Stephen Grey - Operation Snakebite

‘I tried to lift everyone’s spirits up,’ Fong explained to me later. He had told B Company the story of Joshua and Moses, of how Moses had led his people to the promised land, but never reached it.

‘Moses died because he had done what the Lord had told them to do. The Lord told him: “You will never touch the land but you will be able to see.” So on the mountain where he died, he had this aide, Joshua, and Joshua was the one that took over. So he took the Israelites over to Jordan. Before they went, the Lord spoke to Joshua and said: “You see the land, Joshua? That’s the land I promised Moses, so that’s where you’ll take my people.” He told Joshua that no one would be able to stand against the Israelites. The Lord said: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you, and I will never forsake you.”’

Fong compared this to Jonno’s death: ‘I said, “We are like God’s people; we are going to move on.” I told them the Lord was with us and I knew after that prayer everyone was strengthened and had this new spirit in them, and I think it helped us.’

How, I asked Fong, did he reconcile God’s word with his soldier’s job? ‘You have to follow orders in the army,’ said Fong. ‘But I normally pray about it, and there’s times where I had to bear a rifle and fire at the enemy. But I always said to myself before I killed anyone that you have to do these things to save your friends… I prayed about it afterwards, but God will be the only judge of that… I am thankful that most of us got back alive. But I think everything that happens there has a purpose… Even the negative things, everything has a purpose. They happen for a reason.’

Just before we left, one of the survivors from Jonno’s vehicle, Lee Bellingham, came and told me he had said a prayer the morning of Jonno’s death. ‘I never normally pray,’ he said, ‘but I said something that day. And I feel someone looked after me. I’ve said a prayer again this morning.’

The convoy move was painfully slow. The vehicles inched forward, their brakes screeching and squealing. The route took them back through Deh Zohr e Sofla – the village that B Company had attacked just four days earlier.

It was 11.30 and baking hot when the vehicles came to a halt. The forming-up point was on the far side of the main stone-filled riverbed through the Musa Qala wadi. But it was concealed from the town by thick copses of poplars that lined a dyke on the bank. This was close to where 1 Fury’s Charlie Company had first crossed over. The American paratroops were somewhere in the fields around… But they were invisible. There were Humvees visible as miniature shapes on the ridgeline up above, and further along the armoured vehicles of the United Arab Emirates special forces. In theory they might provide fire support.

It was strangely quiet. Small noise carried far – the boots scrunching on the rocks, the muted squawks from the radios and a hum of a propeller high above: an invisible UAV circling in the sky. A message came through the radio. An intelligence report from Higher: ‘Taliban Tier One foreign fighters have stayed behind to defend the district centre.’ Another message said the ANA had cut a bomb detonation cable.

Andy Breach gathered his platoon to move ahead. ‘My day sack is the weight of a small child, a fat American child,’ he said.

The soldiers began moving up towards the town. Everyone kept spaced out in single file. About half a mile along the bank swung round to the right at the entrance to the smaller east–west Bagni wadi. The riverbed there was the final open piece of ground before the beginning of the district centre itself.

It was C Company under Major Matt Adams that went over first, with the 1st kandak of the ANA. An A-team of US special forces lurked behind the corner in their Humvees – ready to drive up and provide fire support if the Taliban opened up.

Everyone had their theories and suspicions, but no one knew what lay ahead. Adams had been told that across the wadi lay a system of Taliban trenches and bunkers. Everything seemed quiet. No one could be seen. But did that simply mean the enemy was hidden?

Sending his men in broad daylight across this 80-yard width of riverbed into the Taliban’s most prized town made Adams feel like he was ordering some kind of First World War attack. One well-placed and well-aimed machine gun could have cut them all to shreds. All the geography gave the advantage to the defenders. Adams was preparing to take significant casualties.

That morning, like Jake, Adams had said a few words to his C Company. They had shaken hands and had taken photos, but it was difficult. There was a feeling that one of their number would not survive. Some felt that, after Jonno’s death, it was C Company’s turn to lose someone.

The hardest decision Adams made, though it was unavoidable, was ordering the combat engineers over first. They had the job of going in front and checking the crossing for mines. As they walked across with metal detectors, Adams placed a team of machine-gunners behind them and to their flank – poised to fire instantly if the Taliban opened up. The engineers reached the other side, spraying the pebbles with yellow paint to mark a safe route. The main body of Adams’ company and the Afghan kandak started manoeuvring across. Few were surprised when the Afghans largely ignored the prepared path. It was only when they reached and cleared the first compound on the other side that Adams could allow himself a brief pause to breathe. Still no sign of the Taliban.

B Company then started inching forward. Following C Company’s route, they crept through the trees along the riverbank and then reached the crossing of the open east–west wadi. I watched as Afghan soldiers paused to grab clumps of marijuana that was growing freely. After all those days in the washed-out brown colours of the desert, it was pleasant to be back among the lush greenery. One Yorks soldier said it ‘reminds me of home after all that sand’

At 14.20, Jake’s B Company started crossing the riverbed. Reports ahead said C Company had not met any resistance. A stash of RPGs had been found.

The southern entrance to the town still lay about half a mile further east. From here the bazaar of Musa Qala stretched 1,200 yards due north to the monument that marked the crossroads of the district centre. The plan called for C Company to clear all the ground and buildings on the left-hand side of the road while B Company would clear the right-hand side.

At 14.40, B Company reached the road and began clearing its sector. There was still no sign of the Taliban. ‘It looks like they have well and truly fled,’ said Mantell. If they were going to defend the town, he thought, then the edge of the wadi was the place. A motorbike lay abandoned on its side by the metal pole barrier that marked the town entrance. A dead man sprawled near by. He had apparently been shot by 1 Fury from across the wadi a couple of days before. An Afghan flag was raised by the ANA.

Walking through the compounds was disconcerting. Every home was locked up. The shops were shuttered. Vegetables and fruit lay arranged and untouched on the wooden stalls in front. The people had clearly left in a hurry. Apache choppers were still circling overhead. Shots rang out every few minutes. People looked vaguely for where they might jump. But all the bangs were either warning shots or bullets used to break open locks to search the compounds.

The day’s objective had been the district centre. But no one was taking chances with booby traps or ambushes. So progress was slow. By sunset, the two kandaks had reached just halfway up the road. Jake gathered his soldiers to spend the night in the courtyard of a large garage repair complex.

After the stress of that day, no one really wanted to talk. Most still expected trouble. Even if the Taliban had largely fled, just one bomb left behind or one well-concealed ambush position in the town centre could cause mayhem. Wherever the enemy were, they weren’t too far away. The Afghan soldiers and interpreters eavesdropping the Taliban’s radio channels reported the Taliban still manoeuvring, still giving orders and talking about where to lay an ambush.