45 Commando Crocodile

Operation Crocodile Bitingly

Pressurizing the Taliban to the bitter end

The previous page was: "Derrick Cakebread's Five Rivers"

They ended as they began; On the front foot. The last act of 3 Commando Brigade's six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan was like their first; thrusting a knife into the belly of the beast.

Operation Ghartse Tamsa-Pashtu for crocodile-was the final blow struck by the Green Berets of 45 Commando Royal Marines, days before they returned home to Arbroath, Scotland.

The men of Yankee and Zulu Companies set out into the terrain around Sangin and Gereshk, 25 miles away, determined to find-and destroy-enemy arms caches. And they did.

Derrick Cakebread's Five Rivers

Forward Operational Bases

Forward Operational Bases; Inkerman and Environs near Sangin had come under sporadic rocket fire from the insurgents.

A helicopter drop took the men of 45 Commando to the suspected hotbed of enemy activity north of Sangin-itself once a Taliban stronghold.

There the Commandos found two operational firing positions. Effectively they were makeshift bunkers, and there were stocks of ammunition, including mortar bombs, rocket-propelled grenade charges, rockets and detonation fuses.

As Yankee returned to base, downstream on the Helmand River, Zulu Company set out on foot from Forward Operational Base, Gibraltar, sheperded by the Marines armoured Vikings, and accompanied by demolition experts from the Commando's Royal Engineers.

Their aim was

To search for-and destroy-any

Improvised explosive devices (bombs or mines) planted by the Taleban. Here the enemy were more resolute than it had been around Sangin. Some of the Zulus came under fire from 107mm rockets.

"The first one missed us by 300 or 400 metres," said Corporal Chris Mullin of Zulu's fire support team. "Which is a good thing because the rockets have a killing range of 25 metres, although the shrapnel can be flung around 100 metres from the impact point?

Unsurprisingly, the Commandos weren't going to just sit there and take it.

"We engaged with Javelin, grenade machine gun and with a sustained fire from our General Purpose Machine Gun, we destroyed their firing platform," said the non-commissioned officer. "The last enemy rockets landed about 10 metres from our position. It was lucky that no-one was hit."

"The probing mission was,"

Says Major Kenny Craig, Zulu's Commanding Officer, "typical of his men's experiences over the past six months. The company was in constant contact with a very tenacious enemy; there has been little respite," he added.

Crocodile was one of a series of operations unleashed by the Royal Marine Commandos in their final month in Afghanistan, operations which ranged the length and breadth of the Helmand Province.

A routine search by 45 Commando near Sangin, at another one-time hotbed for insurgence activity, unearthed yet another Taliban weapons cache.

The insurgents left improvised explosive devices-bombs-ready made for use, rifles, pressure plates to trigger mines, and other bomb components in a series of compounds and old trenches from the war with the Soviets in the 1970s and 80s. All were destroyed by the men of X-Ray Company.

Enemy has been hiding weapons

And explosives for years in this area. To find anything is always a plus and, most importantly, it gives the lads confidence in their own ability," said section commander Corporal Alex Tingle.

Captain Jamie Jamison, second-in-command of X-Ray Company added: "The devices we destroyed were obviously ready to be used and would have had a catastrophic effect. No doubt we have saved some lives or maybe spared others of life-changing injuries."

"The Taliban now know that they cannot match the Commandos in a fight and have had to resort to the cowardly use of bombs which target local men, women and children as much as us or Afghan forces."

Modern-day Pages Fast Boats Pages Joe Wezley Pages

"All of these operations

Have been driven by intelligence, a shadowy area in warfare which normally doesn't appear on these pages for about 30 years."

And we're not about to change that, but we can give a broad brushstroke of Operations by the Royal Marines. Whose role was to find the enemy, understand him, then strike at his heart, which at the same time will undermine him by bringing the local populace on our side.

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45 Cdo Operation Crocodile Rhine 1945

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