Posts Tagged ‘Queen’

Household Cavalry on Parade in London

We hear a good deal about our US forces in Afghanistan, but sometimes it seems we’re the only ones over there.  We’re not.  There are Canadian, British, and many other warriors fighting beside us, that we never hear much about.  A friend of mine in the UK sent this report to me, and I wanted to share it with you.  To some it might seem a bit boring, but between the lines it tells of the immense sacrifices these soldiers of the Queen are making.

I’ll provide the report in several parts to allow the reader to take a breath.  I have also cut out a very few parts which seemed a bit too technical in order to shorten the overall length.

This mid-tour report was submitted by LtCol Harry Fullerton, Commanding, The Household Cavalry Regiment.  Yes, folks – this is one of the same spit and polish regiments of the Household Guard that protects the Royalty of the United Kingdom – when it isn’t fighting in Helmand Province in Afghanistan.  The report, submitted in January 2010, is as follows:

“For the last three months the Household Cavalry Regiment [HCR] has been deployed in three distinct groups in Helmand province.

Household Cavalry in action

“These first three months have been challenging, but a great deal of success has been achieved during this time and the Battle Group and our detached squadrons feel confident of doing more to ensure the security of the people of Helmand, to defeat the insurgency, and to partner and train up the Afghan security forces.

“We had an excellent handover from 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, giving us enough knowledge and insight of the area that we could maintain the tempo of operations in Musa Qaleh.

“Musa Qaleh has been an area of increasing stability and security over the past 12 months, with the area under control of the government growing on a regular basis. Such is the confidence of the local people that there is a bustling bazaar area, and two large markets that occur each week in the wadi, and all this is done without the need for any overt military security presence.

“An area of approximately 100 square kilometres is controlled by ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] and ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces]. In late October, in a joint Afghan and ISAF operation, a further three villages and farming land were retaken off the insurgents, forcing them back further.

“…  most important of all, the insurgents have become more unpopular with the locals, who see them more and more as an external threat of foreign fighters, who live off the population by taking their food and resources.