THE view from the tiny British outpost above the town of Tangye in northern Helmand province was picture perfect.

A river snaked its way through a gorge, the sun shimmered off the water and beyond the town of mud-brick houses lay the blue waters of the Kajaki reservoir.

But the illusion of calm was shattered by gunfire at 9.00am yesterday. “It’s a bit early for playtime,” quipped Sergeant-Major Karl Brennan, 35, a barrel-chested Yorkshireman, as he and his seven collegues rushed to the perimeter wall.

Through their gunsights they could see Taleban fighters attacking the last town in the district still loyal to the Kabul Goverment — a town whose nearby hydro-electric dam provides most of southern Afghanistan’s power.

One group of Taleban fighters was battling pro-government militiamen on the edge of Tangye. A second group, hidden behind a rocky outcrop, was using mortars and machineguns to attack an Afghan police compound on a hill overlooking our own position. The police were retaliating with an old Russian anti-tank gun.

“If we lose that hill we are in big trouble,” said Captain Chris Woodward, 28. “They would have a direct view on our camp.”

The eight British soldiers — and 30 paratroopers camped near by — were soon drawn into the fight, opening up with mortars, Javelins and rounds from a 7.62 machinegun.

The battle raged for three hours. Bullets flew. A Taleban fighter was knocked over by a mortar blast and could be seen staggering away. A mud wall was knocked down, sending dirt billowing skywards.

The fighting ended only when the British summoned air power and the Taleban melted away, leaving behind at least two dead fighters.

Shortly after dark last night they attacked again — this time targeting our outpost directly with mortars and machinegun fire. The Afghan police guarding the outer perimeter vanished and the British fired 400 rounds to drive the enemy away.

For the eight British soldiers assigned to Tangye to train a contingent of 17 Afghan soldiers such attacks are now commonplace.

They moved in five weeks ago, shortly after two French soldiers were killed a few hundred yards from the outpost. Since then there have been only seven days on which the tiny Operational, Mentoring and Liaison Team has not seen action. As many as 1,200 Taleban fighters are thought to be hiding in the surrounding hills.

“We call it ‘Camp Incoming’ because we get so many mortars and rounds coming in,” said Sergeant-Major Brennan with a chuckle.

“It is my third tour in Afghanistan and I have never seen anything like this,” said Sergeant Mooney. “It’s a mega-hot spot,” added Lance Corporal Andy Reid, 26, a medic.

At first the outpost — an old compound for the dam workers — was scarcely protected at all. The soldiers had to fill the broken walls with oil barrels, rocks and even an old oven. They had only 90 Afghan police, being trained by two former US Special Forces officers, and a local militia of about 100 to call on for protection.

Finally, in response to the team’s urgent appeals, this week the British military sent 13 engineers from Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand. They are fortifying the outpost with sangars, fences and barbed wire.

Four days ago the 30 paratroopers arrived to secure the hill around the outpost, which is at least 30km (18 miles) from the nearest British base in Sangin along roads too dangerous to use. It now relies entirely on helicopters for its supplies, and yesterday it ran out of water.

Members of the team were shocked at their lack of protection during their first month.

Though reluctant to complain publicly, one soldier said: “Because we are an Afghan op and not a Para one people don’t care as much. It doesn’t seem to take as much of a priority.”

Lance Sergeant Adam “Swifty” Swift, 27, read from a diary entry he made on May 5, the day he arrived: “We got a late-night order to defend the compound. We had 8 men and 17 ANA [Afghan soldiers]. It sounded dodgy. We had no Para support and limited assets, with hardly any of the equipment we should have deployed with.”

The team was supposed to be on a training mission in a peaceful part of Afghanistan, not a combat zone.

It is doing its best to win hearts and minds. During one recent battle Corporal Reid amazed the Afghans by spending two and a half hours saving a Taleban recruiter who had been shot three times. Sgt Swift has, like many of his colleagues, grown a beard to try and win the trust of the Afghan soldiers he is mentoring.

But a beard, alas, provides no protection against the bullets of Taleban fighters.

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