RAKED by fire from Taliban machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, Australian special forces soldiers were pinned down in the Afghanistan dust and, in the words of their commander, "digging holes with their eyelids".
Overhead, helicopters rained gunfire on insurgent positions. One soldier saved the day - Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith - whose charge directly at Taliban machine guns earned him a Victoria Cross.
Defence has now revealed further details of surrounding actions which won Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) members 13 bravery decorations and SOTG the first battle honour awarded since Vietnam.
What's called the battle of Eastern Shah Wali Kot unfolded in May and June 2010, with SOTG charged with securing northern approaches to Kandahar city in the major coalition operation to oust insurgents from their heartland.
In a media briefing on Thursday, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Burns, SOTG commander at the time, said the operation was carefully orchestrated to draw the Taliban into a decisive defeat.
Early on June 10, helicopters landed 100 members of the 2nd Commando Regiment in the middle of the insurgent stronghold in Chenartu, an area where earlier coalition incursions had been repelled.
"At 10am precisely every single position was exposed to a hail of gunfire, heavy machine gun fire and RPGs," he said.
The soldiers pushed the insurgents back. Taliban attacked again in the afternoon. Enemy positions on high ground were obliterated by a US A-10 ground attack aircraft.
"The enemy broke contact, withdrew again to lick their wounds," he said.
Local people expressed delight to see the back of the Taliban who had been sponging off them at a time of drought.
Five kilometres away in the village of Tizak, there were indications some Taliban leaders were present and Lt Col Burns dispatched a team of 25 Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) operators aboard four Black Hawk helicopters, supported by a pair of Apache gunships.
They encountered a hail of insurgent fire.
"All they could do was crawl into a position so they didn't die. The guys said, 'I was digging a hole with my eyelids,'" he said. Helicopters were riddled with holes.
At this point Corporal Roberts-Smith dashed 40 metres across open ground, destroying three enemy machine gun positions.
"The guys systematically broke down that position and destroyed every single enemy machine gun position and every enemy in that village," Lt Col Burns said.
The Australian Defence Force doesn't reveal enemy body counts but some reports put the toll as high as 80-90, including a number of senior commanders. One Australian, one Afghan soldier and one Afghan civilian were wounded.
The Taliban propaganda machine claimed that as a great victory. SOTG knew otherwise.
For a victory of this magnitude, SOTG had escaped very lightly but that wasn't to last. In one of the final operations of the campaign on June 21, a helicopter crashed and killed three Australian commandos.
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