Delta Company 40 Commando fights the Taliban

Telegraph:

Weighed down with weapons and equipment, lines of men moved across the Helmand landscape with wary caution.

As Christmas morning dawned in Afghanistan there was little sign of the message of peace it symbolises. Delta Company of 40 Commando, The Royal Marines, were walking towards a Taliban ambush.

The Commandos felt the impending attack long before it actually came. Around them were tell-tale signs that they were being watched.

As the Marines pushed northwards out of a drab village a sudden burst of gunfire cracked the air, followed by a second of silence then a rising crescendo of incoming fire as the Marines scrambled for cover.

It was 10am local time, and in England people were still asleep.

From three points, in an arc across their front, drifting puffs of smoke betrayed the firing points of the Taliban fighters, the nearest 100 yards away.

Above the chaotic hail of gunfire, a deeper thump was followed by a whistle as a rocket-propelled ­grenade passed overhead to explode somewhere behind their position with a jarring concussion.

More followed, one bursting with an ugly burst of black smoke just in front of a group of Marines.

From irrigation ditches and buildings the Marines fired back, rising to their feet to fire quick bursts before dropping down again.

As the first onslaught of gunfire slackened, the Company Commander, Major Tony Chattin, 38, talked rapidly on the radio with the young troop commander leading the forward element of the patrol.

2nd Lieutenant Dan Eaton, 24, from Surrey, just two weeks out of training, was not merely commanding his first battle, he was also under fire for the first time in his life.

Other radios crackled into life. Bombardier Ian Gilby, a Liver­pudlian from the 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, shouted co-ordinates as artillery at the nearby British base were put on standby. At another base mortars were readied.

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Half an hour later, though, he faced the more pressing problem of extracting his men from the firefight with the Taliban. The insurgents had sprung their ambush slightly too early, which had probably spared the Marines any casualties.

"I don't want to get into a decisive engagement on Christmas Day," Major Chattin told the young lieutenant over the radio.

The Marines began to pull back and, two hours later, the men from the patrol were dining on rations at their makeshift base and preparing for a Christmas carol service around a plastic tree.

Marines dressed up as reindeer, Father Christmas, an elf and a pink fairy for the festivities. Beneath blond corkscrew curls the fairy displayed a walrus moustache.

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The story did not indicate who had to wear the pink fairy costume, or what that may have to do with Christmas. This pictures shows the Marines around a Christmas tree wearing funny hats. What the story does confirm is that the Taliban are just not very good at ambushing. They have been pulverized so many times when they have tried that they are now making the mistake of being too anxious and firing too soon.