This is a guest post from BBC Cameraman and Editor Luke Winsbury. He details his 2009 embed with French Troops in kapisa Province, Afghanistan. It’s an interesting and entertaining look at operating as an embedded journalist with a Foreign Army. To watch the film he made click on this link.
It’s 4am when I’m woken up in a large hangar-come-tent. I’ve barely slept because it’s freezing and there was heavy machine gun fire all night. That makes it 3 nights in a row with barely any sleep. We’re in Tagab, a French forward operating base (FOB) in Kapisa Province, North of Kabul. I have no idea what it looks like because we arrived in darkness and, because the base gets rocketed regularly, it is entirely unlit. You’re not even allowed head torches, except dim red light ones which I’m smugly pleased I have.
Nijrab Base, Northern Afghanistan.
We’re bundled into a VAB (armored vehicle). It’s so totally disorientating when you’re this tired and you have no idea where you are or really what you’re about to face. Not even the red light head torches are allowed at this point. I had taken the decision, much against the advice of the French, to take my full size DSR500 camera on patrol. They wanted to take something smaller but I explained that, like them with their guns, I use a DSR reflexively and quickly.
We travel for about an hour in the dark – and it really is pitch black in the back of the VAB. I use my small A1 camera to get some night vision shots of the soldiers in the back. Their eyes glow green and stare blankly into nowhere. They have no idea I’m pointing a camera at them. Ironically I am the only the one in the back of that thing that gets glimpses of anything.
We’re in a Pashtun area where the French had a three hour contact (Army terminology for a Gun-Fight) the previous week, on a joint patrol with the ANA (Afghan National Army) delivering clothes and medical supplies to the main village of Tagab.
French Troops on patrol near Tagab villiage, Northern Afghanistan.
Emma Jane Kirby, the BBC’s Paris Correspondent, and myself are here to see what the French are up to now in Afghanistan. They’ve had a lot of stick in the past for not doing their fair share in Afghanistan but in the recent years they’ve increased their troop numbers and taken control of the strategically important Kapisa Province, the Northern Gateway to Kabul. We’re with the Chasseurs Alpins (Mountain Hunters), the elite mountain infantry troops of the French Army.
The VAB stops, the back door swings open revealing the half-light of dawn. In my haste to get out and actually see something I make the mistake of not grabbing my spares bag. We know we’re going off on foot but don’t know for how long – could be hours. I start filming but immediately get told to start moving through the village. It has suddenly become very tense – something had changed – I don’t understand what or why. I don’t even have time to grab my spares bag from our VAB. I only have the battery on the camera and the tape inside it then. Idiot. Luckily Emma Jane is already wearing her Radio Microphone.
We’re at the back of the patrol, which is the worst place to be, both for filming and for our safety. The Taliban favour ambush tactics where they divide a patrol into smaller groups and pick them off. Moving through the village you can see how easy this is – all the houses with there walls and ditches could hide anyone.
I start running forward to get shots looking back at the soldiers. We stop a lot behind walls, in ditches, while the route forward is checked. We have to cross open ground quickly and with a low profile. We see few villagers – it’s too early. Dogs are barking.
We end up in a deep ditch running through some fields on the edge of the village, facing the mountains on the edge of the valley. This is where the Taliban hide and this is exactly where the French had a 3 hour gun battle with them last week. There’s a white house about 300m away where the Taliban were hiding so French and ANA troops move cautiously up to it. I suddenly notice the guy in front of me is a US Marine – where did he come from?
Gradually the tension eases. Maybe it’s too early for the Taliban. With this perimeter secured, we make our way back into the village to film the ANA handing out blankets and medical supplies. It’s a chaotic scene, but friendly and full of humour. I roam around freely and feel no threat at all, albeit knowing there are many French keeping an eye on things. I have tea with some of the ANA soldiers, one of those moments of serenity you have to take and it gives me a chance to catch my breath.
Later that evening we return to our main home for the week, the French base at Nijrab, home to about 700 troops. Nijrab is a Tajik area and as such is relatively peaceful. The base is set up on a plateau surrounded by huge snow capped mountains – it is incredibly beautiful. When this country finds peace it will be a haven for climbing, walking and skiing.
French JTAC – Forward Air Controller – in Afghanistan
Our accommodation in Nijrab was a large overflow tent – very basic and very cold – and we had to share it with soldiers passing through. At night the temperatures dropped well below freezing. My Icebreaker thermals were magic – I wore them day and night for days and they still didn’t smell (or perhaps I got used to the smell?)
Over the next few days we go on more patrols with the Chasseurs Alpins but mostly in the safer Tajik areas. One day we go with the JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller – in other words the man who calls in Air-Strikes), climbing high up the side of the valley the French are operating in to secure the high ground and provide cover. Their guns face both ways, into the valley below and high up into the rocky peaks. The French have been discovering increasing numbers of large arms caches recently. The Taliban are relatively inactive during the winter (it is said they go for winter training across the border in Pakistan) – but everyone is predicting a counter-surge from them following the large increase in US troops numbers. The arms caches being found by the French seem to indicate a spring offensive.
Although the French do not see as much ‘action’ as the Americans and British in Afghanistan, it is worth keeping in mind the enormous public opposition in France (about 80% of the population) to their presence there – which must constrain their activities there. It is a democracy after all.
Luke has just returned from another trip to Afghanistan, this time with BBC Newsnight’s Mark Urban, click here to watch the film from kandahar.
