Richard Streatfeild - Honourable Warriors: Fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan - A Front-line Account of the British Army’s Battle for Helmand

Dedication

To Emily and Henry

A tale of two mottoes:

Data Fata Secuutus
Celer et Audax

First published in Great Britain by
PEN AND SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright Richard Streatfeild 2014

HARDBACK ISBN: 978 1 78346 227 8
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47383 656 3
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47383 480 4
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47383 568 9

The right of Richard Streatfeild to be identified
as the author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

The greatest debt I have is to the men and women under my command who put themselves into harms way during the winter of 200910 in Afghanistan. Ten made the ultimate sacrifice; forty more came home bearing the physical wounds of battle and many more had traumatic memories to reconcile. This book is my acknowledgement of that effort; I hope I have done you justice. And where I have failed to recall or recount some vital element that is now lost, I am sorry. I know that everyone had a moment. There are, for some, painful memories that will be brought to mind by this account, for which I acknowledge another debt.

In the writing, production and publication of this book there are those who I would like to thank publicly: Andrew Gordon at David Higham Associates, Rupert Harding and Susan Last at Pen and Sword, John Shields at Radio 4 and James Shelley and Crispin Lockhart in the MoD, all of whom have been key at various stages. My thanks to family and friends who have worried, listened and encouraged, too numerous to mention by name; I am extremely grateful for your time and patience. Finally to Rachel, irresistible as ever, and much more besides, my eternal gratitude, love and thanks.

Glossary

Chapter 1

Salaam Alaikum

Begin at the beginning and go on until you reach the end. Through ditches, over mountains, down dusty tracks in the dark of an Afghan night, while preparing kit for inspections at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and on operational tours I have said this to myself a thousand times. And now again. This book, a narrative of a year of my life punctuated by reminiscent conversation, recollection and analysis, begins in March 2009 and ends in May 2010. During that time, of the 364 nights that I could have been sleeping soundly in my bed I was, instead, at least for 264 of them, away: away training, away conducting reconnaissance, and for seven months based just north of Sangin, Northern Helmand, Afghanistan. This is not just my story. It is, in most part, the tale of A Company 4 Rifles and those who served with us on Operation Herrick.