Former-SAS brigadier Dan Fortune wants to tell a positive story about the regiment’s Afghanistan war
The SAS veteran is trying to turn one of the most ambitious air-assaults in Australian special forces history into a documentary movie.
Long before allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan were published, a group of SAS soldiers and commandos pulled off a daring raid deep inside enemy territory that went perfectly: no one was killed, a large cache of enemy explosives was destroyed and half a dozen Taliban leaders were captured.
Dan Fortune, a retired SAS brigadier who led the raid, wants to turn the mission into a documentary film that he hopes will help Australians see the war differently, and reveal one of the great untold stories of Australia’s longest war.
Operation Rattey, named after a World War II Victoria Cross awardee, began around 2am on June 10, 2008, when 147 men from the 2nd Commandos’ Delta Company and members of SAS’s 1 Squadron boarded five Chinooks and five Black Hawks.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Escorted by four Apache gunships and Predator drones, they flew about 100km north from their base in southern Afghanistan to Gizab, a mountainous region under Taliban control.
“This was the largest, most-complex air assault ever conducted by special forces in the Australian context,” Mr Fortune said an interview recorded for the documentary.
Soviet munitions
The Australians had information a meeting of Taliban “shadow governors” had been convened at a bomb-making factory in the hills. Unchallenged by the government in Kabul, the Taliban leaders controlled the area, levying taxes, adjudicating disputes and planning attacks on Western forces.
The factory contained munitions left over from the Soviet occupation in the 1980s that were being turned into bombs used to attack vehicles travelling on roads across the region.
At the time, there was considerable tension between the SAS and commandos, who competed for access to air transport and the best missions. The conflict between them was known as the “beret wars”.
Mr Fortune, who led all Australian special forces in Afghanistan, travelled in a Chinook with the commandos. Fully loaded, the Cold War-era transport helicopters struggled to get over the mountains, according to Mr Fortune.
The helicopters landed about 500m from a large compound. About 100 commandos, using night-vision goggles, rushed towards the buildings using dust thrown up by the rotor blades as cover.
They reached the exterior walls, blew holes in them with explosives and charged into the factory, which wasn’t defended or lightly defended.
At the same time, the SAS soldiers ran to the other side of the compound, which was being used as a dormitory by the Taliban leaders and their guards. Taken by surprise, the Taliban did not fight back. Some woke up to the sight of assault rifles pointed at their heads.
One injury
About 40 to 50 Afghans were captured. The Australians questioned them and found about six on a database known as the JPEL, for joint prioritised effects list, of Taliban leaders who could legally be killed if they could not be taken alive.
The commandos blew up the explosives, leading to the only injury of the night. An SAS soldier who got too close to watch was hit in the shoulder by a clump of dirt expelled by the giant explosion.
The insurgent leaders were forced to walk 6km through the night with the Australian soldiers to a rendezvous site with the helicopters, which could not land any closer because of the danger Taliban fighters left behind would attack them.
Mr Fortune and a civilian documentary maker, Simon Heath, are trying to raise $200,000 from the public to cover the production costs. So far, the special forces veterans charity Wandering Warriors has contributed $10,000. They hope to show the film early next year.
Mr Heath said he wanted to make the film because the operation was an example of the regiments’ professionalism. His first film, Bravery and Betrayal, alleged SAS soldiers were abandoned after misconduct allegations emerged in 2016.
“It should have been made back in 2008 because it shows how effective the ADF were in Afghanistan,” he said.
Mr Fortune said several of the captured Taliban leaders were released by the Afghan government months later and were later killed fighting Australian forces.
“Operation Rattey is a story that deserves to be told,” said Kerry Danes, one of the Commando leaders on the raid.
