical enemy on their own grounds and driven them back. The fighting has been remorseless in its intensity and often at very close quarters.
"You have shown courage, endurance and professional skill and comradeship of a very high order.
"But you have also shown the intelligent restraint and humanity to discern between those who have been trying to kill you and the people we are in Afghanistan to help."
The conflict had not come "without costs" but the battalion should be "incredibly proud" of itself.
The general, who also served in the SAS, said: "You are truly comrades in arms, a band of brothers and you have our deepest gratitude, respect and admiration."
After he finished a woman from the crowd of almost 2,000 family and friends shouted "three cheers for our boys". She was met with a rapturous response.
Lt Col Carver said his men had fought conventional trench warfare, engaging a well-trained enemy from, at times, 15 feet away.
"There was some pretty fierce fighting in conditions you would sometimes see in World War Two, clearing buildings and trenches."
The enemy was highly trained and well equipped, although others were poorly trained fanatics.
"The good ones are extremely good, religiously motivated and will stay and fight until the last," Lt Col Carver said. "Sometimes they had to be winkled out of buildings at the point of a bayonet."
He said the Taliban mounted more than 350 attacks on his troops.
"By the end of the Anglian tour, three quarters of shop fronts had been restored to Sangin, which had previously been a ghost town. A school for 500 boys and girls had opened and the population had electricity. The security threat had also dropped to 'Northern Ireland levels'."
Despite the heroism of the tour, one third of the battalion received no recognition for the fighting they experienced.
Although General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, had indicated that a "Southern Afghanistan" clasp would be added to the Afghanistan campaign medal, it appears the MoD is dragging its feet over the issue.
The entire back row of three on parade at Pirbright Barracks, Surrey, did not get a medal as they had already received one during the "benign" Anglian tour of 2002.
Yesterday, the soldiers called for a recognition of the fighting they had experienced.
"It is chronically unfair that this has not been the case," said one soldier.
Thank you.
I thought, "Oh, wow, don't get Her Majesty pissed at you."
Winkle Out : - To force out , like you force out the sea - food out of it’s shell .
I am surprised the Royal Anglias have inflicted so much damage though ; they don’t come from a particularly rough part of the country . On the other hand , some of the Jock regiments (the Black Watch or the Cameron Highlanders) or the Paras being mental cases I can understand .
By the bye , can any Freeper tell me if the US Army has units which recruit in certain States or cities ? If not , why not ?
It works for you Brits, but we never saw the need.
Joined the Terriers when I was 19 ; 872 Field Sqn. Royal Engineers (V), Mafeking Barracks , Manby (near where I live ).
Hated it for the first few weeks , but ended up staying in it for 3 years !
navy ships used to be crewed with the inhabitants of the states they were named for, but losing one meant too much devastation to morale that theystopped the practice...
teeman
I have no idea what he's trying to say.
Curiously when I was growing up in Derry in the 1970’s and 80’s the Royal Anglians were the most disliked British Regiment, after the Paras (for obvious reasons). They seemed to be involved in an inordinate amout of deaths of civilians (ok not all of them were strictly speaking ‘civilians’) and I believe there was even long term resentment about their behaviour in the city during riots and civil disturbances back in the early 1920’s!
The Royal Marines and the Scottish regiments never attracted such hostility in a way that those regiments did in Belfast due to their, shall we say, rather robust attitude to soldiering there.
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