Gurkha Spirit Triumphs In Siege Of Nawzad, Afghanistan
Gurkha Spirit Triumphs In Siege Of Nawzad
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The Gurkhas were never supposed to fire a shot in anger in Helmand. Their main duty was to protect the main British Army base at Camp Bastion.
But as British forces found themselves fighting a full-scale war, the Gurkhas were thrust into the front line and became involved in some of the fiercest fire fights of the summer-long campaign.
One of the most dramatic engagements took place in the town of Nawzad, a key strategic post in southern Helmand.
The Gurkha commanders realised that trouble was brewing when the town centre emptied of civilians.
As night fell they heard the sounds of holes being chipped through the walls of the buildings close to their fortified ''platoon house", the town's police station. Then the sound of civilian electricity generators in the town abruptly ceased, so that in the silence approaching British helicopters could be heard sooner.
"We knew it was the calm before the storm. We sensed what was coming," said Major Dan Rex, 35, the Gurkhas' tall, softly spoken commander.
During the next 10 days, the 40 Gurkhas sent to Nawzad to hold the police station fought tenaciously to defend themselves as they were subjected to 28 attacks lasting one to six hours each, including five full scale efforts by hundreds of Taliban fighters to over-run their compound.
Senior British officers say it was one of a series of grueling attritional sieges that have characterised the bloody first six months of the British deployment to Helmand.
They paid tribute to the courage displayed by the 110- man mixed force from the 1st and 2nd Gurkha Rifles, particularly those who fought so valiantly to defend the Nawzad police station.
"I held a Shura (meeting) with the town elders to discuss the deteriorating situation just before the attacks began," Major Rex said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph.
"Several of those present eyeballed me throughout, and I subsequently discovered they were the Taliban commanders coming to size me up."
The first major attack began at 1.50am when a Gurkha corporal spotted armed men "leopard crawling" towards the compound 60 yards away. He opened fire killing four.
Ten minutes later a coordinated assault began from three directions. Every one of the six sand-bagged positions around the compound and on its roof were hit by rocket-propelled grenades. The command post on the roof received four separate hits.
For many of the Gurkhas, seven of whom had just finished training, it was their first experience of combat. "For the first five minutes under fire I was just so frightened," said Tkam Paha Dur, a 19-year-old Gurkha rifleman, to the amusement of his comrades. "After that it became just like a live firing exercise."
With the Taliban closer than 50 yards, Rifleman Nabin Rai, 20, manning a heavy machinegun on the roof, had several rounds ricochet off his weapon before a bullet went through the gunsight and hit him in the face.
"His commander called for him to be medivacced out, but he refused to come down from the roof," said Major Rex. "Later he was again hit, this time in the helmet. He sat down and had a cigarette, then went back to his position."
With a full moon negating the advantage of British night vision equipment, the Taliban launched another full-scale assault the next night, using dried up underground watercourses to move men and ammunition around the British position.
"We took two or three RPG hits on one position and significant machinegun fire from a range of about 20 yards," said Lt Angus Mathers, 26.
"They had used tunnels and knocked holes in the compound walls to get close."
The Gurkhas threw 21 grenades at the Taliban position before an Apache helicopter arrived overhead.
The pilot later described the situation as "like the Wild West", with tracer converging on him from numerous positions. He hovered 20 yards above the compound firing back with the helicopter's cannon while the empty shell cases cascaded on to the heads of the Gurkhas below.
The Gurkhas faced constant danger from several snipers and Taliban mortar teams.
"The snipers had positions in buildings two rooms back with holes cut through the walls to give them a field of fire," said Major Rex.
British troops could not show themselves during the day and a signaler was shot in the back, but survived his injuries. In response the Gurkhas flew in a specialist sniper. "It was cat and mouse for a couple of days," said Major Rex. "Then our sniper, Corporal Imbahadar Gurung, got four confirmed kills."
Two mortar positions were spotted and destroyed by aircraft but the third continued to elude British spotters for several days. "Eventually my JTAC (ground-air coordinator) caught the smoke as it fired out of the corner of his eye," said Major Rex. "An American aircraft dropped a 2,000lb bomb on the spot and that ended the mortar fire." After a particularly heavy attack Major Rex used the Afghan police radio, which was known to be listened to by the Taliban, to send them a message through an interpreter.
"I said 'you have two paths here. If the attacks continue you will suffer. We are being restrained. We take no pleasure in this. We are here to help you if you want a better life. It is in your hands.' "
By the time the attacks began to peter out the British estimated that they had killed 100 Taliban fighters. Three British soldiers were injured.
