A BRITISH reconnaissance platoon that set out on a four-day mission to a town in the north of Helmand province in Afghanistan ended up spending 52 days under siege by the Taleban.

The 25 men of the Pathfinder Platoon, who have been first into several Taleban-held areas during the British deployment in southern Afghanistan, came under such ferocious attack that they were forced to stay in Musa Qala fighting almost daily battles.

“We were there for eight weeks; three of those were under constant attack. I’d gone in with four days of socks,” a senior officer told The Times.

The Pathfinders were attacked with Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and a recoilless rifle that could blow holes through walls. Resupply became such a problem that the platoon had to repair a well in its compound to get drinking water. The local police chief cooked for the men.

“Resupply was difficult. There was incredible risk for the helicopter landing inside the compound and we didn’t have enough men to secure the field [where the helicopter could land outside the compound] and defend the compound,” the officer said.

The Pathfinders, who arrived in Musa Qala in the middle of June, were based in a walled compound, which they shared with Afghan police.

The walls were reinforced with sandbags to provide firing positions for their .50-calibre machineguns, SA80 machineguns, Browning pistols and anti-tank missiles. The platoon also had the ability to call in help from air support which, despite recent criticisms of the RAF, was described by the Pathfinders as fantastic.

The group was supposed to be reinforced by a company of 120 paratroops but they had to be diverted to the town of Sangin when they came under heavy assault by Taleban insurgents.

Despite the almost continuous onslaught, the Pathfinders did not lose a man in Musa Qala, although the sergeant-major was shot through the arm and several men suffered broken bones. “We were extremely lucky and came off pretty lightly,” the officer said.

He said that the most frightening times were when the compound came under indirect fire, such as mortars. “It is so indiscriminate, you never know when one will pop over the wall,” he said. But direct fire was “a joy”. “You can fire back. It’s not like Iraq, with roadside bombs. Someone shoots and you can shoot back.”

The Pathfinders are described by military sources as a step from special forces and have a simlarly tough selection procedure. Last month the platoon was finally replaced in Musa Qala when 500 British troops, in a mission codenamed Operation Snakebite — the largest so far in Helmand — broke through Taleban lines.

Musa Qala was not the only close call that the Pathfinders had in Afghanistan. Normally, as a reconnaissance platoon, the men gather intelligence and report back, leaving the fighting to other troops.

However, in the past six months they had more than 50 contacts ranging from a few minutes to several hours.

The most bizarre incident happened as they entered the town of Nauzad, also in northern Helmand, under cover of darkness and came under attack from police.

The police, who in northern Helmand often have links to the Taleban and the narcotics trade, later claimed that they thought the British were members of the Taleban.

“They kept firing for as long as they could pretend we were Taleban. Once first light came the firing stopped,” the Pathfinder officer said.

A call to the governor of Helmand smoothed things over, and only hours later the Pathfinders were being treated to sweets and tea by the men who had been trying to kill them. They were even served by a man wearing a plaster on his cheek to cover the wound from a British bullet. “It was surreal,” the officer said.

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