Soldier blog: closing the gap on insurgents

For Channel 4

Trooper Pete Sheppard, from the Brigade Reconnaissance Force, writes from Afghanistan as his colleagues chase down a group of Taliban fighters.



Trooper Pete Sheppard is a radio operator with the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF), which is part of Operation Moshtarak against insurgents in Helmand province.

Yesterday was a quiet day; the troops went out on patrol round the local area. They met the locals and looked for any possible insurgents.

Today was different. 2 Troop went out on patrol about 0830. They came under small arms fire shortly after leaving.

With good observation and communication between the ground troops being engaged and the guys back at the compound, we managed to get eyes on the insurgents with our air assets. We were able to track the small number of insurgents and the guys on the ground gave chase.

Running through fields that had been irrigated and jumping ditches, they finally closed the gap onto those fighters.

The insurgents were asking for a re-supply of ammo and for more fighters to come to help.

One of the officers who had eyes on the fighters lost sight of them, but then to his west he saw two men on a motorbike, the front person holding an AK47 and the second holding a machine gun and a radio.

The officer sent the sighting of them over the radio and let loose some rounds at the enemy.

Limbu was telling me how when he was running clearing through the compounds one of the insurgents was spraying rounds over a wall, just like the films. Only being able to see a hand and an AK horizontal to the floor moving franticly from left to right across the wall letting off rounds. Limbu and a couple of others, started to fire, then the insurgent stopped. Time to move on, running to the next area.

After a couple of hours, they managed to arrest one of the fighters and size a couple of weapons, a radio and some other kit. The other insurgents weren’t as lucky.

It was a hot day today forecasted for 28 degrees celsius, but I think it could have been a bit hotter.

The lads when they got back were knackered. Having all of their kit on through the heat of the day and running about.

Really looking forward to coming home now.

Soldier blog: well earned rest in Afghanistan

For Channel 4

Trooper Pete Sheppard, from the Brigade Reconnaissance Force, writes from Afghanistan where his patrol have been building bridges and getting some well earned rest.

Trooper Pete Sheppard is a radio operator with the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF), which is part of Operation Moshtarak against insurgents in Helmand province.

We have spent the last couple of days in a really well equipped main base close by. We went there to replenish our water, fuel and rations and also to have a shower, wash our clothes and eat some hot food.

We managed to get some more clothing issued to us, which was handy because the days living in the field had started to take their toll on some of the guys' kit.

This also gave us the opportunity to ring home, go on the internet and buy some of those little niceties from the shop there before deploying back to our base.

Today, at 0815, I went out as part of a small patrol made up of some guys in Squadron Head Quarters (SHQ) to move a bridge crossing a canal.

When I say a bridge, it's just two ladders strapped together to increase the length across the canal, but you still get wet just over your boots. We moved this "bridge" about 100m further down a track and dug steps into the steep banks of the canal to make it easier to cross. We were back at the compound within an hour.

The locals have asked us to build a permanent bridge crossing the canal for them, so I took some pictures of the proposed bridging site to send up to higher headquarters to decide.

At about 0830, the rest of the squadron went out on a patrol. They went out for about seven hours, clearing through the small groups of compounds and interacting with the locals. The local atmospherics were good, and the troops didn't encounter any trouble.

They returned at 1430. Some of the guys from SHQ were stood at the entrance to the compound with bottles of water to give out to the lads as they came in.

It has been hot today; AJ measured the temperature to be 27.5 degrees Celsius! You can appreciate how hard it is for the troops having to patrol and run around with their body armour, helmets, ammo and bags on in that kind of heat.

Once everyone was in, they chilled out and stripped off their kit, and got some well-earned rest.

It's been confirmed that our time on the ground has been extended yet again. When our boss was telling us, he said that this was good, because this means that we actually are eventually coming off the ground. Everyone had a laugh at that.

Succumbing to the idea of staying longer

For Channel 4

Trooper Pete Sheppard, from the Brigade Reconnaissance Force, writes from Afghanistan while he finds that his unit will be spending more time on the ground than originally thought.



Trooper Pete Sheppard is a radio operator with the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF), which is part of Operation Moshtarak against insurgents in Helmand province.

This morning we found out that the brigade want to extend our time on the ground. There were mixed feelings about this.

On the whole though it's a good thing as it just makes the time we have left on the ground go quicker. We are also going to be going into Lashkar Gah at some point for 12 hours so we can have a shower, use a proper toilet, get some clothes washed, eat some hot food and get some supplies from the shop there. The food there is immense.

We heard across the radio a warning of a controlled explosion this morning from some one else. We passed round our guy's notice of the warning. Not everyone heard the warning.

One of the guys came over to me after the explosion and told me that he and the guys were stood around laughing and joking when the bang went off. We had troops out working on a culvert but as it came from that general direction they just all went quiet and looked at each other thinking the worst. I was told you could hear a pin drop. They then heard that it was a controlled explosion and there was a big sigh of relief.

Today we've been building a culvert 500m down the road for the locals. They seem to really appreciate this and it is good for us to help win the support from them.

It’s been hard work for the troops though, as it has been 26 degrees today with no wind.

Some of the guys have made make shift weights to use when back at the compound. Me and Dave used the outdoor, make-shift gym earlier and are both feeling the aches and pains from it now. It's amazing how much strength you actually lose from not doing any weights or press ups for so long.

Everyone is succumbing to the idea of being extended longer and moral is slowly creeping back up.

The days are going quite quickly, so before too long we’ll be back at Bastion handing our kit over to the next BRF.

On the move and taking over a compound

Channel 4 News

Trooper Pete Sheppard, from the Brigade Reconnaissance Force, writes from Afghanistan as they move closer to enemy positions.


Trooper Pete Sheppard is a radio operator with the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF), which is part of Operation Moshtarak against insurgents in Helmand province.

Reveille was at 0600 this morning. I did not sleep well at all.

We woke up and the first thing we did was pack all of our kit away. This included all of the radio masts and laptops we use for file transfers.

I was due to go out on patrol very soon, so I was checking last bits of kit. Once we had done this we threw some scoff in the BV (boiling vessel) to heat up and eat shortly.

The previous day, 3 Troop (Foxy used to be in this one) went back to Bastion for a larger service there. They returned for first light this morning with a small number of cold pizzas which they had bought the previous night at Pizza Hut. That was awesome!

At 0700 the patrol that I was in set off to a compound that we are taking over for a few days. We are pushing closer towards the enemy's positions. We do not just rock up and move the locals out, we actually pay them money like compensation for us moving in.

We gave them a couple of hours to remove any of their belongings and then we moved into the compound. This patrol only had about eight British and about nine ATF (it was not the whole BRF yet).

A few hours later the jackals and coyotes started to arrive. We had to make a small bridge so that the vehicles could cross the irrigation ditches but within a couple of hours everyone was in.

Once in this compound, we positioned all of the vehicles facing rearwards, set up the radios, sorted our kit out and got some hot food on the go. It has been quite hot today so we have all been drinking a lot of water.

Again some of the guys keep saying how they are breaking and really cannot wait to get home. The support everyone gives us is brilliant and I can say that we are all grateful for this.

It is just getting dark now, been a long day. Everyone is up at ridiculous o'clock, as the troops are going out on big clearance patrols. It is straight to bed for the majority of people now. Need all the rest we can get for tomorrow.

Waiting to go out on bomb patrol

Channel 4 News

Trooper Pete Sheppard spends another quiet day back at base before preparing to go out on patrol tomorrow, checking there are no IEDs on the tracks the soldiers are walking on.



Trooper Pete Sheppard is a radio operator with the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF), which is part of Operation Moshtarak against insurgents in Helmand province.

Been another quiet day today, a couple of patrols went out but on the whole a chilled day.

The lads are getting restless, they cannot wait to get back to camp.

I have been told that I am going out with one of the patrols tomorrow to conduct Barma (checking that there are no IEDs on the tracks that we are walking on). It should be interesting.

A few of us played a little game of touch rugby earlier. It was good fun however really tiring! A couple of guys from the ATF (Afghan Task Force) joined in and it was amusing watching them trying to gather the concept of the rules.

Tonight is just prepping my kit so I am good to go tomorrow morning, making sure I have enough water, fresh batteries, spare batteries and something quick to eat if needed to.

My fingers are crossed everything goes well tomorrow.

Afghanistan downtime sparks discussion

Channel 4

Trooper Pete Sheppard posts his latest blog from Operation Moshtarak, revealing the difficulty of identifying insurgents and the conversations among the troops.

Trooper Pete Sheppard is a radio operator with the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF), which is part of Operation Moshtarak against insurgents in Helmand Province.

It was yet another quiet day for the BRF.

The troops went out through the night last night on routine patrols to observe any enemy activity. Upon returning to our leaguer they took the opportunity to catch up on much deserved rest.

A few of the guys have been talking amongst each other expressing their desire not to come back out here to Afghanistan. Some of the lads want to just leave the army altogether. I can appreciate the stress it puts the lads on with regards to their wife and children if they have any back at home.

For me though, the military seems to be the right career.

It has been quiet cloudy today, not as warm as recent days which I hope is just a temporary thing. However the nice cool breeze is refreshing.

A couple of vehicles went and got some food re-supplies yesterday. Included in this was American rations, water, an assortment of chocolate bars and a load of sweets sent through from the welfare packs. We all really appreciate these.

A couple of our troops went out on a patrol about 1600 and received some small arms fire. They returned fire as trained and took cover.

We were getting a lot of insurgent chatter over their radios saying that they could see us and were going to start firing again. But nothing further came from this.

The insurgent took cover in a compound and we waited for our air assets to try and positively ID him with a weapon. We couldn’t see anything so they withdrew. Once back at our location, our air assets picked up two assessed insurgents with one believed to be carrying a weapon of some sort across his back.

So we sent another patrol out to follow these guys up. Once the patrol had eyes on the two insurgents we saw them walk away and could not do anything about it.

Maybe a busy night for us tonight.

Tim from the fire support team dropped two packs of noodles that he was cooking. He got those from a welfare pack. He is not a happy man.

Soldier: dealing with death 'is our job'

Channel 4 News

Trooper Pete Sheppard, on the front line in Afghanistan, writes: "It's crazy to think that one minute someone is there and the next he's not. But this is what we sign up to do and it is our job."

Trooper Pete Sheppard is a radio operator with the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF), which is part of Operation Moshtarak against insurgents in Helmand Province.

The Ministry of Defence announced Sergeant Paul Fox, attached to the BRF, was killed on Friday 26 February following an explosion in Nad Ali.

It was a weird day on Sunday, weather-wise. It has been nice and hot for the past few days and then over night there was a lot of thunder and lightning lighting up the sky.

It was shortly followed up by a large outburst of heavy rain/hail stones. It only lasted a couple of hours and in the morning the weather has gone back to normal again with clear blue skies.

Was speaking to one of the lads who was in Foxy's troop and he was saying how it hasn't even sunk in yet what had happened. He then said it probably will soon though. I think that is generally the same feeling across most of us.

It's crazy to think that one minute someone is there and the next he's not. But this is what we sign up to do and it is our job.

The local children are jumping into the small canal near us to cool down. They seem oblivious to our presence and are enjoying themselves, somersaulting into the cool water. One of the interpreters joined in and was jumping in as well, while we just observed.

The lads were talking about getting to Cyprus. We all are looking forward to coming home now. Just counting the days down still.

Everyday is just one closer to coming home.

Can't wait.