Royals in Parwan, Fight #6

All,

It's now 20 June 2002, seventeen days since the last fight, and Royal Marines are in Kabul.  They escorted Pasha Gul safely to the Loya Jirga, and maintained security for it (as part of ISAF) until its close on 19 June 2002.  But with their protection mission completed the Section is looking to visit the merchant recommended them by Pasha Gul, the man that can tell them who ambushed them and their location.

The Section has been brought back to full strength, and it's all hands on deck.  Knocker has gone back to his SAW as Corporal "Sherlock" Livingston was brought over from another platoon to lead the Section.  Three more men were brought over from battalion headquarters element: Marine "Able" Baker, Marine "Rip" Shorn, and Marine "Geeves" Holliday.

The outskirts of Kabul, north is up.  A built up area with a canal running north-south down its center, the Marines will enter from the east (right), looking to reach the Merchant's home and place of business, the large compound at far left.

The opposing forces, with Taliban at left and Marines at right.  An even up fight in very close, urban terrain, ten men each.

The Royal Marine Rifle Section: top left: Sherlock, Able, Rip (w/UGL), Geeves, Gimlet (w/LSW).  Bottom left: Sparks, Wali, True, Conk (w/UGL), and Knocker (w/Minimi).

The Taliban: leader, seven riflemen, and two RPG gunners.

Looking east to west at the Brits' initial deployment.  They have split into two columns, with Sherlock leading the right-hand unit and Knocker the left.

Order of march for the right-hand column (from left): Able, Gimlet, Sherlock, Sparks, and Rip.

Order of march for the left-hand column (from left): Geeves, Knocker, Conk, True, and Wali.

The table is set, everybody on the table: Brits are at top right and bottom center right, while the ten Taliban are spread across the board.  There's one on the ground at bottom left, another atop the building at bottom left, one in the courtyard of the Merchant's compound (just right of the guy on the roof), another atop a rooftop in the Merchant's compound (far left) with a terrorist at ground level just to his left.  Moving north of the road, there's a bad guy behind the building at left, one at ground level and one on the roof at top left, and then there are two at center near the bridge.

Time to fight.

In the northeast corner, with the right-hand column led by Sherlock, Gimlet (bottom right) sees movement atop a building.  Squinting, he spots an insurgent with an RPG!  "Contact!!!"  He fires a burst from his LSW, but he's low and the rounds slam into the side of the house.  Able, just ahead of him has spotted more Taliban near the bridge (far left).

And he opens fire with his SA80...

One enemy rifleman is knocked down (white bead at bottom center) and another is pinned (yellow bead at bottom left).

But the RPG gunner (bottom left) Gimlet fired at and missed has gotten his marbles back, and he fires a rocket...

The rocket strikes the road (left), the blast knocking Able and Gimlet down.  Sherlock and Sparks fall back and hunker behind the cover of a house (red beads at top center).  Rip (top right) is the only man still in good fighting shape in the right-hand column...

But very quickly Sherlock and Sparks (bottom right) rally themselves back in the fight.  Rip moves up the road (bottom center); he kneels and fires, but misses.  He then checks on Gimlet, but he's still unconscious.

In the southeast with the left-hand column, Knocker (the center guy at bottom left) spots an enemy RPG gunner in the courtyard of the the Merchant's compound, and fires.

The RPG gunner (white bead at right) is knocked down, and the rifleman atop the building (top left) is pinned.

Knocker hops the wall and takes up a new firing position (left).

While True rushes to the rooftop at bottom right and Geeves pushes up the road (top left).

But from further north (bottom left, with knocked down RPG gunner at bottom right) another Taliban on the roof spots Geeves (top center) and opens fire with his AK...

The rounds impact all around him (bottom center), but Geeves makes it to the cover of the trees, where he fires on the RPG gunner on the right (top center).

The RPG gunner is hit (center)...

And his body falls off the building (bottom center), so startling a nearby comrade that he hops the wall and hunkers down there (red bead at left)!

Conk rushes forward to the wall just short of the canal (center, with Geeves to his right and Knocker at bottom left), the fires a rifle grenade at the terrorist that fired on Geeves (top center)...

The grenade impacts right at the terrorist's feet, putting him out of the fight (center), and pinning two more Taliban (yellow beads at bottom center and top left).

And then Wali decides to get a roof too (bottom right, with Knocker behind wall at bottom center, Conk above him, True on the rooftop at bottom left, and Geeves at top right).

The right-hand column is doing okay, but the left-hand is taking care of business.

The pinned down Talib atop the roof at far left lays down covering fire (hitting no one), while the guy at ground level at bottom left...

Sprints forward to check on the knocked down RPG gunner (right).  Unfortunately he's okay and back in the fight.

In the center, another pinned enemy rifleman creeps forward into the canal and checks on his buddy who was knocked down.  He's okay too (Geeves is on the other side of the trees at top right)...

The remaining three Taliban (yellow beads at bottom left, center left, and red bead at top center) all rally back into fighting shape.

Just in time for Conk (bottom right) to pop another rifle grenade, this time at the RPG gunner in the southwest (top left) and the guy that just checked on him...

The enemy rifleman is himself knocked down, and the RPG gunner is pinned by the blast.

True (bottom right) is determined to take out the RPG (top left), firing on him as Conk (center top) hops into the canal.

And both Taliban RPGs are now out of the fight (casualty figure at center right, with knocked down rifleman next to him).

But an enemy rifleman in the northeast (bottom left) returns fire, knocking True (top right) down.

Wali (bottom center, on roof) fires on the pinned insurgent on the roof of the Merchant's house (top left), but misses...

And then he comes off the roof and crosses the street (bottom center), trying to get to the other rooftop to check on True (bottom left), as Knocker hops the wall and moves up (top left).

Knocker, now taking cover behind a fruit stand (bottom center, with Conk above him in the canal) sights in on the terrorists at the bridge and cuts loose with his Minimi...

The enemy soldier in the canal is put out of the fight, while his buddy is knocked down (white bead, with Geeves at far right).

Geeves moves up...

Finishes off the knocked down terrorist (right), then moves up (left).

Over on the right, Sparks climbs up on a rooftop (right) while Rip darts ahead (top center), and Sherlock moves to the road to check on Gimlet and Able.   They shake out the cobwebs from the RPG blast and are both back in the fight!

Far in the northeast (bottom right), Sparks spots the pinned Talib rifleman atop the Merchant's house (top left) and takes him under fire...

Knocking him down (white bead at bottom center).

In the center of the enemy's position, a Taliban rifleman creeps unseen to the wall (left)...

Where he (bottom center left) fires on Knocker (top right), pinning him.  The insurgent at bottom center...

Moves right and gets on the roof (bottom center right) to try to help his knocked down buddy (far right), but he doesn't quite get there.

Then the Talib in the far northwest (bottom left, with guy that just fired at Knocker at bottom right) fires on Geeves (top right)...

The rounds zip by, but Geeves (bottom center) is okay and returns fire, knocking the terrorist down (top left).

Knocker (bottom right) returns fire on the Talib that pinned him (top left).  He misses, as does the terrorist when he returns fire.

With Knocker exchanging fire at far left, Wali finally gets up to the roof to check on True (bottom right)...

But he's out of the fight.

Geeves moves up in the center (bottom right) and fires on the guy Knocker's been playing around with, but he misses too!

While Conk takes advantage of all the gunfire to hop out of the canal (at bottom right) and sprint across the road (center left) before anyone can react.

With Sparks on overwatch (bottom right), the rest of the right-hand column moves up.  Sherlock is at far left, with Gimlet next to him, peering around the corner of the building, which Able has climbed onto (center).  Rip pushed up to the wall to Able's right.

They bad guy (far left) that neither Knocker (off camera to bottom right) nor Geeves (far right) have been able to finish off once again opens fire...

Putting Geeves out of the fight.

While the bad guy that had climbed up on the Merchant's house (bottom left) finally gets up to his buddy and checks him out; he's good.  There's another knocked down terrorist at center, with Conk at far right.

Meanwhile, Wali (atop building at bottom left, with Knocker pinned just to his right) fires on the two Taliban atop the Merchant's house (top left)...

He (top right) misses, but the return fire does too.

Knocker (bottom right) again fires on the bad guy he's been playing around with (top left, the guy that just put Geeves out of the fight)...

This time driving him back.

While on the right, Able (bottom right) fires at the two terrorists on the Merchant's roof.

One of them gets the hell scared out of him and hops off the roof (bottom left, red bead), but the other returns fire, missing.

With the bad guy on the Merchant's roof (left) distracted, exchanging fire with Able (off camera to top right), Conk (far right) steps out and fires on him...

Putting him out of the fight.

Then Conk hops the wall...

He finishes off that bad guy, then moves up (center).  The Talib hunkering at bottom left has had enough and leaves the field of battle.

In the north, the insurgent that knocked Geeves out of the fight (top left) sprints across the road through a hail of fire from Sherlock's right-hand column...

To check on his boss...

The two then high-tail it out of there.

The Section moves up into the Merchant's compound; the Merchant's wife comes out to greet Sherlock.

They've taken my husband, said he's been collaborating with... well, you.  You must help me!  I know where they have taken him!"  The Merchant's wife provides the details; Sherlock pushes it up, back to Battalion, to see how they wish to pursue this.  The squaddies are quite keen on doing anything that might help them find, fix, and destroy the terrorists that ambushed them.  Sherlock isn't so sure it's not a trap; and what made the Taliban come after the Merchant at the very time the Royal Marines were coming for him anyway?

The fight went well, with seven more enemy KIA and no casualties.  It turns out that True was only knocked out by an AK round skipping off his helmet, and Geeves wasn't even hit.  The guys are a bit worried about him; this was his first action.  He was doing great, performing admirably, perhaps even a bit too brash.  Kinda common in some new guys that think they're Superman they told him, but he's really got a case of the yips.  He had a round take off his intra-squad radio headset, and another go through his uniform sleeve, just below his left armpit.  We'll have to keep an eye on him.

More to come.

V/R,
Jack