2006 Afghanistan War: The First Battle Of Garmsir | DCS Reenactment

History where's your air power now grum in the air wow hello valued viewers I hope you're all doing very well today we're looking at the first battle of garir in the Helman Province Afghanistan about 6 weeks ago we got access to the Southwest area of Afghanistan in our Sim before then I knew almost nothing of the 2001 to 2021 conflict it was something I just never really looked into and over the last 6 weeks I've enjoyed learning about the various operations I think I'm quite a good person to be looking into this conflict because I'm sort of looking at it through fresh eyes last Saturday night while my baby was sleeping my wife went out on a rare night out this meant I had some boys time I decided to watch this 2006 documentary about the conflict uh fighting the Taliban on the front line and I'll put it in the video description if you want to go and watch it and I suggest you do the video follows a reporter who inserts into a british-led operation to take and hold a town called gamir in southern Helmand gamir was tactically critical in 2006 to the Taliban they used it as a crossing point for Fighters entering the country from the southern border with Pakistan the isaf force consisted of 17 mixed British troops acting purely as advisers to a larger Afghan National Force the Afghan Force consisted of over 100a that's the Afghan Army troops and about 50 A&P Afghan police assisting also were a squad of Estonian troops the isaf plan was simple enter the town expecting minimal resistance hold the town for 24 hours before being relieved by Royal Marines almost immediately the plan went to hell upon first Contact the Blue Force was pinned down by an Insurgent force in gamir several times larger than intelligence had suggested Afghan casualties began mounting within minutes the attack stalled the British and Estonian troops were not there to fight but they were thrown head first into combat the video shows their completely inadequate Land Rover vehicles being shredded by accurate powerful fire the British call in their first cast close air support mission two Harriet gr9 Jets respond and lay down direct fire on the insurgents who subsequently Retreat South the Blue Force takes the town but they are told that the reinforcements are delayed and they must now hold the town until further noticed day two begins with shelling from distant Insurgent lines on the town the first British shinuk helicopter arrives from Camp Bastion to remove the dead and wounded the reporter points out the completely insufficient quantity of only eight shinuk helicopters provided by the British government to support all British troops in the country there is a constant shortage of these critical assets during day three the blue forces ordered South to set up a checkpoints to secure the area below gz they are ambushed by Insurgent fighters who have have had months to dig into the countryside around this area us A10 tank Busters are called in from Bagram base to the east to remove the fighters the video captures the A10 strafing Insurgent lines under direction from the forward British troops that day the British start to take their first casualties and the Afghan Force casualties Mount further day four starts with the ISF forward forces running into a wall of insurgence as they push further south US Navy Hornets are called in with a B1 bomb up the video shows huge plumes of Earth being thrown into the air with each bomb hit eventually after several days the task is completed and the various objectives secured for a battle where the British were not supposed to fire a single shot they ended up firing thousands of rounds and calling in 57 cast missions and taking several casualties the a forces took the brunt of the casualties including the Ana Commander the video ends with a British beginning to withdraw to Bastion they are battle weary low on ammunition and supplies and their gear has been smashed suddenly the realization hits that the Afghan forces will not remain behind to hold the area that has been taken over the previous days and that all of the blue casualties taken were for nothing as the Taliban begin to retake the area immediately for their bravery the 17 British troops become the most highly awarded British soldiers since the famous Bravo 20 unit in the 199 1 Gulf War in the aftermath some forces do end up staying behind to hold the area the Royal Marine reinforcements do finally make it in but two weeks late in the long term gamir is not held and the Taliban return this is the same pattern I see time and time again in this conflict as soon as a position is taken it is failed to be held and the insurgents return again perpetuating the war indefinitely I call this the first battle of garir because in 2008 two years later the US returned with an 800 strong Soldier Force to retake the area that's the Second Battle and then again in 2009 for the third battle and then the fourth battle in 2010 and finally Scenario Details the fifth Battle of gamir in 2011 and so here is our reenactment of the first battle guys in terms of the geography this is actually gamir here house for house we have this part which is why I'm doing so many reenactments of the helmond area this is the area that we have you can see 100 Mil South this is roughly where the border crossing point is and the insurgents move north towards G and then once there they processed and they work their way North up the hman towards lashar gar here and onto their various objectives the Blue Force the ISF force uh Move Along here and consist of as we said 17 British mixed troops one Estonian Squad I think it's five or six guys over 100 Ana troops 50 police in terms of air support just what we we see in the video us fa18e super hornets and I'm not sure where they're from so please let me know um if you know where they're from us a1c's I know they come from Bagram to the East One USB 1B bomber that came from Qatar UK gr uh nine harriers come from Kandahar and the UK c47s come from Bastion so guys the way we're going to do this is we're going to have four separate fights representing days one to four the first fight as you can see in the video is where the blue for is initially stall around here north of the town in this case I've placed 70 Insurgent Fighters around the north side of G we are going to enter with gr9 harriers as per the video they will be armed with rocket guys and I apologize for the damag nose of the aircraft I don't know why that is like that at the moment it just is so we'll just ignore that now um we don't actually see the har attack in the video but theator describes it as low Ingress swishing attacks so that's how we're going to attack we're not going to dive down high as per a typical cast Mission we're going to come in low fly the 50 or so miles from kahab now in real life all of the attacks would have been called in by nine line calls from the forward British operators um we don't have time for that and it's not something we want to do anyway so to speed the operation up Blue Force will magically put smokes around or near to the hostiles that's their way of giving us a quick nine line so we'll know where the hostiles are at that point we'll perform a battle appreciation pass and then we'll start our attack with our Rockets it's important guys to keep our Rockets strictly On Target in each case the friendlies will be danger close and we cannot afford any friendly casualties as far as I'm aware there was no friendly F in this actual operation once we've removed all 70 Fighters and day one I've put 70 fighters in there will return to cander hop day two will then immediately begin once the insurgents are removed the Blue Force will appear here and take the center of g at this point they're going to start being shelled by 100 to 157 mil artillery from the insurgents at that point we will take off in our CH 47s from Bastion as per real life and we will we've got eight of them so that's literally all of them were supplied by Britain just realized that that's funny uh we'll head south 40 mies and we will again wait for smokes to be put down by the blue forces red smoke always means bad guy Green Smoke always means friendly so find the Green Smoke take on the casualties and head north back to Bastion guys once complete day three will immediately begin at this point the a forces with a handful of British advisers and the estonians head south I think they said they went along the main Canal here they are ambushed here with heavily dug in Fighters I've put 50 fighters in oh one thing I should say in terms of the hostiles they have hundreds of fighters in pretty much all of these engagements the quantities of insurgents are never known most usually flee at the end of the battle and so it's usually estimated uh on witness reports they consist of small arms rocket pel grenades mortars recallers rifles various artillery and IED at that point we respond with the A10 C's and in the video you can see the atc's strafing with their guns we don't have bag RAM and it's too far away anyway to simulate so we're going to start from caha and we're going to start with our a10s the hostiles will be smoked very accurate fire on the smoke after a battle appreciation pass then when we're happy the hostiles are down we head back guys finally day four I've made this bit up so this bit is fictional but I would to do anyway the blue forces have pushed South to their final South objective and they've run into uh this Insurgent position in my fictional case I've put them not spread out um in the lines that they actually were but in this area here kind of industrial area and they take that area completely and it's been confirmed there are no civilians in that area that gives us an absolute Roe fire order so we can basically just obliterate that area it's just a bit of fun to end the mission off guys for us we will start in this case with hornets and again I don't know where the Hornets were operating from were they operating from an aircraft carrier or from a land base no idea anyway we'll have our hornets and we'll be armed with bombs we'll do the 50 miles and we will meet up with a b1b that's coming from Kar the b1b will um bomb the area with its 2,000 bombs obviously keeping within the area here and not anywhere else because friendly fire then of course we're allowed to go in and clean up any operations and then we fly home and DAY 1 - Harrier CAS that's it guys four missions in one welcome in viewers uh it's day 1 and the Blue Force has stalled and they've pulled in an attack from um harriers uh we have Simba Grump dark me cannibal hello boys helloo right let's go and get on station guys um let's take off please and head uh on this Vector actually rolling sorry that the noses have come off you as I literally don't know what I've done to do that but it's kind of funny and it wouldn't be a grr video If something stupid didn't [Music] happen the more I look at Helman these bases were so critical just 40 or 50 miles away you've got basan you've got Kandahar operate over the entire Helman region right we're going to get higher viewers to save fuel um probably just report back welcome back viewers 50 Mi cover to simra is leading Us in um now I find it very interesting that the aircraft would go in a low Ingress as per real life um does anyone have any idea why that might be so if you're being called in for a GT they probably calling for a show of force what that means is uh trying to get the fighters to lose the build a fight when they're faor fire Roger so it's trying to unnerve the hostiles while coming in low making lots of noise and lots of Showmanship okay Roger well we're coming in for a show of for guys our first pass will be a battle appreciation pass to try and find out where uh the smokes are going to be after the B smoke after no right Roger after that pass you may may engage remember asper real life is critical that we get BLS out BLS out BLS out it's critical that we get of missiles directly on target you may engage at will friendly is to the north viewers the nine line would actually call this in in real life it would give us exact instructions where to attack from where the hostiles are you know where the friendlies are and all that obviously it's just too much work for us we can't do that it's what you need to do in real life to ensure the Munitions go exactly the right place scoreboard will tell us how many hostiles are taken down I think how many players were fired in this conflict the players are there to um protect from guided missiles which absolutely the tan did have and did use all right running in first attack now faring scoreboard at the top says 38 down lots to go the guys are call in the N line from the ground we'll have to know exactly where civilians are or estimate where civilians are as well uh in reality Gil was evacuated of civilians uh as per the video I don't know where you guys have gone but I'm attacking again I'm getting majority of kills next at the Red Smoke in the field 64 down 68 down two more to go let's finish them off guys so we got the uh not the Apaches the uh CH 47s uh there were Apaches in the video as well as well viewers but we've done so many Apaches lately I want to break from any Apache something different right I'm going to use my IR system see if I can find them not sure if the G Roger right okay just keep our side of the canal we should be okay pull up pull up one kill one left yeah jtech is reporting last Insurgent going to be at the elbow ofies is that where they join at an angle yes yes they're Wes why would they Wes watch you uh that's what they called the name the that's just the name of the canals watch it's going to be right right there in the W I'm yeah right about there how's that yeah we got him all right guys uh good job uh back to Canda welcome back viewers we're back to uh cerar it takes very little time at 500 knots we'll do uh 3 second interval lead in the break right [Music] two break fre and four now even at faes like Kandahar Jets weren't safe landing the Taliban at various points infiltrated the areas around these bases and set up igler man pads IR guided missiles that shot at and shot down British and American aircraft as they landed at this bases it must have been really horrible place to operate so much so that special methods of Landing for the harriers had to be developed and in fact a a this aircraft gr9 was shot down uh while trying to land at kaha lead down what kind of nozzle were you using Simba about 40% yeah thought so done uh Sim are you on the runway St yep left side all right stay left if just I'm right a freaking G oh sh I over took three now that will get me kicked out of the Air Force as well as that whole Landing in general uh right we're going to switch DAY 2 - CH-47 Chinook to day two welcome to day too viewers um the town has been taken by the British lead Force but casualties have mounted we've been called in by our c47s uh to kazzy vac let's go guys 40 Mi due south symol lifting one thing we garnered from the video was the absolute lack of shinuk for the British and essentially they were being fought over every Point by services to use them welcome back viewers we've covered nearly 40 Mi now uh we've been winding our way South down the Helmand River uh we think we're about 5 Mi out now from gz we've been maintaining over 120 knots this is one of the fast helicopters in the world it's incredibly powerful helicopter 140 knots 140 knots 155 mph that's really impressive look how un aerodynamic it is as well um I've been asking viewers questions because as I said I'm new to this conflict it's all new to me um one thing they said is that these chinu fly with their rear gate down I don't know why I I haven't actually worked out why but I'm putting my rear gate down and that's was confirmed in the video we saw um they were always flying with their gate down for some reason yes say air conditioning air conditioning as well as that um they landed on the smoke well we're not going to do that today cuz it's too dangerous for us they landed literally down vertically on the smoke I was watching the video them land they were they're treated really roughly they smashed the rear gear down and then kind of the front gear come down they were not landed uh what's the word with finesse should we say not landed with dignity okay that's kir kir is split into two SE sections and we need to land on the smoke smoke Simba and Grump you land first uh me and cannibal or me and your second guy will wait watch out Small Arms fire trying not to Veer too far away right my terrible helicopter skills are not going to help me during this are they I have actually modeled troops down there so just be careful not to squash any guys that would be very embarrassing first man down stay down for 30 seconds please good Landing thank you artillery is still Landing where did man to go I got somebody in front of me though do you want us to take your place Crump or you still going down com down down this thing just likes to float a lot yes it does y and be careful it's easy to get into uh vrs yay yeah I just did that and luckily got out of it man there's a lot blowing up in front of me yeah if you look in the videos every single house was smashed smashed by fire by whatever Simba you can go now um just all bit wait for us I'm coming down to replace Simba from you got 20 seconds left must not crash uh the reason they landed directly down on the smoke viewers was because they knew that was the area where they would not clip their rotor blades grum you can go coming back up uh Man Four you can come down what it takes is one artillery shell to smash all of our helicopters up pretty much I'm going to hover about 200 yd south of the smoke watch out that was a close one oh it hit our troops hit our troops there's a guy running in front of me no one died no one died wow that was genuinely terrifying dark you got 30 seconds I'm finishing I'm getting the chop out of it I'm getting worried now when they run like that it means they've been hit they're not being killed viewers but they've been hit no friendly fire so far where are you guys all be uh just south come right keep coming right don't mind the VF below you Jesus Christ oh ah well it wouldn't be gr as I said if we didn't lose one helicopter one helicop down uh who are you dark you're done who's leading Sim's leading Roger Grump you owne me for that air frame okay let's go uh South north north yep let's go go go up the Hilman they probably wouldn't have flown over the helland in real life viewers because uh I know it was invested by Fighters welcome back viewers end of date uh two 40 mil back and there is cbas Hort is on the far side of the big hangers right off our nose right starting to cut speed God coming really hot oh my God I'm coming upot over the shoulder break yeah this candy flick yes candy flick turns on the D this thing it is also very heavy main problem is I can't actually read a writing on the HUD it's too small for my old man eyes oh it was unceremonious it was unceremonious but is a landing oh right come on m 3 working on it this isn't my specialty no me Nei you just go down the length of the runway like I did yeah that probably would the off even your damn realism oh that one there was just like they do in real life with the uh rear rear wheels down all right DAY 3 - A-10 good job guys straight on to day three before we run out of sunlight day three viewers um and the forces have moved South further but they've been ambushed by heavily dug in insurgents and they're going to call in the a10s let's punch it guys live pretty much on this Vector 50 Mi guys whoa hello uh someone passed pretty closer than I would have liked there gr something we got to realize done this in a while guys ke welcome back viewers 50 mil later we're heading in uh gy is down there there it is might have some remnants of the battle um when we get closer the Ia forces will putut out some red smokes we'll do a battle appreciation pass oh there they are look at that right do a pass familiarize yourself with the topography guys uh and then we'll start attacking uh the nine L says we are to strafe west to east and east to west along the radial Ingress and egress players please once your appreciation pass is complete you may startop striping I guess that was kind of our show of force as well yep show of force best force uh for you C models the friendlies are all marked with x's their transponders so you can see where friendlies [Music] are up to 84 losses wow that was quick sweet my plane's not working so yay pull up pull up guns don't work gun pack back on God damn it the gu ah I had the wrong damn gunpack rate him um did anyone oh God you've killed them all already six more that is awfully frustrating do it what is that total going up from the first Miss I do apologize yep he lots more to go then so 170 we're looking for don't forget your flares don't forget your flares guys they could have man pads in real life no one FL here we go right I have a gun Pier 104 down Pull up 110 down1 down FYI I've disabled my gun pack I've disabled my gun back and that was better Operation Rolling back in 70 - 112 down uh left sorry from the East this is surprisingly ineffective where are they [Music] all maybe the N line was bad wouldn't be the first time they're probably spreading out pull up yeah maybe I'm 13 down I'm out of ammo I see them down there I see them down there I'm going to strafe just south oh no they're dead they're dead they're dead it's the numbers were oh there were 50 there were only 50 there were only 50 that's why uh there's seven more there's seven more I can see two guys think jtech wants to talk on the target I don't think you're going to I don't think you're going to find him Sim pull up pull up I'm trying to get some yeah I'm trying to get shoot I mean they're all within the tree line in that Grove six more left one more dead if you look at the eastmost smoke which is the one closest to you now uh there's one maybe I don't know 30 ft away from that smoke see a smaller square of trees right next to that smoke he's dead down Simba Winchester let's go home guys let's go home caha welcome back viewers um one of our guys got some batom damage from Small Arms fire but otherwise we're unscathed and we're going to go land I like to live life dangerously do Simba don't you speaking of A10 battle damage the Cali 2 the engine cowl off A10 that was hit by a surface air missile in the first C War I think it was Afghanistan I think it was Afghanistan was the famous One seen the picture where the yeah where the wing was missing yes very famous female pilot and uh if you look in the background of the photo there's an angry Bobby Hill looking crew chief good friend of mine funny all right over the Airfield 3 second break lead in the break doing the break uh I think I'm three this time breaking yeah follow the smoking guy that's what I'm doing one short fire three base one down rolling out more base I didn't overtake my guy this time alude huh you know when I said I didn't overtake my guy yep I li you do that dark final and kicked out of the Air Force again for the second time today this time it's the American Air Force yes right American Air Force best no no not best Air Force definitely not best Air Force best Air Force huh no one comes close that goes that's maybe second best can't make a cup of tea like us I can guarantee that five down all right the sun is romantically going down over the mountains it really DAY 4 - FA-18 is romantic guys that's important in a battle simulation day four viewers and we are desperately running out of sunlight so punch it we need to go um form the fictitious stronghold welcome back viewers 15 mil out of the area we met up from the B1 from katar uh and we're here with our bombs I asked the question um to the viewers why are so many b1s involved in these cast they are cast operations in Afghanistan if you don't know the answer it's a genuinely difficult answer why is a hugely expensive difficult to operate bomber doing the job of A10 the reason you guys have come back with me overwhelmingly is a loyer time loer time is really important cuz no one knows when these are going to be needed it could be you know the course of days it could be needed at any point Lage time is important also the show of force idea that gr talked about earlier oh yeah arms away arms away um scaring the opposition nothing can do it really better than a B1 right guys uh pretty much let those bombs hit and then um start um last bombs released do things yeah I've just realized I've got two Friendly Fires I wonder where that happened that's the uh oh yeah don't know I don't know what part of the mission it happened it's interesting no idea I believe that was when we were doing the c or the Evac and the Sho oh we squashed a couple embarrassing for guys no I think uh I think artillery might have gotten theed upou oh there you go there right red smoke below bomb hits below definitely bomb here on guys right finish off that area keep within the bounds have F that's an order straight in releasing sure all right super where the hell is the area oh it's pretty easy to spot guys the one that's on fire yes I'll be one yeah I'll do it doing the maths in my head I think all 100 are dead but I'm bombing anyway but I came all this way and bomom bom that is one bombs grid Square guys just saying you strafe it with your guns for LS if you like your BS with all bomb's away Al that place atomized all bombs away going to get a quick gun straight for the ls LS are important guys lovely bit of Sky boms Way and again it showed the the super Hornets um in the video going in danger close again probably just scare the guys the big loud engines these be guns look nice they do look nice don't they Guys Winchester ay B sexy sexy sexy welcome back viewers what a weary 4 days as that was we're tired and we want some RNR so we're going for some RNR we're going for a formation Landing because we've got a fraking death wish that said real ples do formation that at night um I remember watching that Canadian series part of their training they're forc to formation land Wing to formation land their horn is at night all right come and left right watch this go wrong slowing down to 200 downwind and wind she's a handful of these speed we good going try to maintain 200 gear coming down gear coming down flaps down flaps Down Show balloon ready coming left the rest of your boys gone slowing down to 180 but a romantic Landing viewers nice intercept nice radial intercept this is not his first rodeo all right I'm going to hold 150 till we cross over the threshold of the runway I will stay Center Line maintaining this descent angle sharpp and throttle chop perfect wing tip formation Landing good training right run long two M Runway sexy boys fan formation landing at night with no practice I'll take it that's said we haven't survived it yet I suppose and I'm going to do an F3 uh really good Mission uh we did everything I wanted only two spili uh civilian only two Blues got killed we think that was from the artillery uh that was all a little bit serious and realistic for my liking so on three four power on eject 1 2 3 bye where's your air power now GR in the air wow oh my God awesome what an awesome scene that was that should be used by the next Hollywood Blockbuster look Sim's going to St Sim's going to sto his puny engines are not powerful enough that's going to be the freaking thumbnail ah absolutely Wonder ball