Para major's diary condemns 'haphazard' Afghan operation

THE chaos facing British soldiers sent to fight the Taliban in southern Afghanistan is revealed today in extracts from a diary kept by a Parachute Regiment commander.

Major Will Pike, 37, complains about incoherent and sloppy planning, lack of firepower and equipment for the Para battlegroup, and lack of appreciation of the true strength of the Taliban. He was in charge of A Company of 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment in the summer of 2006.

"No real thought is going into what we are doing and why. We have done next to zero 'pacification ops' amongst the people and these we must do if we are to win the people over," he writes.

Major Pike's revelations are published in a collection of letters, notes and journals from four generations of the Pike family about the part they have played in wars since 1900.

In his entry for Friday 9 June 2006, he goes on to say he had spoken about "what we are doing wrong" to another officer. The list includes no unity of command, "the internal command structure is wrong", "not enough troops", "not enough on the development side", and "not nearly enough support helicopters".

Towards the end of that month Major Pike's company is to hold the outpost, or "district centre" of Sangin. The company suffers its first casualties, two signallers killed when a rocket hits their bunker.

The following day Major Pike explains to his commanding officer the parlous state of affairs in Sangin. "I stressed to him that I did not think that the position was tenable without significant logistic effort, an Engineer Field Troop with lots of stores and plant and a good quantity of reasonably trusted ANA (Afghan Army) and ANP (Afghan Police)."

Two days later, he remarks to the diary: "We seem to be stretching ourselves dangerously and things seem to be run in a rather haphazard way, the strain being mostly felt by those placed in unpleasant places."

After a fortnight the company is pulled out of Sangin and replaced. Within a year Major Pike left the Army. His commanding officer, Colonel Stuart Tootal, with whom Major Pike appears to have a serious difference of opinion, was awarded the DSO. But he too has left the Army. The brigade commander, Brigadier Ed Butler, who had to implement the plan to spread the Paras across a string of "platoon houses", also quit.

In 2006 the British forces had effectively only one fighting battlegroup of around 1,000. In places like Sangin, Musa Qaleh and Now Zad, they got caught up in some of the most ferocious fighting in this Afghan campaign. Within a year the British Army was sending four battlegroups, with one for training purposes - four times the force of 2006.

The diary extracts contrast sharply with the upbeat note of most accounts of the fighting in Helmand in 2006, in particular the semi-official "3 Para" by Patrick Bishop.

From The Frontline: Family Letters And Diaries: 1900 To The Falklands And Afghanistan is published by Pen and Sword, £19.99.