Posted on 11/16/2007 9:16:21 AM PST by uksupport1
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....
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....
He said the Taliban mounted more than 350 attacks on his troops.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
BUMP
—good casualty ratio and not bad marksmanship by modern standards—a thousand rounds per kill—
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.
......................................................
Very impressive. Hats off.
Much love to our allies!
“Hard to keep track of all the defeats the Limeys have
suffered since 1776.”
Your post started badly, got confusing in the middle and ended with a a laughable statement as seen above.
Jealous of the UK are you mate? You don’t hide it vey well.
Cordial respect to all other American Freepers, but none to you. That back-stabbing little tirade of yours was shameful.
The British have achieved great things in the War on Terror. This is a time to celebrate, as allies. But it seems that even FR has a quota of snivelling little bastards who live only to denigrate those who support America.
Get stuffed MV. Go back to DU.
Probably a lot of it was “covering fire.”
We were trained by the New York police :0)
Notice MV uses a quote from the “Limey” Winston Churchill as his tagline?
Oh, yeah jealousy.
Ah, ah, yeah, yeah, that’s what it is!
Laughable? This is laughable. mate:
I forgot to mention that pathetic crawl across the Atlantic
in 1982 to retake the Falklands from a 4rth rate military.
At any rate. welcome to Afghanistan, that land of British defeat,
Soviet collapse and forefront of American unipolarity doctrine.
MV
Oh please!
Allies be allies when they think they will get something out of
the deal w/ miinmal cost to themselves.
Get a life! Better yet, call the drycleaners and ask if your brain is ready.
MV
Your hilarious mate. I wish I could live in the parallel world you come from.
I believe you refer to the British victory against a technologically matched, numerically superior opponent in the Falklands which some US military advisors thought would be impossible?
By the way, kindly explain how we ‘Limeys’ formed the world’s largest Empire. The UK has an unparalled military heritage.
I'm starting to worry about your sanity. Granted, the Argentineans were using D-list troops, but they were excellently sited with weeks to prepare. And their airforce was superb - it was like fighting the IAF, but without the arab military innovation of using human shields.
Meanwhile the British were fighting over an 8000 mile supply line in the coldest livable part of the South Atlantic. The word you're looking for isn't 'pathetic crawl', it's 'tour-de-force'. An amazing feat of arms.
You’re talking to a man who thinks that the UK has lost so many wars that its ‘hard to count’ mate. Be afraid, be very afraid :-) Reality is irrelevant to this guy.
“Your hilarious mate”
Don’t you mean “you’re” hilarious? My, my, my. Murdering the
King’s (or is the king wearing a dress) English. And us ill-mannered
Americans are accused of bastardizing the King’s English.
(You also ended a sentence in a prep, but I won’t hold that agin you).
Re the Falklands. Does not change the fact that the Brits “limped”.
Unparalled militarry history? In that the Colonies defeated you
‘Limeys’ in 1776 (or I think officially it was 1783), you were
obliterated at New Orleans in 1814 and have been in decline
ever since. The irony of all ironies is the country that started
this descent pulled your bacon out of the fire not once but twice
in the 20th century, the second occasion which spelled our
“Coming Out Party”.
In an outside-the-box way of thinking about and defining “Empire”,
no country has ever come close to being/having the Influence that
Uncle Sugar has today. But, then again, thinking outside-the-box is
the parallel world from which I come.
The Empire you speak of no longer exists. Except maybe in
that parallel world from which you come, which appears to
be akin to LaLa Land. Bit of Frenchthink methinks.
So stand aside, mate. Yours is clearly second or third fiddle.
MV
Yeah right.
No. I think pathetic crawl sums it up about right.
MV
All-volunteer force, excellent training, and equipment improvements make a big difference, but I think the modern British troops still have the same drive and moxie of their grandfathers from WW2.
And while a million rounds might sound a lot, that is actually a much better round/kill ratio than either the UK or the US had in WW2.
A kill ratio of 114 to 1 is good by anyone’s standards, even if it took an inordinate amount of lead to do it.
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