Sunday, August 7, 2016

The Story On How 88 British Soldiers Who Spent 56 Days Holding Off 500 Taliban Fighters

Hugh Keir, left, and Jared Cleary, right, were two of the Easy Company snipers under constant attack for two months at the remote Helmand outpost Musa Qala

Daily Mail: Miracle escape of the new Rorke's Drift Paras: Cut-off, surrounded and outnumbered - the incredible untold story of the 88 British soldiers who spent 56 days holding off 500 Taliban fighters... and survived

* The 88 men of Easy Company held out against Taliban for two months
* They defended Helmand outpost Musa Qala against 500 enemy troops
* Ministry of Defence previously banned details of conflict being revealed
* Channel 4 documentary will shed new light using the soldiers' stories

Outgunned, outmanoeuvred, hopelessly outnumbered and besieged in the Afghan desert, a small band of British soldiers chose to save a final bullet for themselves rather than fall into Taliban hands.

For nearly two months, the 88 men of Easy Company – a mix of Paratroopers and the Royal Irish – had faced the overwhelming force and firepower of up to 500 Taliban determined to over-run the remote Helmand outpost of Musa Qala.

And their near miraculous survival has been described as a latter day Rorke’s Drift, evocative of the 1879 siege in which 140 British soldiers held off a Zulu force of 3,000, later immortalised in the blockbuster film starring Michael Caine.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: This battle occurred in 2006. If it was bad then and the Taliban were able to muster 500 fighters for the seige, I can only imagine how bad it is today.

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