Gurkhas are the ideal warriors to win battles, hearts and minds
Legendary Nepalese warriors are the best troops to drive out the Taleban, say their commanders Photographs by Peter Nicholls
Catherine Philp in UpperGereshkValley
Click here to see a gallery of Peter Nicholls' photographs
Lit by the fireworks of an artillery barrage, the Gurkhas crouched in the desert chill, waiting for the command to move. In silence they crept across a bridge slung over the canal into enemy territory. Dawn came and went without a sighting. And then the Taleban attacked.
Barely 12 hours into Operation Palk Wahel, or Sledgehammer Hit, the biggest British military offensive in Afghanistan since the spring, the Gurkhas had met their enemy. Rifle cracks filled the air, bullets pinging in the dust as rocket-propelled grenades skimmed overhead.
“Get down,” a commander screamed, and the men scurried to a ditch beside the poppy field, firing towards the trees where the Taleban were hiding. Overhead the eerie grunting of fighter jet cannon could be heard strafing the enemy.
It was the resistance that the Gurkhas had been expecting since they crept out from the desert under a fingernail moon and into the notorious “green zone”, the dense sliver of fertile land alongside the Helmand river that the Taleban have made their domain.
Pushed out by British troops from the towns of Gereshk and Sangin at either end of the valley, it was here that the Taleban retreated, taking refuge in the fortress-like mud compounds set in a maze of towering corn criss-crossed with streams and irrigation ditches.
“It is nothing like the rest of Helmand, it is more like the Normandy bocage,” Lieutenant-Colonel Jonny Bourne, the commanding officer of the Gurkhas, said, evoking the beautiful but treacherous terrain that Allied forces had to fight through after the 1944 Normandy landings. “The Taleban know that in the desert we can beat them every time. But in the green zone they have the upper hand.”
British troops have battled through the green zone several times in the past six months and driven the Taleban out, but each time that they have moved on, the Taleban have come back, wreaking vengeance on villagers who cooperated with the foreigners.
This time it is meant be different. Military commanders and civilians have planned the offensive together. The idea is to hold territory so that reconstruction can begin, wooing locals away from the Taleban.
“If you drive out the Taleban, you’ve got to endure,” said David Slinn, the civilian head of the provincial reconstruction team for Helmand. “There have been lessons learnt.”
So, on their first day on the Helmand front line, the Gurkhas crept across a metal footbridge into the Taleban stronghold. To the south soldiers from the Mercian Regiment, nearing the end of their tour, would move northwards to join them.
The Gurkhas, the legendary Nepalese warriors, were chosen for this role. No other regiment could be better suited, their commanding officer said, for this combination of ferocious fighting and winning of local hearts and minds. “The Gurkhas have a natural advantage here,” Colonel Bourne said. “They have an affinity with the people here. It’s in that interaction with the people where we want to make a real difference.”
Before that, however, would come the fighting. “They are the loveliest people in the world,” Colonel Bourne added. “But when the switch is flicked, it gets very nasty.” .........
at timesonline.co.uk/world
Legendary Nepalese warriors are the best troops to drive out the Taleban, say their commanders Photographs by Peter Nicholls
Catherine Philp in UpperGereshkValley
Click here to see a gallery of Peter Nicholls' photographs
Lit by the fireworks of an artillery barrage, the Gurkhas crouched in the desert chill, waiting for the command to move. In silence they crept across a bridge slung over the canal into enemy territory. Dawn came and went without a sighting. And then the Taleban attacked.
Barely 12 hours into Operation Palk Wahel, or Sledgehammer Hit, the biggest British military offensive in Afghanistan since the spring, the Gurkhas had met their enemy. Rifle cracks filled the air, bullets pinging in the dust as rocket-propelled grenades skimmed overhead.
“Get down,” a commander screamed, and the men scurried to a ditch beside the poppy field, firing towards the trees where the Taleban were hiding. Overhead the eerie grunting of fighter jet cannon could be heard strafing the enemy.
It was the resistance that the Gurkhas had been expecting since they crept out from the desert under a fingernail moon and into the notorious “green zone”, the dense sliver of fertile land alongside the Helmand river that the Taleban have made their domain.
Pushed out by British troops from the towns of Gereshk and Sangin at either end of the valley, it was here that the Taleban retreated, taking refuge in the fortress-like mud compounds set in a maze of towering corn criss-crossed with streams and irrigation ditches.
“It is nothing like the rest of Helmand, it is more like the Normandy bocage,” Lieutenant-Colonel Jonny Bourne, the commanding officer of the Gurkhas, said, evoking the beautiful but treacherous terrain that Allied forces had to fight through after the 1944 Normandy landings. “The Taleban know that in the desert we can beat them every time. But in the green zone they have the upper hand.”
British troops have battled through the green zone several times in the past six months and driven the Taleban out, but each time that they have moved on, the Taleban have come back, wreaking vengeance on villagers who cooperated with the foreigners.
This time it is meant be different. Military commanders and civilians have planned the offensive together. The idea is to hold territory so that reconstruction can begin, wooing locals away from the Taleban.
“If you drive out the Taleban, you’ve got to endure,” said David Slinn, the civilian head of the provincial reconstruction team for Helmand. “There have been lessons learnt.”
So, on their first day on the Helmand front line, the Gurkhas crept across a metal footbridge into the Taleban stronghold. To the south soldiers from the Mercian Regiment, nearing the end of their tour, would move northwards to join them.
The Gurkhas, the legendary Nepalese warriors, were chosen for this role. No other regiment could be better suited, their commanding officer said, for this combination of ferocious fighting and winning of local hearts and minds. “The Gurkhas have a natural advantage here,” Colonel Bourne said. “They have an affinity with the people here. It’s in that interaction with the people where we want to make a real difference.”
Before that, however, would come the fighting. “They are the loveliest people in the world,” Colonel Bourne added. “But when the switch is flicked, it gets very nasty.” .........
at timesonline.co.uk/world