When Major Paul Blair landed in southern Afghanistan two years ago as
commander of C company of 3 Para, he thought the biggest challenge might be
keeping his troops occupied. “It was in the back of my mind that we might
get in the occasional scrape but that’s all,” he said, smiling wryly.
Far from the benign-sounding task of providing security for reconstruction
without a shot being fired, the men of that first British deployment to
Helmand ended up in almost continuous combat. Thirty-three British soldiers
(of whom 14 were Paras) died in that first six-month tour; General David
Richards, then commander of Nato troops in Afghanistan, described the
fighting as the fiercest since the Korean war.
This week the Paras are going back - the first British troops to be redeployed
to what has become known as Hellland. And this time they are going back in
force – the largest deployment of the Parachute Regiment since the end of
the second world war.
When 16 Air Assault Brigade assumed command in Helmand in April 2006, it had
only 3,300 troops to control a province half the size of England – and 3
Para was its sole infantry battalion. This time round its new commander,
Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, has 7,800 troops including all four of the
brigade’s battalions.
Among the men of 3 Para going back is Sergeant Major Michael “Mick” Bolton,
44, whose gruff manner hides a caring nature and an obsession with reducing
litter by crushing plastic bottles. Shortly after returning from Afghanistan
in October 2006 he married his fiancée Lizzie – who is apparently very
unhappy about their impending six-month separation.
“I’m going in with my eyes open this time,” he said, sitting in the officers’
mess in Colchester two days before leaving. “Last time round we were hoping
to get a fight, because that’s what you’ve been trained for. But we have a
saying – ‘Be careful what you wish for’ – and towards the end of the tour
that was coming out of everyone’s mouths.”
The scorching desert of Helmand, where temperatures can reach 50C, seems a
long way from the Colchester barracks.
As Bolton spoke, he glanced towards the most recent battle-scene painting to
be hung on the mess walls. It shows the platoon house in Sangin, the small,
dusty Afghan town that was the scene of some of the deadliest fighting
during the Helmand tour and came to symbolise the Paras’ unexpected war. It
was here that Bolton and others from C company spent weeks under siege.
“It’s very different going back, knowing what’s there,” he said. “You know
you’re going to come across somebody who’s going to try to kill you.”
The first time that Blair, Bolton and the men of C Company appreciated what
they were facing during the last Afghan tour was when they went on a “hearts
and minds” mission to Zumbelay in late June 2006.
The photographer Justin Sutcliffe and I were with them. As we walked out of
the village, after a meeting with the elders, we were directed straight into
a Taliban ambush. For the next two hours we were running across fields,
throwing ourselves in and out of ditches, as Kalashnikov fire, RPGs and
mortars thudded in from all directions.
“Zumbelay was a huge shock,” said Blair. “I’d been in the army 12 years, done
two tours in Northern Ireland, been in firefights in Kosovo and Sierra
Leone, but nothing comparable to that.”
One of the snipers on the patrol was Lance Corporal Kyle Deerans, 25. “As the
rounds were coming down, I did think: am I going to get through this?” he
recalled.
For Blair, the lowest point was being told over his radio that no air support
was available as the Apache helicopters were in use elsewhere. “That was a
pretty introspective moment,” he said, with remarkable understatement. “I
never thought it was a lost cause – our ethos and training is that you never
give up – but it certainly wasn’t a help.”
However, he added: “If the Taliban had been better shots it could all have
been completely different.” The impressive way in which Blair reorganised
his men and led them out of danger was recognised with a Distinguished
Service Order medal. Bolton and Captain Al Mckenzie, who commanded the Fire
Support Group, received mentions in dispatches.
Mckenzie has since left the army and Deerans, who recently got engaged, will
leave in July. Blair, meanwhile, is moving on to his dream job: running the
Red Devils skydiving team.
Others to leave after serving in Afghanistan include Major Will Pike, the
officer commanding A Company, whose men were the first to encounter the
ferocity of the Taliban. The most senior to resign was 3 Para’s commander,
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Tootal. His resignation letter reportedly
complained of shortages and lack of healthcare and other support for his men.
When I spoke to him he said that he believed the men going back were in a
better position to make a difference. “Equipment has improved markedly,” he
said, “and there is now greater emphasis on reconstruction and development.”
So what can the men expect to find on their return? Since the Paras’ first
deployment, relations between Britain and Afghanistan have deteriorated.
Although Britain has pumped in £3 billion in aid since 2001, and more than
90 British lives have been lost, President Hamid Karzai shocked ministers
earlier this year by accusing British troops of having made the situation
worse.
Helmand is on its third governor in two years, the poppy crop has increased
and many locals have had their homes destroyed or lost relatives in the
fighting. When I visited the province a month before the British first
arrived it was peaceful – although people avoided travelling after sunset.
Now most roads are insecure most of the time. “We’re getting more and more
sucked in, but we have to keep asking ourselves if we’re part of the
problem,” said a Foreign Office official.
The fear in Whitehall is that if security continues to deteriorate in Helmand
and British soldiers continue to die, the public view of Afghanistan as a
“good war” will begin to evaporate.
“Sooner or later,” said the official, “the British public will join up the
dots between spending huge amounts of taxpayers’ money on reconstruction and
military operations and a government that criticises the British and does
Taliban-style things. And it will come up with the question ‘Why the hell?’.”
Some, it seems, are already asking it. The fascinating Helmand exhibition in
the National Army Museum in London ends with a “have your say” wall that is
peppered with comments from the public, such as “Wars never solved anything”
and “The politicians of every generation have much to answer for”.
When I asked the men of 3 Para what their first tour had achieved, they all
fell silent. “It was very frustrating,” said Blair. He believes that his men
could have achieved something in the town of Gereshk, where they were first
based, had they been given the funds and authority.
“I kept having meetings with local officials saying we were there to bring
security and reconstruction. I’d say the same thing week after week, but
then never deliver more than school packs. I felt I was giving them false
promises,” he said.
He recalled visiting the local hospital, where the bedding was “filthy”, and
coming across a washing machine donated by a US charity that was still in
its plastic wrapping. It could not be plumbed in because there was no water
supply.
Blair suggested sinking a well but the Department for International
Development said that this could be done only by civilians. Because of the
security problems, no aid agency had been in the area for years. “Fora
couple of hundred bucks,” said Blair, “we could have given them something
they could have used there and then – but we weren’t allowed to.”
There have been some successes in the past year. More than 200 senior Taliban
figures have been killed or arrested and some rebuilding has taken place in
Sangin and Nawzad. “I just hope, this time round, we do more than just smash
things,” Bolton said. “I hope that we can reconstruct, not
destruct.”
