Operation Anaconda - Rumble in the Hindu Kush
Operation Anaconda always interested me, the first large land battle by conventional soldiers for the US since Mogadishu. And likely the first by Norway in 55 years and Denmark in 200 years.
2,000 American, Afghan (Eastern Alliance (anti-Taliban Pushtans), British, French, Australian, Norwegian, Danish, German and Canadian forces vs. 1,000 Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. Though the UN forces outnumbered the Taliban 2-1 that is far less than the 3-1 advantaged recommended the offensive. This was a failure of intelligence who believed that the Taliban numbers were far smaller. Furthermore, this Taliban force weren't a bunch of militiamen, the Taliban have been fighting upwards of seven years now and were heavily dug in, backed up with Al Qaeda fighters. They were ready to hold their ground. On the other hand, though well trained very few of the Western Soldiers (most (around 1,000) were American and 200 were allied) were combat veterans, virtually none of them privates and Junior Officers just a few NCOs who were in Somalia or the Gulf War.
The plan was reminiscent of the one successful soviet tactic of the Soviet Invasion. The Afghan soldiers would advance through the mountains and attack the Taliban. At the same time American forces will Air Insert behind the Afghans and establish blocking positions. The Taliban would be caught between the hammer (Afghans) and Anvil (Americans) and be destroyed.
The mission began with the insertion of Seal Team 6, Delta Force Operators and some Coalition SO troops. These men reconned the hills, and removed some anti-air positions that had been hidden from Coalition aircraft, thus saving the battle from being a total disaster and revealing the weakness of not using proper ground recon.
The mission began badly and was almost a disaster. The Afghan troops were halted almost immediately by Taliban fire. Surprisingly three weeks of training is not enough for a force to take heavily entrenched enemies. The blocking force, made up to the 2/187th Airborne Infantry Regiment (Rakassans) and 1/87 Mountain Infantry Regiment (later joined by the 1/187th Airborne Infantry Regiment) became the main effort. However all was not well for them. They were landed in the valleys, the Taliban controlled the mountains. So when they landed they immediately came under heavy fire and mortar fire. They were surrounded by the enemy who held the high ground and became pinned down. They lacked artillery batteries, relying on mortars for support. I don't know about the rest of the companies, but B 1/87th (whom I know a veteran of who served in this battle) only moved out and ended the mortar fire due to the actions of NCOs who took the lead, 2 of whom were among the few combat veterans (one of Mogadishu and the other the Gulf War (though he was a Marine at the time)), and managed to push out from their position. At this point though the commander of the ground forces wanted them out. They were surrounded by the enemy who held superior position, but the SF commanders convinced him against that and instead another air assault element was sent from the north and struck south at the Taliban. Eventually, this force along with gratuitous use of air support (helped by a lack of civilians in the region) was able to break the Taliban. However mop up actions meant 15 days of combat by the soldiers involved until they were relieved by Canadians (whom they gave combat boots to since the Canadian government did not issue the soldiers good enough boots).
During this battle was a small but deadly subfight. During this mission a Navy Seal, by the name of Neil Roberts, fell out of his helicopter. The initial force that he was a part of attempted to rescue him but were forced to crash land their copter, and were forced to withdraw to a safe position and call in the QRF. However, the QRF was landed in the wrong LZ and came under immediate fire, killing 4 Rangers. The rest of the Rangers, with some support from Air Force Special Tactics, with air support (which was so close it had almost the same chance of killing the Americans as it did the Taliban) attacked and captured the peak after a fierce fight. However, their medivac from their wounded was refused at the time due to to high of danger, as was any chance of exfiltration. Thus they were forced to hold the peak until night fall, and faced a Taliban counterattack. Unbeknowest to the QRF though, they had Guardian Angels, in the form of two troopers of the Australian SASR who coordinated air support from their hidden location, likely responsible for the team's survival.
In the end the Taliban were tactically defeated. The US suffered 8 dead and the Taliban between 200 and 800 depending on the source. The American and Allied soldiers had proven themselves on the battlefield and showed they were not over-rated. The Taliban showed they had tactical skill, ruthlessness and determination. This battle was not a total victory though. Due to lack of enough ground troops many of the Taliban escaped to Pakistan, some maybe fighting today. Further, the breathing space gained by this victory was not exploited. This however, is the fault of those on top, the men that faced battle today, be they American, Canadian or Australian (and the rest, can't find what you guys did though I'm sure it was important) showed themselves top quality.
Some sources and some reading:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...f-anaconda.htm
http://web.mit.edu/ssp/seminars/wed_...ing/naylor.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Takur_Ghar
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Originally Posted by boofhead
