Operation Gondola

Date: 13/01/2010
Time: 20:00

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Photo's from the Operation
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Operation Gondola AAR
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Conducted on:  10 January 2010

Report by Pte. McVittees

 The O group was given in a small copse of trees just by the forming up point.  For some it was gloomy day, but for me the sun had burnt away the fog and it was a bright sunny day!



Our target was an enemy comms tower about a click SE of Stary Sobor.  Intel said to expect 2 Platoons of Russian infantry armed with small arms – no armour.  The basic plan saw 3 Platoon moving along the RVs to the drop off point NW of the target, with 1 Section leading the way in followed by 2, 3 and HQ.  We’d debus and form up at the FUP, move on to the LOD and perform a platoon assault on the target, moving NW to SE through the woods.


 
So, after confirming the OOM within 1 Section we kitted up and mounted up in the Landies.  Once 2 and 3 Sections were ready, we rolled out of the FOB heading south toward Stary Sobor.  Our driver for the day was Pte. Hicks and he was obviously battle hungry, as he proceeded to floor the throttle and leave the rest of the platoon in our dust.

We were warned to slow down as we approached Stary Sobor, which we did, but as we left heading south west to RV2 once again we found ourselves well in front of the platoon.  Then, just as we slowed to allow the column to close up all hell broke loose and rounds started pinging off our wagon.  At the time we assumed we’d driven into an ambush, so Pte. Hick’s floored it!  HQ ordered us to de-bus, so our 1ic (L/Cpl Volw) ordered a hard right into the undergrowth.  Pte. Hicks dully obeyed and took us crashing through rocks, trees, and bushes (at this point I thought death by bullet was about to be replaced with death by car crash).

YouTube Video: Part 1 - Debus

Unfortunately the distance between 1 section and the rest of the platoon meant they failed to see our detour and continued up the road completely unaware of where we were (which created a bit of confusion later on).


 
Once we’d debussed we began moving SE to rejoin the rest of the platoon.  2 and 3 Section were under fire and 3 quickly took two casualties as they started moving back toward the LOD.  At this point there seemed to be some confusion as to the disposition of the platoon, as 2 section engaged sporadic contacts in their area.

Eventually the platoon reached a position between the FUP and the LOD.  During the course of this manoeuvring 3 section had taken several non fatal, but serious casualties.  Unfortunately, they could not be treated due to the absence of a platoon medic.  Pte. Jez was quickly called up from the FUP, but travelling on foot there was a distinct possibility that by the time he arrived 3 Section’s casualties could have bled out.  1 Section was ordered to provide a volunteer (me) to retrieve our wagon (over 300m away) and pick Pte. Jez up.  So off I went.

Retrieving Pte. Jez and the wagon was pretty straight forward and only complicated by the lone gunman who had made it his mission to shoot anyone coming back to claim the keys of the Landie (me).  Naturally running away wasn’t an option (...and never crossed my mind...) so I ducked behind a low wall and started lobbing grenades in his general direction...

YouTube Video: Part 2 - Get Wagon

After I’d picked up Pte. Jez and got back to the platoon I rejoined 1 Section as they finished sweeping the NW end of the wood for OPFOR stragglers.  During my absence the platoon commander had been fatally wounded by a shot to his patience and Cpl. Dr_Chris had taken over as CO.  

After what seemed ages, the attack on the objective was about to go in.  The plan was simple: 1 section would move into the ground between the LOD and the objective providing cover fire as 3 Section put in the assault on a defensive position (two bunkers) in the wood line north west of the objective.  2 Section would act as the reserve.

As we moved into position I could clearly make out the bunker inside the tree line, but most of the section were having difficulty getting eyes on (we later realised that this was because, for some reason, the earlier fog didn’t clear up to the same degree for everyone).  As soon as we started putting suppressive fire down, I talked my LMG gunner’s (Pte. Manitou) rounds on target.  3 Sections attack was text book fire and manoeuvre with the clearing of a bunker being accomplished without a single casualty.

YouTube Video: Part 3 - Bunker Assualt

As 3 section pushed on toward the comms tower, 2 section swept round to the north and 1 section moved up behind 3.  At about the same time as 3 section approached the comms tower we came under attack from our half left (east), about 400m away and began engaging:

YouTube Video: Part 5 - Attack on the Comms Tower

At some point during all this someone in 3 Section reported seeing a T-72 in the vicinity of the comms tower, which for a few minutes caused considerable concern amongst the platoon.  Later the ‘T-72’ was revealed to be a tent...

By this time 3 Section had cleared the comms tower and the platoon was ordered to form an all round defence on the position.  Tragically, during the course of 3 Sections assault Pte. Somebloke was shot and killed.  According to an observer who saw the incident:

Once the perimeter was secured, 2ics conducted ammo and casualty checks; 1 Section was good for ammo and had taken no serious casualties.  

YouTube Video: Part 6 - Comms Tower

20 uneventful minutes  later we were all bombing our way back to the FUP in our wagons, 2 and 3 section having gone and retrieved the platoon’s  vehicles and collected us from the comms tower (which was denied to the enemy courtesy of L/Cpl Volw).



(Un)fortunately I didn’t see the sad close to this operation, which was marred by a tragic accident where someone was run over near Stary Sobor.  The hows and whys of this incident are immaterial, but one thing is for sure: vehicle drills need tightening up!