All Hands:

Skip Leonard, in his List 2212, has this story from Afghanistan. By the time the operation was over, it had involved 5,000 troops, hundreds more special forces, at least 100 vehicles, 30 helicopters, 20 fighter jets, two reconnaissance planes and a sniffer dog: a springer spaniel called Pip. I say: WELL DONE TO THE BRITISH! I would like to hear from anyone on the All Hands that read or heard about this operation from our mainstream media. Maybe this was not reported because the operation was not big enough to warrant notice by our media. Or, maybe they are way too busy worrying about the pregnancy of the 17 year old daughter of the Governor of Alaska. Skip, I really appreciate this kind of gouge, and I take great pleasure in posting this on the All Hands. Thanks and Semper Fi, Seamus
cplgarrahy@earthlink.net

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LONDON - From The Times
September 3, 2008
Triumph for British forces in Boy's Own-style Kajaki mission
Jeremy Page in Kajaki
It was 2.30am when the convoy finally reached Camp Zeebrugge, crawling through the moonless night like a herd of prehistoric beasts, headlights peering into the dust ahead, brakes squealing at the stars above. As attack helicopters circled overhead, and mortar rounds thumped in the distance, the first of the juggernauts came into sight - a 36-wheel, 34-tonne tank transporter carrying a container plastered in Koranic verses. Then came another. And another. And more and more until the entire road through the camp was blocked by a procession of lorries, mine-clear-ers, bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers that stretched at times for more than 2 1/2 miles.
This was the moment when British troops completed one of their most complex and daring operations since the Second World War: outfoxing the Taleban to deliver a giant new turbine to the Kajaki Dam in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. In doing so they marked a turning point that Nato commanders hope will prove decisive in the battle for Afghan hearts and minds.
The Times was the only newspaper to witness the convoy's arrival in Kajaki at the end of its perilous and painfully slow five-day drive northwards from the southern city of Kandahar, the former Taleban stronghold. "We've been drinking a lot of Red Bull," said Corporal Barry Guthrie, a 29-year-old driver in the convoy who had slept for eight hours in total since leaving Kandahar on Wednesday evening. "It's been pretty exciting and emotional at times with three guys in the cabin in 50 degrees-plus. All the way we were expecting to get whacked, but it never happened." It was a task of epic proportions,inspiring comparisons with Commando magazine, Mad Max, the Battle of Arnhem in 1944 and the relief of the Siege of Mafeking in 1900.
The mission was to take 220 tonnes of turbine and other equipment, worth millions of pounds, across 100 miles of some of the most hostile and heavily mined territory in Afghanistan.
At the climax of the Taleban's fighting season. Without anyone noticing. A single Taleban bullet could have cripple the delicate machinery and delayed the project by a year.
Nato commanders, facing an escalating Taleban insurgency in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan, initially argued that it could not be done until the spring poppy harvest, a traditional low point in the Taleban's capabilities. But they came under pressure from Washington, which was anxious to secure visible progress before the presidential election to protect funding, according to sources in Kabul.
So it was that they devised Operation Tsuka (Eagle's Summit) - their biggest military venture since US-led forces invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 to topple the Taleban Government as punishment for shielding Osama bin Laden. By the time the operation was over, it had involved 5,000 troops, hundreds more special forces, at least 100 vehicles, 30 helicopters, 20 fighter jets, two reconnaissance planes and a sniffer dog: a springer spaniel called Pip. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the 44-year-old commander of British forces in Helmand, hailed it as one of the British Army's biggest logistics operations since the Second World War.
"I think in terms of the logistical and engineering challenges it's probably been the most significant British military undertaking certainly for a generation, maybe several generations, since the Western desert, the crossing the Rhine etc," he said. "Whilst at the same time one wouldn't want to overexaggerate the scale of the operation, it was one that employed approximately 4,500 troops. It was across incredibly complex terrain and very significant strategic distance and those are physical challenges that the British Army has not had to confront for a very long time." It was also the first time that the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Parachute Regiment had fought together since the Battle of Arnhem, he said. More importantly, it represented a turning point in Afghanistan's biggest reconstruction project, the restoration of the Kajaki Dam, amid mounting public frustration at the lack of development here since 2001. The 330ft dam was built in 1953 to provide electricity and irrigation for two million people in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. The power station was designed for three turbines, but only two were installed and they fell into disrepair after the Soviet Union withdrew its troops in 1989. The United States began to restore the plant in 2004, promising to repair its two existing turbines and install a third one to generate a combined total of 53 megawatts of power for the provinces of Kandahar and Helmand - now at the centre of the insurgency and the opium trade. Millions of people live without power for basic facilities such as domestic water pumps. One turbine was fixed in 2005, but the $100 million project ground to a halt after British troops began defending Kajaki in 2006 and found themselves surrounded by the Taleban.
As the insurgency intensified and spread, Kajaki became the most potent symbol of the international community's failure to meet its pledges to rebuild the country. "It is essential for us to . . . get the turbine in," said Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand shortly before the operation. Mr Mangal lobbied President Karzai and the British and America ambassadors for help.
The biggest problem facing Nato commanders was security as the approach to Kajaki, Highway 611, was largely controlled by the Taleban and riddled with improvised explosive devices and Soviet-era mines.
So they sent a "pathfinder" reconnaissance team to find a new route through the desert, codenamed Harriet, while appearing to make preparations along Highway 611. They then deployed hundreds of British and US special forces to clear a corridor on each side of Harriet, and disguised the turbine equipment as shipping containers, plastering each with a poster covered in quotes from the Koran.
Finally, a dummy convoy of 30 to 40 Danish vehicles, protected by 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, drove along Highway 611 to divert the Taleban's attention from Harriet.
Thus, when the real convoy set out from Kandahar, protected by 2,000 US and Canadian forces, it encountered no resistance as it rumbled along the first leg of its route on Highway 1. After 50 miles, 3,000 British troops assumed responsibility for the convoy, which immediately turned off the highway and headed north across the desert on Harriet.
"The deception was a key feature," said Brigadier Carleton-Smith. "What we were seeking to do was to reinforce the Taleban assumption that we would be using the 611, which was our resupply route up the Helmand River, and we needed to paint a picture that the Taleban would recognise." However, British Forces now faced a huge logistical challenge in transporting the cargo, which was so heavy that it had to be carried on six British and three Canadian 34-tonne heavy equipment transporters (HETs). HETs are designed to carry tanks on German autobahns and they repeatedly blew their tyres or damaged their hydraulic systems crossing the desert, slowing the convoy down to an average speed of about 2mph. Each flat tyre took half an hour to change, and each improvised explosive device (IED) up to two hours to destroy.
Major Joe Fossey, of the Royal Engineers, who prepared the road, said that his men had undertaken more than 50 engineering and construction tasks, including dealing with three IEDs. He said that there had been only three incidents of indirect fire and two mortar attacks.
The Taleban did attack the forces protecting the convoy more frequently, but were overwhelmed by their superior firepower and lost more than 200 men, according to British officials.
Lieutenant-Colonel James Lear-mont, of 7 Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, who delivered the firepower, said that his men had fired 800 rounds of 105mm artillery and 54 rockets over the past five days. Nato reported only one casualty - a British soldier whose pelvis was crushed when a vehicle's hydraulic system collapsed as he was inspecting it from underneath.
British commanders said that they tried to persuade elders of one village near the dam, a known Taleban stronghold, to let them pass by offering them $25,000, but local militants would not let them accept the money. Engineers hope to repair the dam's second 16 MW turbine in the next three or four months, and to install the third Chinese-made one, which has a capacity of 18.6 MW, by June or July next year. The man overseeing the project is George Wilder, a chain-smoking Viet-nam veteran from Texas who is known as "Kajaki George". He said that the dam would power the homes of two million people once it was at full capacity and could be expanded by another 100 MW in a few years. However, others say that it could be at least two years before residents receive power from the dam as new transmission lines will have to be laid. For the moment, British commanders are savouring a rare success in their six-year deployment. "It's a very explicit demonstration on behalf of the Afghan civilians in Helmand that the international community means business here," said Brigadier Carle-ton-Smith. "I would sense that, in the sweep of the campaign, this marks the end of the beginning."