WALLOP!
British forces completed one of their most complex and daring operations since the Second World War early this morning when they delivered a giant turbine to the Kajaki hydroelectric dam in Afghanistan's insurgency-racked southern province of Helmand.
A convoy of 100 vehicles, protected by 5,000 troops and dozens of attack helicopters and fighter jets, drove the turbine and other equipment, weighing about 220 tonnes, for five days across 100 miles of hostile territory. The Times was granted exclusive access as it arrived at about 2.30am today, edging through British forces' Camp Zeebrugge at Kajaki in a huge cloud of dust as helicopters circled overhead and several mortars were heard landing in the distance. About 2,000 US and Canadian forces protected the convoy for the first 50 miles of its journey from the southern city of Kandahar, but 3,000 British troops handled the perilous final leg through known Taleban strongholds.
BOSH!
"It's been pretty exciting and emotional at times," said Corporal Barry Guthrie, 29, from Stirling, who drove one of the nine 36-wheeler lorries carrying the equipment all the way from Kandahar to Kajaki. "All the way we were expecting to get whacked, but it never happened," he told The Times, as the turbine, transformers and other equipment were unloaded with a 90-tonne crane, also brought in by the convoy. The Taleban repeatedly attacked the forces protecting the convoy, but were overwhelmed and lost more than 200 men.
One soldier was reported as saying, "Damn the Fuzzies, up the Bucks. See you in Strasbourg!" before popping in his monocle and doing a loop the loop in a Sopwith Camel.
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