Page 10 - MERCIAN Eagle 2011

OC
2IC
CSM CQMS 4Pl Comd 4 Pl Sgt 5Pl Comd 5 Pl Sgt 6Pl Comd 6 Pl Sgt
Maj D J Cook
Lt N R Rager WO2 N M Green CSgt C Beeseley Lt T J Fisher
Lt T J Fisher Gapped
Sgt DST McQueen 2Lt G J Nicholls Sgt G Moitt
8
B (Malta) Company
Introduction
As we return from summer leave it is time to sum up, in a few words, the immense amount of work that the company has undertaken in the past twelve months. This period has witnessed the Company being re-formed at short notice for Op HERRICK 12, disbanded after the tour and then finally re-formed for a second time before once again entering the training cycle for Op HERRICK 17.
At the same time there have been some major personality changes with the Company saying farewell Maj Grover MBE, Maj Aucott,
Capt Brown and Capt Dyson, Capt Wheeler, WO2 (CSM) Higginbottom MBE and CSgt Budworth. They were replaced by Maj Cook, Lt Fisher, 2Lt Nicholls, WO2 (CSM) Green and CSgt Beesley.
The endeavours of the Company have been rewarded with MBEs for Maj Grover and WO2 (CSM) Higginbottom, MiDs for Sgt Moitt, Cpl Dare, Pte Boon, Pte Jack, and a QCB for LCpl Haag.
The immense success of the Company did not come without a price. We all owe so much to those who laid down their lives
or sustained life-changing injuries; their efforts and courage will not be forgotten. DJ
Magnets’ as the initial occupation of these compounds took place in the midst of the most fierce and sustained fighting the area had seen since Operation PANTHERS
CLAW more than a year before, when
ISAF forces had first fought their way into this region. For the second half of the
tour the focus was
very much on turning Char Coucha into a ‘Protected Community’; establishing and
developing CP Shaheen and CP Lamar, building links with the locals, removing Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)
and encouraging people to move back
into areas of the village which had been abandoned. This, although a slow process, was gradually successful. By the time
we handed over to 2 PARA they had two well established footholds in the village
and a dramatically improved freedom of movement which set the conditions for them to conduct further clearance operations, removing the last of the IEDs and continuing to build the trust of the local population.
We waved goodbye from the back of the helicopter to a very different area than the one we arrived in 7 months before, but the price paid for those changes was
B Company on Op HERRICK 12 by Lt N R Rager
The B Company that deployed to Afghanistan last year was, in the true spirit of the British Army (expect the unexpected), formed just weeks prior to our flights
into Theatre. Due to the handover of
Musa Qualah, 1 MERCIAN was required
to provide a fifth sub unit to support 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles (1 RGR). So 1 Platoon A Company, 8 Platoon C Company and Recce Platoon became Cobra 41, Cobra 42 and Cobra 43: the new (and some might say improved) B Company under the Command of Maj Rich Grover.
Our Area of Operations (AO) was Patrol Base 1 in Nar-E-Saraj (South), tucked in
the Eastern corner of the 1 RGR AO, with
a canal to the north, the Apashak Wadi to the east flowing down to the River Helmand away to the south. Well inside the Green Zone, the intricate network of interlocking irrigation ditches and accompanying vegetation made a patchwork landscape almost reminiscent of English hedgerows, but only if viewed from a considerable distance. The bases we took over,
Patrol Base (PB) 1 and Checkpoint (CP) KINGSHILL, were based on Afghan mud compounds with some additions in the form of HESCO walls and, in the case of the PB, basic facilities and tented accommodation. Throughout the tour Cpl Price, amongst his many other jobs, was constantly working
to improve the living conditions and level of comfort, assisted by any engineers who passed through and could be put to
Cpl Pryce making an entrance
work on improving toilets, showers and communal areas.
The handover we received from the previous unit was sparse; their knowledge of the area having been
limited by manpower
issues, restricting their
ability to patrol and
interact with the local
people. This became
our initial task – to
get out and ‘find, feel
and understand’ the
dynamics of the area
and its population,
simultaneously demonstrating to the locals a more constant and concentrated ISAF presence. As we began to do this the local Taliban began to wake up to the fact that things had changed, and that we were going to be pushing further, and harder,
into what they had come to think of as ‘their’ territory, than they had been used
to. This proved to be something of a sore point with them. Over the next weeks and months the men of B (Malta) Company fought hard to expand the area in which we could operate in relative comfort, pushing the Taliban back from the area around PB 1 and CP KINGSHILL, extending our influence south and east into the village of Char Coucha and west into Enezy, and in doing so separating the insurgent from the local population and building
relations between the
locals, ourselves and
our partnered Afghan
Army Kandak.
Following the ‘Clear, Hold and Build’ model of counter-insurgency we followed this kinetic period with
a move towards the
development of static check point locations in the village of Char Coucha. We received welcome assistance from a Troop of Royal Dragoon Guards in their Viking armoured vehicles, known affectionately as ‘Bullet
...our initial task – to get out and ‘find, feel and understand’ the dynamics of the area and its population
considerable. We left in PB 1 a memorial to those who paid the ultimate price for the ground we gained. When we first arrived in Bastion the mention of PB 1 was greeted by blank looks and questions of ‘where’s that?’; by the time we
flew back in on the way home, the change was noticeable. PB 1 was now very much ‘on the map’ thanks to the efforts of the lads of B Company.
NRR
We waved goodbye to a very different area than the one we arrived in 7 months before
THE MERCIAN EAGLE