actical withdrawal' of hundreds of British soldiers from Camp Bastion carried out in almost complete secrecy, amid serious security concerns as Afghans take control of Helmand base
The last British soldiers have been airlifted out of Camp Bastion, as Britain’s base in Helmand was closed down.
The “tactical withdrawal” of hundreds of British soldiers came a day after the end of Britain’s war in Afghanistan and was carried out in almost complete secrecy, amid serious security concerns.
In a massive operation that took months of planning, the last military equipment in Camp Bastion and the remaining members of the Armed Forces were flown out on 17 waves of helicopters and airplanes, as the Afghans took control of the base.
Chinooks, Hercules planes and US Sea Stallions were used in the massive airlift to Kandahar, the US-led base in the neighbouring province.
Tornadoes and Apache helicopters flew overhead to provide protection from the air. All British troops, apart from special forces and a team working at a training facility in Kabul, will return home by the end of the year.
Brigadier Robert Thomson, the most senior British officer on the base, said he was delighted with how the manoeuvre took place.
“This is not an evacuation,” he said. “I am standing here without body armour and we are going at walking pace. This is a deliberately measured transfer of power to the Afghans.”
The towers around the 40km perimeter wall were handed over to Afghan security forces one at a time, shortly after dawn, in a carefully choreographed operation.
Two full-scale dress rehearsals for “B-day” – pronounced bidet – were carried out in the last two weeks.
In the final hours before Camp Bastion closed down, British officers were continuing to monitor militant activity.
In one incident, less than 24 hours before the departure, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired by militants just eight miles south of the base.
An Afghan policeman was killed while the official ceremony to hand over power to the Afghans was going on in Camp Bastion.
Major General Seyed Malook, who will run the new camp, said he was sad to see his friends leave, after working together for years, but glad they were able to return home.
He said he was “especially grateful to the mothers who sent their sons to Afghanistan who did not return”.
“They have given peace and security to the Afghan people,” he said.
He said that the camp did not so far have a new name, to replace Camp Bastion and Camp Leatherneck.
“We will try our best. We can have our own name for the base,” he said.
The military personnel left on RAF C130 Hercules and CH47 Chinook helicopters (Corporal Andrew Morris/MOD)
Bastion was originally named after the bomb-proof bags made by a UK company called Hesco Bastion, which make up vast chunks of its brutal architecture.
Questions have been raised about the lack of a memorial to the 453 British servicemen and women who died in the conflict.
All the brass plaques commemorating their sacrifice have been removed from a wall on the base and flown back to the UK to be placed in the National Arboretum.
Other walls marking British achievements have been painted over in the last few days.
Camp Bastion has slowly been closed down over the last few months, winding down one capacity after another, until it became a ghost town over the final hours. At its peak three years ago, the camp – along with the American base Camp Leatherneck and the Afghan base Camp Shorabak - was home to up to 40,000 people.
It was the size of Reading and had a runway which was approximately two miles long, supporting up to 600 aircraft and helicopter movements a day.
The last aeroplane to leave the base carried four vehicles, including a fire engine, which was needed in case of disaster on the runway.
The air traffic control was maintained by a team in an aircraft flying above the base.
The security operation was carefully managed in order to avoid any repeat of Camp Bastion’s low point in 2012, when 19 Taliban fighters managed to penetrate the perimeter fence.
Two American servicemen were killed and millions of pounds worth of equipment was destroyed.
Bastion was originally named after the bomb-proof bags made by a UK company called Hesco Bastion (Corporal Andrew Morris/MOD)
Squadron Leader Dale White, of 15 Squadron RAF Regiment, said he was looking forward to getting back home.
“It is the number of moving pass which has made it complicated, but this is a steady, deliberate, calm process. It is odd to be leaving Afghanistan, but it is time for us to go.”
Wing Commander Matt Radnall, of the RAF Regiment, was in charge of force protection in Camp Bastion. “In the next few days, the adrenaline will drop and it will be a time for reflection," he said.
"There is a sense of relief, six months of hard work and it all went smoothly. It was the highlight of 24 years in the RAF. It has worked perfectly. The Afghans were right on time. To see the Afghans step up to the plate without any hitch was fantastic."
Senior Aircraftsman John Downing, in the RAF Regiment, 29, from Wolverhampton, was in the last helicopter out of Camp Bastion. He said it was an honour to have been part of the withdrawal.
“It's a relief to be getting out of there," he said. "We've done our time. It's a big job for the Armed Forces - it's job done in Helmand province.
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