UPDATE FROM COMBINED FORCE NAHR-E-SARAJ (NORTH)

Transcription

1 UPDATE FROM COMBINED FORCE NAHR-E-SARAJ (NORTH) One month in, and on the eve of the deployment of the rifle companies, I thought that it be useful to update you on progress here in Combined Force Nahr-e-Saraj (North). The core of the Battlegroup Headquarters and a supporting element deployed to Afghanistan in late January. After an enforced pause in Cyprus (bad weather and a broken plane) we eventually made it into theatre and embarked upon an exhaustive (and exhausting!) period of continuation training. This successfully honed the skills that we had developed in the busy period of pre-training in the UK, and updated us on the latest situation of the ground. We then deployed forward to the town of Gereshk in Nahr-e-Saraj District and began the process of taking over Combined Force Nahr-e-Saraj (North) from a Danish battlegroup. The Danes have led the ISAF effort in this area for the past five years and have a done a quite outstanding job. Their efforts have now turned increasingly to Afghan police and army capacity building, but they have also left a significant combat element under my command including a troop of tanks and an armoured infantry company. There are also more than a dozen Danish staff officers in Battlegroup Headquarters. All-in-all their contribution is significant, and hugely welcome; particularly so because most of them come from our paired regiment, the Danish Royal Life Guards! The rest of the battlegroup is made up of two rifle companies from 1 st Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, a rifle company from 1 st Battalion the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment (PWRR), and a formation reconnaissance squadron from the Queen s Dragoon Guards. In addition, we have a mind-boggling array of smaller attachments which together bring our all-up strength to over a thousand men. It is a real privilege to command soldiers from such a spread of fine regiments. They have done an outstanding job in making the transition from Danish to British command seamless. The Battalion s rifle companies deploy in the next month to take over from the Yorkshire Regiment and PWRR companies. The Nahr-e-Saraj (North) area of operations is large, diverse and challenging. It is mostly desert but the Helmand River running through its heart creates in the summer at least a lush cultivated belt which we call the Green Zone. Highway 1, the ring road that circles the country, is Afghanistan s most strategically significant internal route and cuts through the District from east to west for 75 kilometres. Over ninety thousand people live here, most of them in the bustling district capital of Gereshk. Gereshk is the mercantile hub of Helmand Province and was, until the 1950s, its capital. Interestingly, the town and the Green Zone to its north-east consumed a great deal of our effort during the Battalion s tour in Of course, much has changed since then, not least the competence and assertiveness of the Afghan National Army and Afghan Uniformed Police. The past four weeks have been perhaps unsurprisingly action packed. Highlights have included a battlegroup operation in support of an Afghan National Army clearance of a contested rural area to our south, the protection and then opening of the largest single span bridge constructed by the Royal Engineers since World War 2, and the energetic consolidation of the nascent Afghan National Army hold in the recently cleared north-eastern approaches to Gereshk. All the while framework activity has gone on in the background to help the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) maintain security and get ever better. The focus for the seven months ahead is ensuring both that the security situation in Nahr-e- Saraj is sufficiently permissive, and that the ANSF are sufficiently capable, to allow us to pass leadership of the counter insurgency campaign here across to the Afghans. Whilst the challenge is pronounced, particularly in the heat of the summer months, the prospects of success are good. I will write monthly updating you on progress towards this goal.

2 The Regimental Sergeant Major advertising the Arnhem style helmet camouflage deemed necessary in the Green Zone during an operation Commanding Officer of Danish Team 12 and our Commanding Officer pay their respects as the raising of the Battalion Battle Flag signifies the transfer of Command in the NES (N) AO

3 The typical terrain of the NES (N) AO during the winter months. In the summer this will be green and the crops will reach in excess of 7 feet high restricting view and covering movement The Commanding Officer shares a joke with the ANA and AUP during the opening ceremony of the Malvern Bridge which was led by the District Governor

4 A windswept patrol across the desert (Dashte) in the winter months can be more uncomfortable than one might first imagine Patrol Base living is a basic affair but preferred by most because it is what people call proper soldiering.

5 Any opportunity is a photo opportunity for the CF HQ during their recce of the AO at the start of the tour