thedrifter
07-19-09, 07:13 AM
American military colossus arrives in a fleet of helicopters which British lack
When US Marines air assaulted into a notorious Taliban stronghold in the south of Helmand Province - far south of positions the British have struggled to hold for three years - they arrived in a fleet of Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters.
By Ben Farmer in Khan Neshin
Published: 8:01PM BST 18 Jul 2009
Americans now occupy the ramshackle grounds of a 300-year-old fort in Khan Neshin, on a bend of the Helmand River Valley known as the Fishhook.
It is far beyond anywhere their British allies ever managed to control; the Taliban's black-turbaned fighters are nowhere to be seen, although none of the battle-hardened Americans - part of a force which has flooded into Helmand with the US surge - expects them to stay quiet for long.
The US military colossus has moved into Afghanistan's most dangerous and turbulent province, moving troops, aircraft and armoured vehicles in numbers which British commanders could only dream of through their years of frustrating battle against a determined and deadly enemy.
The arrival of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade two months ago has put 10,000 United States Marines alongside 4,000 British soldiers.
The Marines have brought with them their own fleet of more than 50 helicopters and Harrier jets, and the US Army has also sent a combat aviation brigade of 60 to 80 more aircraft to southern Afghanistan.
After three years of overstretched British forces, desperately short of "air", officers describe their arrival as "game changing".
The well-supplied Americans are in stark contrast to their British brothers-in-arms, whose shortages of armoured vehicles and helicopters are the subject of political arguments at home
British operations like the current Panther's Claw have only been possible because of the influx of US helicopters which are shared with other nations.
The surge is changing the nature of the war in Helmand in many ways; at Camp Bastion, the billion pound British base constructed in the middle of the Helmand desert, few of the helicopters that land in relays amid clouds of dust are now British.
The fleets of helicopters have changed the way the war is being fought.
When 350 men of the Black Watch landed in a Taliban stronghold at the start of the operation, they would ideally have had 12 Chinook helicopters to carry them in, but they had to make do with less.
Then on July 2, the US Marines arrived - launching their biggest helicopter-borne assault since the Vietnam War.
After replacing British troops in central Helmand districts such as Garmsir, the American Marine commanders were careful to praise their predecessors - and the sentiment is genuine.
Commanders say they did a "great job" or they were "fantastic". But the praise is qualified by an acknowledgement they didn't have enough resources.
"The Brits did a phenomenal job," said one senior officer. "They didn't have a lot of people, they were a force of maybe three or four thousand I think, and we are coming in with 10,000 Marines, so we got a lot more to do a lot more things. We just have a lot more people."
Col George S Amland, deputy brigade commander, added: "The way that we have placed our range of forces within the Helmand river valley, we are a little bit more robust than those that have preceded us."
As well as their helicopters, the Marines have bought huge mine resistant trucks, designed to protect them from the roadside bombs which cause most coalition casualties.
Compared to the hulking Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) trucks, Marines marvel at the puny-looking British armour. Even compared to the smaller US vehicles, they say British armoured turrets look vulnerable.
But viewed from a helicopter flying over the wastes of Afghanistan's largest province, even this new surge of arms and fighting vehicles and aircraft seems to be swallowed up like water in a desert.
In Operation Khanjar, or sword strike, 4,000 American Marines pushed south along the Helmand river valley into areas where no Afghan government authorities have been for years. Marines have pushed into the districts of Garmsir, Nawa and parts of Rig. Even so vast swathes of the province remain outside their control - still havens for the Taliban.
Rather than stand and fight - and, as they have learnt, be slaughtered - their enemy has gone to ground. Before the operation, the districts of Garmsir, Nawa and Rig were thought to hold Taliban numbers in the "high hundreds".
But in the face of the US Marine helicopter assault, they have disappeared to hide among the population or in the mountains. US commanders think the Taliban's best fighters are being held back.
Col Amland said: "As we present certain surfaces to him, he tends to back off, get out of the way, assess us, probe us, and then come back and look for weak points or points he thinks he can exploit, get back and reclaim the territory he has lost.
"In all the places we have gone, we have seen a retreat followed by an assessment period."
The most hardened fighters, including foreign jihadists, are being held in reserve, the Americans believe. One military source said: "Their good fighters, their foreign fighters, the guys they have trained, they don't want them to meet the Marines, because they invariably get killed.
"The guys they pick up off the street to plant improvised explosive devices (IEDs) - they are all about throwing those into the fight.
Whenever they choose to fight us they get killed. The best way they can attack us is IEDs."
Despite the largest offensive yet with Barack Obama's surge of troops in Afghanistan, the reality is much of the province will still remain beyond the control of Nato or government forces. Fighters withdrawing from the Marines have moved to areas nearer the capital Lashkar Gah, such as the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in the cultivated green zone where farmers have access to water.
Col Amland said: "We haven't expanded throughout the entire Helmand valley, so in some of the larger areas of the green zone, around Lashkar Gah, there are areas where we know he has gone to ground, and we will have to get him at a later date."
He added: "I would hate to speculate on future operations, but it [Marjah] does provide an area for people to congregate in and make it a little bit easier for us to find them later."
Video's
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/5859070/American-military-colossus-arrives-in-a-fleet-of-helicopters-which-British-lack.html
Ellie
When US Marines air assaulted into a notorious Taliban stronghold in the south of Helmand Province - far south of positions the British have struggled to hold for three years - they arrived in a fleet of Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters.
By Ben Farmer in Khan Neshin
Published: 8:01PM BST 18 Jul 2009
Americans now occupy the ramshackle grounds of a 300-year-old fort in Khan Neshin, on a bend of the Helmand River Valley known as the Fishhook.
It is far beyond anywhere their British allies ever managed to control; the Taliban's black-turbaned fighters are nowhere to be seen, although none of the battle-hardened Americans - part of a force which has flooded into Helmand with the US surge - expects them to stay quiet for long.
The US military colossus has moved into Afghanistan's most dangerous and turbulent province, moving troops, aircraft and armoured vehicles in numbers which British commanders could only dream of through their years of frustrating battle against a determined and deadly enemy.
The arrival of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade two months ago has put 10,000 United States Marines alongside 4,000 British soldiers.
The Marines have brought with them their own fleet of more than 50 helicopters and Harrier jets, and the US Army has also sent a combat aviation brigade of 60 to 80 more aircraft to southern Afghanistan.
After three years of overstretched British forces, desperately short of "air", officers describe their arrival as "game changing".
The well-supplied Americans are in stark contrast to their British brothers-in-arms, whose shortages of armoured vehicles and helicopters are the subject of political arguments at home
British operations like the current Panther's Claw have only been possible because of the influx of US helicopters which are shared with other nations.
The surge is changing the nature of the war in Helmand in many ways; at Camp Bastion, the billion pound British base constructed in the middle of the Helmand desert, few of the helicopters that land in relays amid clouds of dust are now British.
The fleets of helicopters have changed the way the war is being fought.
When 350 men of the Black Watch landed in a Taliban stronghold at the start of the operation, they would ideally have had 12 Chinook helicopters to carry them in, but they had to make do with less.
Then on July 2, the US Marines arrived - launching their biggest helicopter-borne assault since the Vietnam War.
After replacing British troops in central Helmand districts such as Garmsir, the American Marine commanders were careful to praise their predecessors - and the sentiment is genuine.
Commanders say they did a "great job" or they were "fantastic". But the praise is qualified by an acknowledgement they didn't have enough resources.
"The Brits did a phenomenal job," said one senior officer. "They didn't have a lot of people, they were a force of maybe three or four thousand I think, and we are coming in with 10,000 Marines, so we got a lot more to do a lot more things. We just have a lot more people."
Col George S Amland, deputy brigade commander, added: "The way that we have placed our range of forces within the Helmand river valley, we are a little bit more robust than those that have preceded us."
As well as their helicopters, the Marines have bought huge mine resistant trucks, designed to protect them from the roadside bombs which cause most coalition casualties.
Compared to the hulking Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) trucks, Marines marvel at the puny-looking British armour. Even compared to the smaller US vehicles, they say British armoured turrets look vulnerable.
But viewed from a helicopter flying over the wastes of Afghanistan's largest province, even this new surge of arms and fighting vehicles and aircraft seems to be swallowed up like water in a desert.
In Operation Khanjar, or sword strike, 4,000 American Marines pushed south along the Helmand river valley into areas where no Afghan government authorities have been for years. Marines have pushed into the districts of Garmsir, Nawa and parts of Rig. Even so vast swathes of the province remain outside their control - still havens for the Taliban.
Rather than stand and fight - and, as they have learnt, be slaughtered - their enemy has gone to ground. Before the operation, the districts of Garmsir, Nawa and Rig were thought to hold Taliban numbers in the "high hundreds".
But in the face of the US Marine helicopter assault, they have disappeared to hide among the population or in the mountains. US commanders think the Taliban's best fighters are being held back.
Col Amland said: "As we present certain surfaces to him, he tends to back off, get out of the way, assess us, probe us, and then come back and look for weak points or points he thinks he can exploit, get back and reclaim the territory he has lost.
"In all the places we have gone, we have seen a retreat followed by an assessment period."
The most hardened fighters, including foreign jihadists, are being held in reserve, the Americans believe. One military source said: "Their good fighters, their foreign fighters, the guys they have trained, they don't want them to meet the Marines, because they invariably get killed.
"The guys they pick up off the street to plant improvised explosive devices (IEDs) - they are all about throwing those into the fight.
Whenever they choose to fight us they get killed. The best way they can attack us is IEDs."
Despite the largest offensive yet with Barack Obama's surge of troops in Afghanistan, the reality is much of the province will still remain beyond the control of Nato or government forces. Fighters withdrawing from the Marines have moved to areas nearer the capital Lashkar Gah, such as the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in the cultivated green zone where farmers have access to water.
Col Amland said: "We haven't expanded throughout the entire Helmand valley, so in some of the larger areas of the green zone, around Lashkar Gah, there are areas where we know he has gone to ground, and we will have to get him at a later date."
He added: "I would hate to speculate on future operations, but it [Marjah] does provide an area for people to congregate in and make it a little bit easier for us to find them later."
Video's
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/5859070/American-military-colossus-arrives-in-a-fleet-of-helicopters-which-British-lack.html
Ellie