The Telegraph has been speaking over the past week to servicemen from 16 Air Assault Brigade’s 2 Para who are on the frontline in Kabul as part of Operation Pitting, the UK’s effort to rescue British nationals and eligible Afghans.
As city by city fell to the Taliban, the soldiers were dropped in under the cover of darkness to save as many as they could.
This is the story of their week.
Friday, August 13: Soldier A did not expect to be packing his bags to deploy for a rescue mission to Kabul. He was due to be enjoying summer leave, switching off from the military and having a break. Instead, after Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, ordered a Non-combatant Evacuation Operation to be executed on Thursday, he was back on a C-17 Globemaster to Afghanistan, a place he had fought in many times before and thought he could leave behind.
Saturday, August 14: “It’s crazy out here,” Soldier A texted from Afghanistan. Within 2 hours of touching down at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, he had taken to the streets to rescue people. “Everyone from 2 Para landed and went straight into it, we had no choice,” he said. “It was really chaotic as Kabul was falling.” The streets were busy, the night was hot, and at times personnel were forced to dismount their military vehicles to move displaced people out of their way so that they could find those they had been sent to rescue. The passengers, a combination of expats, dual nationals and people working with NGOs and contractors, had been instructed by the Foreign Office to report to a secure location, where they were picked up by the soldiers. “We scooped up most of the British nationals on the first day, but I believe there are a few still out there,” he said. Among them were blind, pregnant and disabled people.
Sunday, August 15: In the early hours of the morning, the evacuees were brought to the airfield. Ensuring the safe passage of the civilians to the airport was a “phenomenal” effort, which required coordination between the Royal Air Force and other agencies, including the US military, Afghan police and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Once inside, the evacuees were fed and given the chance to rest. However, the soldier said “conditions were basic, reflecting the emergency nature of the extraction”. Those who had been rescued were “relieved to be getting out”. “A friendly British face goes a long way,” Soldier A said. By nightfall, the capital had fallen to the Taliban.
Monday, August 16: At around 11.30am, 2 Para had completed their first evacuation of around 200 British nationals from Afghanistan. Packed into a military aircraft, the evacuees travelled to the UK via another location in the Middle East. “The guys and girls here have been exceptional,” Soldier A said. “Likewise, some of the Afghans have been unbelievably brave.”
With the first evacuees safely in the air, the soldiers went on to occupy the Baron Hotel complex around 600 metres from the perimeter of the airport, working around the clock. “I’m sleeping less than an hour at a time,” Soldier A said. “I’ve completely lost track of days.”
Tuesday, August 17: Crowds of people swelled around the airport entrance. “It’s chaos,” Soldier A explained. “People are fighting for their lives to get in and British soldiers are at the front of it.” The Taliban appeared to be making it extremely difficult for those seeking evacuation. “People are shaking with fear when they get to us because of the ordeal of getting past the Taliban to reach us,” he added.
The emotional strain of what they are seeing - men and women sobbing, pleading for their lives - takes its toll on the soldiers. “We do a job that volunteers us for some of the most extreme environments on earth,” Soldier A said. “We understand that when we sign on the dotted line, and we do what we have to do. But it doesn’t mean we always enjoy it.”
Wednesday, August 18: It is not lost on the soldiers just how unprecedented it is to be operating in a collegiate way with the Taliban. Many on the ground fought them over the 20-year war and lost colleagues along the way. However, today, they are not being obstructive. “I’m pretty much on a joint patrol with them,” Soldier A said. “It means we stand about five feet away from them. It’s surreal.” In order to get through it he said, “I’m separating the two now”, but conceded that the entire situation was “pretty unfathomable”.
“I am a little concerned, perhaps less about the Taliban’s behaviour changing, more about people becoming desperate,” he said.
Thursday, August 19: Flights have started to leave regularly and Soldier A is confident that the UK has developed “a really good system to transition chaos” in order to enable orderly departures. They have also picked up people from a number of other nations. If things keep going at pace he believes British troops will be out by August 31. “We are still on for the end of the month because the real question is will the Taliban accept a delay, they want us out,” he said. Asked if he believed they will evacuate everyone they were sent to recover by that deadline, he added: “We are certainly trying.”
Friday, August 20: Since Sunday, Britain has evacuated more than 2,400 people, 599 of them UK nationals. However, frustration has been brewing on the ground as to why the mission was left so “last minute”.
“Why we didn’t do it a month ago when the rest of the UK mission withdrew is beyond me,” Solider A said. “The country was stable then. Yes, it was the plan to send us in, but it doesn’t make sense – take a load of people and their kit out of a place, to send different people and kit to the same place a month later.”
The soldiers are the ones who have the difficult job of turning desperate people away at the gates of the airport. “Without all the right documentation they just become good people we can’t take,” Soldier A said, although he insisted that despite the emotional hardship the male and female soldiers alike would carry on with their mission in the vein they had started. “They really are doing an awesome job,” he said.
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