SirFozzalot

Sky plus'd this last night, looking forward to watching it!

Snazy

Make sure you hit "series link" too. Its a 5 part series.

SirFozzalot

Already done!

STi-Frenchie

The next part of the series is already looking good going by the trailers...

Paddi70

So right but utter bollcokss. But powers that be will not be held accountable for such actions. Loved his comment about hitting it, too right.

Never been a fan of Kemps, but as a soldier, and one who was part of the construction of Bastion, which we won a British Construction Industry Award, and very proud of. Just had to watch, and now see him in a totally different light, fair play to him. During Telic 1 we had embedded journos attached with us, and they were better trained than he is. But acted like a right bunch of primos, where as he's all over it. Great viewing and brings back some good memories, sad to say even a bit jealous, shan't let the misses know that.

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

So your responsible for that utter ****hole? My first proper experience of Helmand was landing at Bastion and no-one having a clue what the hell was going on, bunking down in some random para regt sections tent, and gave up trying to find any direction until the following morning when I could find one of my lot

Your right about the good memories.. I might be back out there again end of the year and looking forward to it

Jamie

It is back on lads n wimmin

Paddi70

Mate, didn't design it, only built it You must have been with 16, the first residents proper residents. Had a troop just come back, its now nearly twice the size. And bloody freezing

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

I caught the tail end of 16, and most of 42's tour out there.

andythejock01wrx

Are you in the Navy or Army Prasius ?

Borat_Drives_A_Scooby

They should give him a gun and see how many Taliban he can take out.

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

Ahh.. the days of those nice little lines being drawn are long gone

abbott

god damn it was only a bloody mosque , i woulda definitely called that strike .

damn good programme looking forward to next weeks edition i hope the book comes out to accompany the series

P1Fanatic

Good series. Realised last night I was series linked to repeat on Sky 2 so have changed that now.

This weeks was better with more of the action. Makes you realise how easy it is to get ambushed and get injured or even lose your life.

It must be very frustrating with all the red tape as others have said. What about when they arrested those locals on suspicion of being Taliban? After a while and some interviewing they decided they were telling them the truth and had to pay compensation. What was that - money or some food / water?

Then again when the oppurtunity arises it must be rewarding to take out those trying to kill you like that sniper shot.

Bet those guys flying around in Apaches get some praise from the guys on the ground too.

Simon

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

Its not really "had" to pay - its really just a case of "sorry about that mate"; hearts and minds - you give them $100 (as an example..) for the inconvenience you've put them through for a few hours, and they're generally very understanding and happy that they're $100 up for just answering a few questions. The ones who still remain awkward are the ones you need to keep an eye on

As for the Apaches - contrary to what the media might suggest - your happy to see air-support of any kind when you need it - be it harriers, apaches or A-10's

andythejock01wrx

I can imagine - for every ***** up, there must be 20 air strikes that save squaddies' lives.

Abdabz

I have been watching this too... Interesting stuff.
I found the use of the mosque as a base for the Taliban abhorrent and more abhorrent was the fact that we couldnt blow it off the face of the earth with them in it... As soon as they use it for a war den then it has to be fair game...

I wondered if the Taliban have a uniform - akin to a football team - how else could a few men near a cave entrance be known to be Taliban? No wonder the fellas who approached the army were asking questions and to be fair, that major dude clearly didnt have a clue what they had just blown up - you could tell from his responses to the questions... As for the poor goats...Poor poor innocent billy goats

Kemp clearly is a mentalist and must be getting well paid for his efforts to do this. Whilst the show helps demonstrate the realities of war, it hasnt so far done much else for me, except make me angry with the politicians who sent them there and ask myself "what is the bloody point"...

The Snug Rhino

Are you serious? It may be ridiculous that we cant blow it up but if i'm being chased down by British soldiers and helicopter gunships and my choice is to hide in a hut that will be blown to **** or a mosque.........you wont find me in the hut!

Its not abhorrent....its sensible.

Abdabz

In terms of abhorrent being the adjective meaning causing repugnance, detestable, loathsome, an abhorrent deed, etc then yes, I find it abhorrent. It is a place of worship for the innocent townsfolk, being used a castle for those fighting to preserve their reign of terror over a country. It is disrespectful to genuine worshippers and in that respect as abhorrent as the fact that once they have taken over that place of worship, it ceases to be as such but yet cant be bombed...

The Snug Rhino

i disagree - they are abhorent, not being able to blow up the mosque is annoying but their use of it (as opposed to getting blown to bits) is quite sensible.

its certainly where i'd hide!

after all its - only a building, nothing special - if i need to hide somewhere i'm going in one the enemy cant hit! .... that maybe cheating but i'd rather cheat and live than play fair and get an Apache missile up my ****!

STi-Frenchie

Seems like the insurgents have no worries when it comes to blowing up mosques...7 dead this morning... BBC NEWS | South Asia | Blasts kills top Afghan official

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

It's not the fact that they hide in it Snug; thats all allowed - its the fact that they take their weapons into a religious place of refuge and then continue to use it as a firing position thats a tiny bit annoying

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

If it were me on the ground the order would be given to blow up "that building". I'd just make sure they used a very big bomb. What mosque? I only see a pile of rubble from just another building that was being used as a firing position

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Strictly speaking, I thought under the Big G convention if soldiers seek refuge in a place of worship, but continue to fire from it, then it is fair game as it is deemed to have given up its religious status?

Of course, the political fall out would be another thing!!

Ns04

SirFozzalot

I think that's the biggest part of the reason they don't attack the mosques. They need to keep the general public at least partially supporting them. If they start blowing up all the mosques, whether the Taliban are in them or not, I think the public will get a bit upset!

Remember, religion is everything to alot of these people.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Agree completely: the Taliban propaganda -and some of the less responsible UK media, no doubt - would leap on it! It would make the soliders lives so much harder in the long run, as they would loose sympathy/support from locals, who would only see a demolished place of worship! I rather suspect the taliban are hoping to bait allied troops!

That's some restraint on the part of our lads though - you just know the taliban wouldn't hold back if our boys piled into a church!

ns04

scoobz72

It is an excellent programme, Kemp deserves all the praise and honours that will no doubt come his way. The troops from the Royal Anglian and all the others in that situation are true heroes IMO. Thats what makes Britain Great.
I was scared just watching when they come onder attack!
Pure adrenalin makes this a "real" Reality programme!

Well done Ross & All the lads n lasses out there!

SirFozzalot

Of course they wouldn't, rules of engagement for one side and none for the other!

It just shows how quickly they would lose support of the locals though when Ross Kemp was chatting via the interpreter to that local guy, he was rather miffed by all the destruction of the buildings by the Allied forces anyway, without them destroying his mosque as well!!!

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, as I said earlier, that is the case, but you know the Independent would lead with "20 KILLED IN ISAF MOSQUE BOMBING!". The fact that they were all armed to the teeth and firing from the mosque would get forgotten in the lefty's rush to get it into print Such as last Christmas when those women and children were killed near Kandahar by an ISAF airstrike - almost all of the press reports neglected to point out that those women and children were being held in a Taliban firing position against their will during a major ISAF offensive and their existence wasn't know by ISAF until the Taliban wheeled out the bodies as a nice little bit of propaganda.

The idea that the locals would be upset is actually a little off target; most village elders in Afghanistan are actually surprisingly pragmatic when it comes to such things, and accept that the only time ISAF does such things is when the Taliban are there. They tend to be quite happy as long as they get some compensation of it - they tend to be more annoyed that ISAF doesn't provide adequate security to prevent the Taliban coming back in to prevent such things happen again.

The only real political implications of our actions in Helmand are with the over-sensitive western public, and little outbusts by Karzai - who is a total irrelevance to almost every Afghani living outside of Kabul.

STi-Frenchie

Well said and kudos to you and the other folks out there fighting the good fight. If the west would get off it's **** and be less PC, less Israeli supportive and get involved in solving the real problems instead of worrying about being offensive to one party or the other maybe we could make some progress. Bang some heads together I say.