They call it the Grand National: how Marines dodge bullets in sniper alley

Tom Coghlan Patrol Base Blenheim

Last updated August 11 2010 12:01AM

The tension hung heavy as the Marines waited to go out of the gate. They stood silently, adjusting
their equipment straps. All were sweating profusely in 45C (113F) heat, hunched under the weight
of the 55kg (120lb) packs on their backs.

“We’ve got air [cover],” offered Jonathan King, the patrol corporal, by way of reassurance.

“What, the Mert?” came the sardonic response from somewhere in the ranks. The Mert is the British
helicopter-borne Medical Emergency Response Team that carries out wounded men.

When the order came the Marines left Patrol Base Blenheim at a run, weaving downhill between
tattered sheet screens that only briefly obscured them from a Taleban marksman several hundred
metres away.

The first bullet cracked and whirred low overhead and a second ricocheted with a whine close to
Corporal King. At the bottom the men panted and grinned at each other, safely beyond the sniper’s
vision. This, however, was just the first hurdle in what British troops call “Grand Nationaling”
around and sometimes over the walls of Sangin.
More than a hundred British soldiers have lost their lives in the narrow alleyways of Sangin and its
surrounding fields. Sixteen of them have been members of the 40 Commando battlegroup killed in
the past four months. With ten times the average casualty rate for Nato forces Sangin is, by some
margin, the most dangerous place in Afghanistan.

An hour after their departure from the base the Marines were among the alleys trying to establish
whether a bomb lay directly in their path. Word was passed back: the Marines with metal detectors
were picking up a strong indication of metal in the ground.

To fight here a raft of patrol tactics has evolved. Leading the patrols are the Vallon Men, named
after their metal detectors. No one doubts their courage — the Marines believe that they die in
proportionately greater numbers than anyone else on the patrols. Even while under fire the Vallon
Men must continue to sweep methodically ahead of them.

Farther back men carry ladders as if in some medieval siege. With pistols in hand they clamber
cautiously up to peer into the voids beyond the compound walls, searching for insurgents who
throw grenades or detonate improvised bombs using car batteries.

On this occasion there was no bomb — but the terrain was “shockingly bad”, said Lieutenant Nick
Hill, the commander of 5 Troop, Bravo Company, which has occupied Blenheim for the past four
months. A map in the base shows several hundred points from which the base has been targeted.

“Murder holes” have been cut for Taleban sharpshooters through the walls and the insurgents try to
guard their terrain with defensive belts of home-made bombs. Incoming rounds are so much a part
of daily life that the Marines casually tax each other a crate of soft drinks if they flinch when one
cracks overhead within the camp’s austere confines.

Given the threat levels 5 Troop are known as the luckiest men within 40 Commando. Three have
been shot in the head in the past two months. Miraculously all survived.

Marine Alex Tostevin, 20, was looking through binoculars one morning in July when he was felled
by a bullet that tore off his helmet. The Kevlar headgear succeeded in diverting the bullet’s
trajectory enough for it to hurtle around the inside of the helmet before smashing out the other side.
Marine Tostevin, from Guernsey, suffered a scratch to his head and considers his survival “a bit of a
miracle”.

Marine Andy Brown was hit in the face by bullet shards after a sandbag in front him took the brunt
of a sniper’s shot. Another Marine was hit in the face after a bullet exploded against the trigger of
the machinegun that he was aiming with.

In total the troop has lost five through injuries out of 28, with none killed. On Thursday there was
another near miss when a sniper’s bullet shattered a water bottle next to a Marine.

The next day the men returned from patrol to find that a rocket-propelled grenade had narrowly
missed the eastern sentry post of the patrol base — the spot most often targeted by the enemy.

The men attribute their survival to good tactics, new equipment and sheer luck — but most of all to
the Vallon Men.

Marine Dan Albutt, 22, has found nine bombs at the head of 5 Troop by studying the ground for
signs of disturbance. “At the end of the patrols I’m not physically exhausted but I’m completely
shattered from the concentration,” he said. “There is a huge sense of responsibility.”