"Fighting the Taliban in the ‘green zone’ "

by David Rowlands

Size 58 x 38 cm

1st Battalion Grenadier Guards deployed with 12 Mechanised Brigade to Helmand Province, Afghanistan on Operation HERRICK 6, from March to September 2007. They made up the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams (OMLT), showing the fledgling Afghan National Army how to operate. There was much fighting in the notorious ‘green zone’, an area of dense vegetation and irrigation ditches in the valley of the Helmand River.

Many soldiers opted to wear temperate DPM uniforms instead of ‘desert combats’ when operating in the 'green zone.'

I visited Helmand Province in summer 2007. The Commander 12 Mechanised Brigade invited me to his headquarters at Lashkar Gah. During Operation SILICON, I travelled by Chinook to several locations, going on foot patrol and sketching soldiers and their equipment