UK armed forces personnel who worked in chaotic conditions during the allied withdrawal from Afghanistan nearly two years ago have spoken of their fear that they might not return home.
The Taliban seized power in a lightning offensive across the country in August 2021 as US and Nato troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country after two decades of war.
British military personnel open up about their experience of assisting thousands of British passport holders, embassy staff and vulnerable Afghans during Operation Pitting in a three-part Channel 4 series titled Evacuation.
The operation saw members of the armed forces, along with Border Force and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office staff, evacuate more than 15,000 people to the UK in just over sixteen days.
In candid interviews, the servicemen and women open up about the desperation they encountered among those looking to flee, of being surrounded by Taliban forces as they worked and the horrors of dealing with the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack.
As the Taliban encircled Kabul, one lieutenant colonel from UK Joint Force Headquarters, named only as Mike during the documentary, described the “surreal” experience of emptying bottles of wine and champagne at the British Embassy in the capital – a collection which was said to belong to the then-ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow.
He said he also chiselled the royal crest off the outside of the building.
A sergeant major in the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, known only as “Gaz”, said that, although the 2021 experience had been “completely different” to his three previous combat tours of Afghanistan, it was “harder”, both physically and mentally.
One year since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan – in pictures
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Military leaders attend a flag-lowering ceremony in Afghanistan on June 24, 2021 as the UK’s contribution in the country draws to a close. A number of troops were to remain to offer diplomatic assurance to the international community in Kabul. Getty Images -
A member of the Afghan security personnel looks distraught as he stands guard at the site of a car bomb explosion near the defence minister's home in Kabul, on August 4, 2021. AFP -
Security officials inspect the scene of an attack on Dawa Khan Menapal, the head of the Afghan government's information centre, in Kabul on August 6, 2021. Taliban militants shot him dead. EPA -
People are stranded at the Pakistani-Afghan border which has been closed by the Taliban, who have taken control of the Afghan side, on August 9, 2021. EPA -
US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad (2nd L) arrives at a hotel in Qatar's capital Doha for a meeting on the escalating conflict in Afghanistan, on August 10, 2021. AFP -
Taliban fighters driving through Herat, Afghanistan's third-biggest city, on August 13, 2021 after under-siege government forces had pulled out the previous day. AFP -
Taliban militants gather in the main square after taking control of Kandahar, Afghanistan, on August 13, 2021. The fall of Kandahar came hours after the Taliban had captured Herat. EPA -
Afghanistan's president Ashraf Ghani and acting defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi visit military corps in Kabul on August 14, 2021. Reuters -
Internally displaced families from northern provinces, who fled from their homes due to the fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces, take shelter in a public park in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 14, 2021. EPA -
People at the border checkpoint at Chaman, Pakistan on August 15, 2021. Pakistani authorities had reopened the frontier with Afghanistan on August 13 after several days of closure. EPA -
Afghan police on duty on August 15, 2021 after the Taliban had taken over Kandahar. The militants have by this stage reached the outskirts of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. EPA -
Ahmadullah Muttaqi, the Taliban's director for information and culture, talks to journalists after the government in Kandahar had surrendered to the militants. EPA -
Taliban fighters and local people sit on an Afghan National Army armoured vehicle on a street in Jalalabad province on August 15, 2021. AFP -
Afghan families flee Kabul on August 15, 2021. The Taliban said they do not intend to enter Kabul 'by force or war, but to negotiate with the other side to enter peacefully". Getty Images -
Tens of thousands of people attempt to flee Afghanistan to escape the hardline rule expected under the Taliban, on August 15, 2021. AFP -
Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, after the president Ashraf Ghani had fled the country, on August 15, 2021. AP -
Hundreds of people run alongside a US Air Force transport plane on the runway of the international airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country. Some held on to the jet as it took off and fell to their death. AP -
Thousands of Afghans rush to the Hamid Karzai International Airport as they try to flee the Afghan capital of Kabul, on August 16, 2021. Getty Images -
A US soldier points his gun at a man at Kabul airport on August 16, 2021, after a swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war. Thousands of people mobbed the airport in a bid to flee. AFP -
Crowds on the tarmac of Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, on August 16, 2021. EPA -
People clamber on top a plane at the Kabul airport on August 16, 2021. AFP -
These Afghan passengers made it. They sit inside a plane and wait to leave Kabul. AFP -
Afghan women, holding placards, gather to demand the protection of women's rights in front of the Presidential Palace in Kabul, on August 17, 2021. Getty Images -
British citizens living in Afghanistan board a military plane to leave Kabul Airport, on August 16, 2021. Reuters -
Luggage belonging to Afghan people, who were waiting to be evacuated. at the site of two suicide bombs, which killed scores of people including 13 US troops, at Kabul airport on August 27, 2021. AFP -
Afghans, including those who worked for the US, Nato, the European Union and the United Nations, wait outside Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country, after Taliban took control of Kabul, on August 17, 2021. EPA -
People queue at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border point in Chaman on August 17, 2021 to cross back to Afghanistan. AFP -
People wait to board a French military transport plane on August 17, 2021 to escape Kabul and Taliban rule. AFP -
Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, gives his first press conference in Kabul on August 17, 2021. The new leadership said it would not seek revenge on those who had fought against them and would protect the rights of Afghan women within the rules of Sharia. EPA -
Young men who say they deserted the Afghan military trudge through the countryside in Tatvan, eastern Turkey, on August 17, 2021. Turkey was concerned about increased migration across the Iranian border as Afghans fled from the Taliban. AP -
A young demonstrator at a vigil in support of Afghanistan at the West Los Angeles Federal Building, California on August 17, 2021. EPA -
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan holds a press briefing to talk about the recent events in Afghanistan, at the White House on August 17,2021. EPA -
A Taliban fighter walks past a beauty salon with images of women defaced using spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul on August 18, 2021. AFP -
People among the first evacuees from Kabul, arrive at Frankfurt International Airport in western Germany in the early hours of August 18, 2021. AFP -
A transport plane evacuating refugees out of Afghanistan lands at Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, August 19, 2021. Pawan Singh / The National -
Afghanistan's former president Ashraf Ghani talks in video message, somewhere in the UAE, on August 18, 2021, in his first media appearance since the fall of Kabul only days earlier. Reuters -
Displaced children wait for the next flight at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul on August 19, 2021. AFP -
An Afghan man waves a national flag to celebrate the 102nd Independence Day of Afghanistan in Kabul on August 19, 2021, days after the Taliban's military takeover of the country. AFP -
The US military helps to reunite families at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 20, 2021. AFP -
A US Marine comforts an infant while they wait for the mother during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 21, 2021. Reuters -
New personnel in the Afghan security forces take part in military training in Panjshir province on August 21, 2021. AFP -
US President Joe Biden speaks to his national security team during a briefing on the situation in Afghanistan, on August 22, 2021, in Washington. AFP -
Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard welcomes members of Afghanistan's robotics team after arriving in Mexico to apply for humanitarian status on August 24, 2021. Reuters -
Belongings of Afghan people, who were evacuated from Kabul, are laid on the ground at Torrejon Military Air Base on August 24, 2021 in Madrid. Getty Images -
Volunteers and medical staff unload bodies from a pickup truck outside a hospital after two powerful explosions, which killed at least six people, outside the airport in Kabul on August 26, 2021. AFP -
Flag-draped coffins of service members killed in action are loaded on to a transport aircraft during a ramp ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 27, 2021. Reuters -
Afghan evacuees at the Emirates Humanitarian City, Abu Dhabi, on August 28, 2021. Victor Besa / The National -
Smoke billows after an explosion near the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul on August 29, 2021. EPA -
A vigil for Max Soviak, one of 13 US service members killed in the airport suicide bombing in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, in Berlin Heights, Ohio on August 29, 2021. Reuters -
A Taliban member stands guard near a vehicle which was used to fire rockets at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021. EPA -
World Health Organisation supplies land in Afghanistan. Photo: WHO -
Major Gen Chris Donahue, commander of the US Army 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, boards a C-17 cargo plane at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021. His departure closes the US mission to evacuate US citizens, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants and vulnerable Afghans. AFP -
Fireworks after the last US aircraft took off from the airport in Kabul early on August 31, 2021, signalling its complete withdrawal after 20 years in the country. AFP -
Afghans wait for the banks to open in Kabul on August 31, 2021. AFP -
An Afghan Air Force A-29 attack aircraft inside a hangar at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021, after the US pulled all its troops out of the country. AFP -
Taliban fighters sit in the cockpit of an Afghan Air Force aircraft at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021. AFP -
An Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban uprising forces rest as they patrol on a hilltop in Panjshir province on September 1,2021. Panjshir remains the last major holdout of anti-Taliban forces led by Ahmad Massoud, son of the famed mujahideen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. AFP -
The UAE sends a plane carrying urgent medical and food aid to Afghanistan, as part of its contribution to provide the basic and necessary needs of thousands of Afghan families, especially the most vulnerable groups such as women, children and the elderly, September 3, 2021. Wam -
Afghan women's rights defenders and civil activists protest to call on the Taliban for the preservation of their achievements and education, in front of the presidential palace in Kabul on September 3, 2021. Reuters -
The main money exchange market in Kabul reopens on September 4, 10 days after the Taliban takeover. Currency dealers have been hit hard by the fall in value of the Afghani currency. EPA -
Passengers board a plane as domestic flights resume across Afghanistan, at Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport in Kandahar on September 5, 2021. EPA -
Protesters reflected in the sunglasses of a demonstrator during a rally in support of Afghanistan's people after the takeover of the country by the Taliban, at the Place de la Republique, in Paris on September 5, 2021. AFP -
A Taliban fighter stands guard at a market in Kabul on September 5, 2021. AFP -
A suspected ISIS member sits blindfolded in a Taliban Special Forces' car in Kabul on September 5, 2021. Reuters -
Children stand outside the former US embassy in Kabul where the banner of the 'Islamic Emirate' has replaced previous murals, on September 8, 2021. Stefanie Glinski for The National -
A veiled student speaks to a gathering of female students before a pro-Taliban rally at the Shaheed Rabbani Education University in Kabul on September 11, 2021. AFP -
Taliban fighters take a selfie after they stormed and overran the home of the Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum in the Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul. on September 11, 2021. AFP -
Members of Afghanistan's national girls football team arrive at the Pakistan Football Federation in Lahore on September 15, 2021, a month after the hardline Taliban swept back into power. AFP -
Afghan students separated by a partition attend a class at Mirwais Neeka University in Kandahar on September 20, 2021. The Taliban had officially announced the segregation of male and female students in all government and private universities. EPA -
A young girl from Afghanistan hides under a truck carrying fruit and vegetables as she attempts to smuggle herself over the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan on September 12, 2021. Everyday dozens of children from Afghanistan smuggle themselves over the border into Pakistan to sell Paan and other goods before smuggling themselves back again. At least one child is injured each day trying to cross the border like this. Oliver Marsden for The National -
Afghan girls at a school in Kandahar on September 26, 2021. AFP -
Afghans gather outside the passport office after Taliban officials announced they will start issuing passports to its citizens again, in Kabul, October 6, 2021. Reuters -
Sohail Ahmadi, an Afghan baby boy who went missing during the disordered evacuation process in Kabul after the takeover by the Taliban in August 2021, is reunited with his grandfather and aunt on January 10, 2022. EPA -
Zakia, an economics student who dropped out of university after the Taliban took power, at her home on the outskirts of Kabul on January 24, 2022. AFP -
A burqa-clad woman walks along a street in Kabul on May 7, 2022. The Taliban had just imposed some of the harshest restrictions on Afghanistan's women since they seized power, ordering them to cover fully in public, ideally with the traditional burqa. AFP -
An Afghan vendor displays a burqa at his shop at Mandawi market in Kabul on May 8, 2022. AFP -
Khatira Ahmadi (L) and Tehmina (R), Afghan presenters at Tolo TV, read news at the studio in Kabul on May 23. Female television presenters and reporters in Afghanistan appeared with their faces covered to comply with a mandate issued by the Taliban. EPA -
Afghan women prisoners in Kandahar on July 26. EPA
Diana Bird, a Royal Air Force Police Squadron Leader, said that, after terrified Afghans breached the fences of Kabul International Airport, she feared for her safety.
“The runway has people all over it, so nothing can take off or land that is big,” she said.
“The Taliban are surrounding the airport, so we aren’t driving out. There is nowhere to go, the country has fallen.
“I really thought, I may not be going home. This may have been a trip too far.”
With many of her team on their first overseas mission and not yet into their 20s, she described how she “basically took a sixth-form field trip to Kabul”.
Squadron Leader Bird recalled being brought to tears as Afghan women, who said they had received threatening letters from the Taliban, “begged for their lives” to be allowed on a repatriation flight.
She had to explain to them that “they did not meet our criteria to be helped”.
“You absolutely feel for each and every one of these people. But we couldn’t save everybody,” she said.
During Operation Pitting, which began on August 13, British forces and officials processed those eligible for evacuation from the Baron Hotel near the capital’s airport.
Sgt Maj Gaz told his Paras team to “err on the side of compassion” when dealing with complex cases.
“In quite vague terms, you had British foreign policy being dictated by a 19-year-old lance corporal at the front gate of the Baron hotel,” he added.
UN chief says he is open to meeting Taliban as Afghanistan summit ends – video
While allied forces worked on evacuating people, the perimeter of the airfield was struck by a suicide bomber on August 26, 2021.
Officials declared at the time that at least 13 US troops and 60 Afghan nationals were killed and more than 150 people were injured in a “complex attack” at the airport.
Lance Corporal David Mitchell, describing the aftermath, said: “Legs [were] off, arms off, bits all over the walls. It looked like people had been put in a blender and tipped out everywhere.”
Sgt Maj Gaz also recalled the incident.
“There was a little girl in a nice multi-coloured dress and she had been blown up on to the wall, dead,” he said.
“I’ve seen some grim stuff and that was grim.”
After the final civilian flights left Kabul, attention turned to destroying British military vehicles and other kit left behind to prevent the Taliban from using them.
Gaz recalled that “billions of pounds of equipment” was left on site after the troops flew home.
A number of those interviewed said the evacuation made them question Britain’s involvement in the two-decade effort in Afghanistan.
Some 456 British personnel lost their lives during the conflict and UK governments spent more than £22 billion ($28m) on the deployment since the September 11, 2001, terror attack on the US sparked an allied invasion the following month.
LCpl Mitchell, giving his view on the Afghanistan war, said: “I just think that place is failed.
“If we were going to do that [evacuate], we should have done it 20-odd years ago … Let the Taliban take over and just have it, basically.
“I just think we should have done that in the beginning if that is what we were going to do.
“A lot of us would have been saved as well. But I’m not a politician.”
Reflecting on the exit, an RAF wing commander, whose name was only given as Calvin, said: “My existence for 20 years, in some ways, felt as if it had been completely undone.
“Hadn’t we done a good job undoing 20 years' worth of effort and activity in 14 days? You do what the democracy asks you to do and, at the end of it, it just raises the question about why.”
RAF Police’s Squadron Leader Bird said she was still “coming to terms with” her part in Operation Pitting and said there were things she did that she “was not necessarily proud of”.
“But it was the right thing to do,” she added. “I think to a certain extent I’ve got to forgive myself as well, which will take time.”
Evacuation will begin airing on Channel 4 on Sunday July 2.
