Fierce battle in valley
Volume 11, No. 53, October 05, 2006
By Cpl Mike McSweeney

TOWARDS the end of the SFTG’s deployment, Australian forces led a 10-day offensive operation to clear a large ACM enclave in the Chora Valley, 15km from Camp Russell.

More than 500 soldiers from six different nations, backed by air support, fought through and cleared hundreds of ACM fighters from the valley. Despite fierce resistance, they exacted such heavy casualties against ACM that the remnants fled.

Maj-Gen Hindmarsh said that towards the end of the operation a coalition combat element from another nation came under heavy and sustained fire from rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machine guns.

“The Australian commando platoon, experiencing some of the heaviest close quarter battle of the deployment, fought its way across the valley to come to the aid of the coalition element,” he said.

Under intense fire, six Australian commandos were wounded, and the other coalition element suffered 13 injuries and one death.

“Despite the intensity of the resistance and the fact that a third of their force was down, the commandos never wavered, and leaving their wounded to be attended to, continued to fight through until the enemy had been neutralised,” Maj-Gen Hindmarsh said.

“They then assisted in coordinating what became the largest combat medical evacuation of Australian soldiers since Vietnam.

“Overall, the Chora Valley operation – planned, coordinated and led as it was by the Australian task group – was a model of combined arms warfare in an extremely challenging counter insurgency setting. Its success proved what could be achieved.”