Afghan dam triumph as 1,600 British troops carry out........
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Afghan dam triumph as 1,600 British troops carry out most daring raid 'since Second World War'
British troops used a mixture of bribery, trickery and bombs to mount one the most daring operations since the Second World War.
In an extraordinary operation, a huge force was responsible for driving a massive hydroelectric turbine through the heart of Helmand - so engineers can complete Afghanistan's biggest reconstruction project.
It was the largest operation British forces have mounted in Afghanistan since the early 1900s, and it will let the Americans finish a project they started more than 50 years ago.
At least 1,600 troops were involved in clearing the route and guarding a 200 vehicle convoy that delivered more than 100 tons of turbine to the Kajaki dam on Monday.
Mission: More than 1,600 troops were needed to ensure the turbine got to the Kajaki dam in safety
They were backed by two US aircraft carriers worth of fighter jets, on constant standby off the Pakistani coast.
The hydroelectric power station, in northern Helmand, has potential to supply most of southern Afghanistan with energy.
But US-led engineers have been unable to get a new turbine into the power station because the area is surrounded by thousands of Taliban fighters.
The turbine was too heavy to fly in by helicopter and officials insisted it was too dangerous to drive by road, because the massive tank transporters - needed to carry the industrial parts - can only move at a few miles per hour over the rough Helmand roads.
It has been a source of huge embarrassment for American officials, because very little progress has been made since 2001, despite millions of dollars poured into the project, and they have heaped pressure on British forces to help them out.
Until, recently, the only way they could get there was along the deadly 611 Highway, which runs the length of Helmand's Green Zone past Lashkargah, Gereshk and Sangin.
The road is so dangerous that troops at the dam are only ever moved and resupplied by helicopter.
The dam will eventually provide energy to much of southern Afghanistan
Military chiefs feared the convoy would get smashed by Taliban ambushes, which could have destroyed the precision made machinery with one well-aimed rocket propelled grenade.
But all that changed after elite troops from the Parachute Regiment's Pathfinder Platoon discovered a mountain pass which meant the convoy could avoid the worst of the Helmand hotspots.
'If we had brought it up the 611, the level of destruction we would have had to cause would not have been worth it,' said Lieutenant Colonel Huw Williams, the commanding officer of 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment.
'Our pathfinder platoon found this route, and that's really what made it possible,' he added.
'We have gone from what was militarily very difficult, but politically very desirable, to militarily achievable.
'It's a political showpiece, but it will deliver something tangible, and it is militarily achievable. That's what changed in the last month.'
The pathfinders proved the 36-wheeled tank transporters could make it through the Gorak Pass, in the mountains about 15miles south east of Kajaki.
It meant the convoy could drive through the desert from Kandahar Airfield, where it was based, and only cross into Helmand at the last minute.
The new route was code-named Route Harriet and kept top secret.
The British government issued a blanket ban on all media reports linked to the operation - which was only lifted once the turbine had arrived.
Meanwhile the rest of the Parachute Regiment was tasked with making that last stretch, through Helmand, safe.
The convoy still had to drive through Kajaki Sofla, an insurgent safe haven to the south of the dam, which was laced with underground bunkers and tunnel systems, and
almost completely unvisited by international forces.
Tricking the Taliban
Their first step was to trick the Taliban into thinking they would use the 611.
As hundreds of troops helicoptered into Kajaki, soldiers further down the valley in Sangin began clearing the road as if they were expecting a convoy.
'We tried to look at what they were expecting - and there's only one road,' said Lt Col Williams. 'We were just trying to play to their preconceived ideas.'
British Royal Marines on duty in Kajaki: The army has fought a long campaign against Taliban militants in the area
Then at 6.30am on Tuesday 26 August, around 150 soldiers from 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, backed by more than 400 Afghan troops and their Royal Irish mentors, pushed south out of their base, on the edge of the dam, to probe the Taliban lines.
The night before Lt Col Williams had told them, 'The whole world is watching to see what the Parachute Regiment can do'.
'There are reports of more fighters coming into the area. That's more people to kill and I have got no problem with killing them,' he added.
'You've got everything you need to do the job and it's war fighting rules of engagement. If you see it, smash it.'
Fighter jets, drones and a fleet of Apache helicopter gunships were already crowding the skies as the men left camp.
Artillery guns and two mortar lines were primed to hit known Taliban compounds to their south, while troops on nearby hilltops watched their progress through the sights of Javelin anti-tank missiles and 50 calibre machine guns.
Moments after the troops set off, the Taliban launched a volley of missiles at the camp.
One landed less than ten metres outside a compound where a company of men were waiting on standby.
A second skimmed a few metres over a hilltop look out. Both were met with what the Paras call 'overwhelming force'.
The Apaches opened up with hellfire missiles and 30mm canons, fighter jets dropped at least three 500lb bombs on a single compound.
The 105 artillery guns fired more than 160 shells and the mortars fired more than 300 rounds.
'It is an example of our might,' said Major Ben Howells. 'It is sending a message as well as having a military effect.
'The military effect is to destroy the enemy and the positions that he has, in order to get the turbine through.
'The message it sends is this: We're more powerful than you, your best course of action is not to fight us.'
Late that night the convoy left Kandahar. It stretched six miles from start to finish. the dust trail could be seen more than 20miles away.
There were around 200 vehicles and 400 men, including oil tankers carrying 80,000 litres of fuel, at least two sea containers full of drinking water - to keep the troops alive - and one with 84 spare wheels for the HETS tank transporters. But it made slow progress.
'The trucks that they are using were designed to take tanks along German motorways,' said Lt Col Willams. 'They are not designed to go along dusty desert tracks.;
On Thursday August 28 around 500 Afghan troops took two key Taliban positions - known as Big top and Sentry Compound - linked by a complex network of tunnels, bunkers and rat-runs. It took them less than 35 minutes.
A rifle in one hand and a teapot in the other...
Eyewitnesses said the lead soldier charged into battle with a rifle in one hand and a teapot in the other.
They had been in the middle of breakfast when the order came in, to advance.
They suffered two casualties. A soldier was wounded when a sniper hit him in the hip.
A second died fishing - with a generator - when he electrocuted himself by putting live leads in the water.
British officers said around 50 Taliban were killed, and another 50 fled the area. American Green Berets were operating to the south of the Paras, in support.
An American spokesman said at least 200 Taliban were killed.
Then, on Saturday August 30 British soldiers tried to cut a deal.
Using local elders as go-betweens with the Taliban, they offered $25,000 (£12,500) in exchange for safe passage of the convoy.
The cash was offered as compensation for closing the local bazaar for a week.
'We knew they were talking to the Taliban, but our deal was with the local elders,' said Captain Steve Boardman, who led the negotiations.
The elders agreed, on the understanding the Paras would not search their compounds, nor stray more than 300 metres from the road.
Hours later intelligence reports showed insurgents had been removing and destroying roadside bombs in the road.
But by morning the deal was off.
Action: Royal Marines, mounting an Operation to clear compounds used by the Taliban in the area of Barikjo in Kajaki
'We took them the papers to sign and no one turned up,' Capt Boardman added. 'I think the local Taliban agreed, but their highers in Pakistan said no.'
Afghan troops used VHF radios to harangue the Taliban across no mans land.
When one of the soldiers asked why they wouldn't let the turbine through the insurgent replied: 'We don't need electricity. We have Islam.'
Undeterred, three companies of paratroopers pushed through Kajaki Sofla stopping only to destroy a few pockets of resistance.
Most of the insurgents appeared to have fled. They left behind a series of freshly dug trench systems, linking underground bunkers overlooking the road.
The convoy arrived late on Monday night and took more than six hours to unload. It still has to make it back, and it could be more than two years before Afghans get the benefit of the new equipment.
George Wilder, the Texan engineer overseeing a Chinese company
refurbishing the powerhouse, said the powerlines need upgrading all the way to Kandahar to handle their new load.And that's after the new turbine is installed.
'We've got a year to do it,' he said. 'But I think we can do it in nine months, depending how much I keep my foot on their arse.'
British soldiers on routine patrol in Afghanistan: The Kajaki dam mission was one of the most daring operations UK troops have been involved in since the Second World War
Source: Daily Mail UK, September 2, 2008
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the Paras & Royal Marines no less...hard bastards. dunno what will happen if they use crap-hat regiments instead
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Through the article, it seemed more like they took 611 instead of the newly discovered?
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A second died fishing - with a generator - when he electrocuted himself by putting live leads in the water.
dot dot dot ...........................
but hey .... funny isn't it ? .... the brits expend money, sweat and blood so that the chinese and make money with the turbines and dams ...
