How our side wages war against the Taliban in Afghanistan / public opinions about 2 very successful British Army snipers

Click on image to enlarge.

The Telegraph (newspaper UK)
Sunday 13 March 2011
book review:

Dead Men Risen: The snipers' story

Operating from a remote patrol base in Helmand, two British snipers were responsible for killing 75 Taliban fighters in just 40 days. In one remarkable feat of marksmanship, two insurgents were dispatched with a single bullet.

By Toby Harnden

The arrival at the newly-established Patrol Base Shamal Storrai (Pashto for “North Star”) in late August 2009 of Serjeant Tom Potter and Rifleman Mark Osmond marked the start of an astonishing episode in the history of British Army sniping.

Within 40 days, the two marksmen from 4 Rifles, part of the Welsh Guards Battle group, had achieved 75 confirmed kills with 31 attributed to Potter and 44 to Osmond. Each kill was chalked up as a little stick man on the beam above the firing position in their camouflaged sangar beside the base gate – a stick man with no head denoting a target eliminated with a shot to the skull.

Osmond, 25, was an engaging, fast-talking enthusiast, eager to display his encyclopedic knowledge of every specification and capability of his equipment. He had stubbornly remained a rifleman because he feared that being promoted might lead to his being taken away from sniping, a job he loved and lived for. Potter, 30, was more laid back, projecting a calm professionalism and quiet confidence in the value of what he did.

Potter had notched up seven confirmed kills in Bara in 2007 and 2008 while Osmond’s total was 23. Both were members of the Green Jackets team that won the 2006 British Army Sniper Championships.

On one occasion they killed eight Taliban in two hours, ‘I wasn’t comfortable with it at first,’ said Osmond, ‘you start wondering is it really necessary?’ But the reaction of the locals soon persuaded him. ‘We had people coming up to us afterwards, not scared to talk to us. They felt they were being protected’.

Most of the kills were at a range of 1,200 metres using the 7.62 mm L96 sniper rifle.

The snipers used suppressors, reducing the sound of the muzzle blast. Although a ballistic crack could be heard, it was almost impossible to work out where the shot was coming from. With the bullet travelling at three times the speed of sound, a victim was unlikely to hear anything before he died.

Walkie-talkie messages revealed that the Taliban thought they were being hit from helicopters. The longest-range shot taken was when Potter killed an insurgent at 1,430 metres away. But the most celebrated shot of their tour was by Osmond at a range of just 196 metres.

On September 12th, a known Taliban commander appeared on the back of a motorcycle with a passenger riding pillion. There was a British patrol in the village of Gorup-e Shesh Kalay and under the rules of engagement, the walkie-talkie the Taliban pair were carrying was designated a hostile act. As they drove off, Osmond fired warning shots with his pistol and then picked up his L96, the same weapon – serial number 0166 – he had used in Iraq and on the butt of which he had written, ‘I love u 0166’.

Taking deliberate aim, he fired a single shot. The bike tumbled and both men fell onto the road and lay there motionless. When the British patrol returned, they checked the men and confirmed they were both dead, with large holes through their heads.

The 7.62 mm bullet Osmond had fired had passed through the heads of both men. He had achieved the rare feat of ‘one shot, two kills’ known in the sniping business as ‘a Quigley’. The term comes from the 1990 film Quigley Down Under in which the hero, played by Tom Selleck, uses an old Sharps rifle to devastating effect.

Potter and Osmond’s working day would begin around 7 am and end a dozen or so hours later at last light. Up to about 900 metres, they would aim at an insurgent’s head, beyond that at the chest.

Often, Potter would take one side of a compound and Osmond the other. Any insurgent moving from one side to the other was liable to be shot by the second sniper if the first had not already got him. Each used the scopes on the rifles to spot for the other man, identifying targets with nicknames to do with their appearance.

A fighter wearing light blue was dubbed ‘the Virgin Mary’ and one clad in what looked like sackcloth was referred to as ‘Hesco man’, after the colour of the base’s Hesco barriers. Both the Virgin Mary and Hesco man were killed.

Others were given a nickname because of their activities, like Hashish man, a Taliban who doubled up as a drug dealer. Occasionally, insurgents got posthumous monikers. If one target presented himself, both snipers aimed at him simultaneously in a coordinated shoot.

“Everybody you hit they drop in a different way,’ says Potter. ‘We did a co-ord shoot on to the one bloke and he just looked like he just fell through a trap door. So we called him Trapdoor Man.”

Major Mark Gidlow-Jackson, their company commander, describes Potter and Osmond as the “epitome of the thinking riflemen” that his regiment sought to produce. “They know the consequences of what they’re doing and they are very measured men. They are both highly dedicated to the art of sniping. They’re both quiet, softly spoken, utterly charming, two of the nicest men in the company, if the most dangerous.”

Serjeant Potter and Rifleman Osmond are identified by pseudonyms for security reasons.

Dead Men Risen, published by Quercus Publishing at £18.99 RRP, is available from Telegraph Books at £14.99 + £1.25 p&p. Call 0844 871 1515 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk

- 30 -

COMMENTS:

Jack Cope
2 hours ago
Recommended by
1 person
1) The Taliban kill women and children on purpose, these guys don't, they kill killers. Who are the war criminals again?

2) I doubt they enjoy it and the army weeds out nutters like that pretty early. Anyone who has been in the military will tell you dark humor is a way of getting over the shite you feel

3) For whatever reason NATO/UN is in Iraq/Afghanistan, a job has to be done and it's owed to the people to do it there for the people who are there.

And before you start calling me some sort of right wing loon, I'm a Muslim and unpolitical to the core.
 
Jack Cope
 
2 hours ago
Oh please, why bring Islam up? Yes, such actions are done by a minority of fanatics. Please provide evidence to your claims that it is 'state sponsored' in any of those countries. Even if it *was* state sponsored, those countries governments make a fraction of the 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, most if not all of whom (self and every other Muslim I know) deplore the acts of scum like that Taliban. Ish, I get fed up of people spouting that sort of shite...
anonymot
 
2 hours ago
They sound like common killers to me. They obviously enjoy it. And what they use for justification would normally make them candidates for a war crimes trial. They're no better than the Taliban. Being a soldier is heroic in times of a real war. What's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan is just a leftover oil grab. And it's a real magnet for professional killers. Good practice for postwar criminalities.
Jack Cope
2 hours ago
Good to see and even better to see the locals appreciate it. People have to understand, the locals don't want the Taliban any more than anyone else! NATO went to Afghanistan for whatever reason and now should stay there until the job is done. I think it is owed to the Afghans to say the least.

And I don't see why people keep having to bring Islam into this, the Taliban are not Islamic, for starters they are drug pushers, close schools, oppress women and kill civilians. None of that is Islamic.
David Rairigh
3 hours ago
Recommended by
2 people
while I appreciate a quality marksmen I'm troubled with the excuses for American and British troops to even be in Afghanistan. The members of the Taliban are probably pretty bad people but I don't see it as either the American's or the British's job to remove them from a place that isn't America or Britain.
Report Recommend Reply
EXIT102
3 hours ago
Recommended by
1 person
Conservatives hate stories like this. They love misogynistic Taliban guys who throw stones at women in town squares. And a religion that says "strap it on baby" when they put on their explosives. I swear that I'm not generalizing.

These snipers are my heroes. Especially the headshots.

Former acid-head.
mum_of_tud
17 hours ago
Recommended by
1 person
Book available £14.99 + £1.25 p&p...

so nice to see the young killers making a bit of dough from it all
border_reiver
13 hours ago
Recommended by
1 person
Couldn't agree more.
stuart1648
23 hours ago
Why dont the Taliban snipe back?This low tech stuff does not represent the Wests advantage;electronics etc do.
Ikenuma
7 hours ago
Recommended by
2 people
They do snipe back... in fact they are very effective at it. Why do you think we do?
border_reiver
13 hours ago
It's the low tech stuff that wins wars like this - assuming they can be won. More importantly low tech minimizes the possibility and impact of collateral damage.
keltec9mm
1 day ago
11 people
I guess the only place you Brits can learn to shoot is the Army, since you banned 90% of all guns....How's that working out for you? You need to read the story of Iain Harrison, he moved to the US and won the competition, and reality show "Top Shot" When handguns were banned in your country, he turned his guns in to the police,while wearing his Army officers uniform, your "Bobby's" didn't get the irony
Ikenuma
7 hours ago
Recommended by
8 people
It is working quite well for us thanks.

Having guns when plainly they are not needed contributes to a lot of your country's ills...
Abiss
1 day ago
Recommended by
11 people
I see. Kills with a rifle, the definition of discriminating = bad. Strapping bomb to yourself and killing everyone in the vicinity = good.

I think the only shame in the article is that the Brits don't have MORE capable snipers in play. This is nice, but just 'a good start' really.
nusrat khan
1 day ago
Recommended by 8 people
If the snipers were Israelis you, and other British journalists like you, would have written a war crimes article.
Such blatant hypocrisy? Have you no shame?
cinesimonj
1 day ago
Recommended by 6 people
They're not indiscriminately killing children and using banned weapons such as phosphorous (again indiscriminately) against innocent civilians, mister ignorant.
Have you no brains?
markbuehner
11 hours ago
Recommended by 1 person
phosphorous isn't banned, its used in every flare and smoke shell ever made by any army. If the Israelis wanted to kill civilians they could do a far better job of it without resorting to using flares to burn people. Its silly on its face.
joeybegood
1 day ago
Recommended by 2 people
"under the rules of engagement, the walkie-talkie the Taliban pair were carrying was designated a hostile act".

That's a lot of words to convey the idea of "shoot whoever you like".

Is there any reason, under international law,why British soldiers who do this, and the 'brass' that give the orders, should not be in the dock for war crimes?

I don't think so.
joeybegood
1 day ago
Recommended by 2 people
Hi Toby,

I understand you are an apologist for the war profiteers, but do you have to be quite so blatant about it?
GarandFan
1 day ago
Recommended by 2 people
Uraaaah!
romeoalpha
1 day ago
Recommended by 4 people
This is music to my ears - just can't believe these guys aren't Paras!
gruntfuttock
1 day ago
Recommended by 8 people
It is one thing to kill someone who is firing at you, quite another to execute someone regardless of how much they deserve it.

I had a friend who had been put in this position and later on in life he found it very difficult to come to terms with it.

These men know what they are doing and are far braver than any gung hoe type.

Good luck lads.

Who's going to try for THREE.


Report Recommend Reply
Happeh
1 day ago
Recommended by 3 people
I see the pro murder propaganda group made certain the tone of the comments changed.

;)
jules
1 day ago
Recommended by 14 people
Don't let the government read the "two dead one bullet" bit or reductions in ammunition will be written into the defence cuts!
fpbiv375
1 day ago
Recommended by
26 people
I'll buy the ammo fellas! Keep picking them off!