Free A Million Bullets: The Real Story of the British Army in Afghanistan by James Fergusson Page B

lulls between gunfire on quieter nights the sinister sound of digging could be heard from all the corner towers.)
    The A10s remained on station throughout the night. Finally, at first light, a third 500-pounder was directed on to a large group of fighters as they clustered around two Toyota Corollas – ammunition resupply cars that had been shuttling back and forth all night. The Gurkhas gave a raucous cheer as the cars soared high into the air.
    The exhausted Gurkhas were able to rest with the coming of daylight, although the respite did not last long. As dusk began to fall at six p.m., an unusual amount of traffic was observed moving about to the east and north-east. At 6.30, just after the muezzin cried the end of prayers over the loudspeakers posted across the town, three sniper rounds hit the sandbags of Sangar 1. The Gurkhas stood to once again, for the attacks were already starting to take on a pattern. The marksman, they were sure, had gone straight from the mosque to his firing point, filled with renewed Islamic zeal. Their hunch paid off when Corporal Kailash spotted a group of six men leopard-crawling across a T-junction at the end of an adjacent alleyway, heading for the north side of the compound. The imam's sermon had evidently been an inspiring one that evening. Kailash instantly shot three of the crawlers dead with the GPMG.
    The attack this time came more from the north than the east, and earlier than on the previous night. The Taliban knew now that they had a window of about forty minutes before supporting air power could arrive on station. Their solution was to hit the compound harder and faster than the night before, hoping for a breach. And this time, rather than small-arms fire, they concentrated on using RPGs. 'The attack on the thirteenth is the one most etched on my mind,' said Rex. 'It was probably the nearest we came to being overrun. If we'd taken serious casualties, requiring others to extract them, or if they'd managed to take out a sangar or even get inside the compound . . . then I think we could have been in serious trouble.'
    Back at Bastion, even after Operation Mutay, there had been much scoffing at the fighting capabilities of the enemy. It was often said that the Taliban's foot soldiers were brave but foolhardy, a disorganized collection of amateurs and have-a-go heroes. In a set-piece fight they were held to be no match for the professionals of the British Army. The assault on the 13th strongly suggested otherwise. In fact the tactics and organization displayed by the enemy were disconcertingly recognizable. 'They were good soldiers,' said Rex. 'They used the cover well and they moved about very fast. They had sections of eight or twelve men, and a pyramid command structure just like ours. They don't wear badges of rank on their shoulders but that doesn't mean they aren't a proper army.'
    By eight o'clock a full moon had risen, negating the British advantage of night vision goggles. For ten long minutes the fire directed against the north side of the compound was so intense that it was again impossible to bring the .50 cals to bear. The assault, Rex estimated, was 'akin to a company-sized ambush' – about a hundred men. 'I was sure we'd lost two of our positions, just from the weight of fire. I was staggered they survived.' Two RPGs hit the wall just below Sangar 6, to the north-west; two others smashed into the front and rear of Sangar 1 to the north-east; several more overshot their targets and exploded in the air above the compound. Every one of these represented a disaster narrowly averted, for the warhead even on the standard model, the RPG-7, is capable of penetrating armour plating. A direct hit on any sangar could easily have killed everyone inside. 'It was their bad shooting that saved us,' Rex said. 'Either that, or the Taliban were just plain unlucky.'
    Rifleman Gaj, Rifleman Nagen and the other young soldiers lying flat in Sangar 1 thought that it was all over for them. They