There is a post office, a dormitory, a museum, a restaurant, and streets named Cisowa, Sosnowa, Dębowa... There is even a mosque—from between the houses, a white minaret tower topped with a glittering golden crescent is visible. At first glance, it seems rather out of place here. The point, however, is for the soldiers to experience the atmosphere of Afghanistan or Iraq as fully as possible, because for some of them such views will soon become everyday reality... This is the Central Urbanized Training Center at the Wędrzyn training ground. In other words, it is a model settlement built from scratch, where land and special forces units train in what is known as black tactics. It involves combat in an urban environment.
Away from the window
“I came here to see how the soldiers of the 10th Armored Cavalry Brigade from Świętoszów are preparing for their mission in Afghanistan. We currently have three platoons at the center. We are training in several places at the same time. We can afford that because we are here alone today,” explains Lieutenant Colonel Marek Fiałka, acting commander of the 13th rotation of the Polish Military Contingent in Afghanistan, who normally commands the 10th Mechanized Battalion “Dragoons.” We stand in the shadow of a building bearing a restaurant sign and wait. A moment later, the first truck with off-road capability appears at the end of the street. It rolls slowly among the buildings. A second follows, then a third. On the cab roofs, “gunners” hold rifles ready to fire. Soldiers walk on both sides. At a signal, they kneel, scanning the immediate surroundings. The radio of the platoon commander standing beside us crackles as successive reports come in.
“The patrol was ordered to search building number 427,” explains Lieutenant Colonel Fiałka. It is the three-story “dormitory” standing across the street. The soldiers spill out of the trucks and take up designated positions: along the side wall, under the cover of the concrete slabs of a nearby underpass, and behind the vehicles. Several enter the building. “Inside, each room must be searched in turn, while staying away from the windows. This is important because a shot may come from outside—from the street or a neighboring building,” Corporal Adrian Stefański, commander of the team that searched the “dormitory,” would say later. In the end, the rooms proved empty. And just as the soldiers were leaving the building, a shot rang out. It was fired by a sniper hiding on a floor of the neighboring post office. The bullet struck the team commander. The patrol had to regroup immediately.
“In such a situation, the primary task is to evacuate the wounded person and take them out of the kill zone,” explains Corporal Stefański. Amid shouting coming from all directions, the wounded soldier was immediately loaded onto one of the trucks, and the column then moved up the street. “Such incidents usually last a minute or two, perhaps a few minutes. I have been on several missions in Afghanistan. Only once did I take part in an exchange of fire that lasted an hour,” admits Lieutenant Colonel Fiałka. “During incidents of this type, a unit must react instantly. Soldiers should know which positions to take and how to provide covering fire without endangering their comrades. It is a kind of muscle memory—automatic responses that must be practiced. Things went quite well here,” Lieutenant Colonel Fiałka acknowledges.
Sniper at ten o’clock
Meanwhile, we move on. On a neighboring street, another unit is practicing VIP protection. Two vehicles pull up beside one of the buildings. At the same time, a man in a uniform and bulletproof vest, but without a weapon, heads toward the entrance. For training purposes, he is playing the person being protected. He moves under heavy guard. Three soldiers armed with carbines surround him. Two more walk several meters ahead of him, while a third brings up the rear. Before the VIP enters the building, the rooms are thoroughly searched. This is done by a team assigned from the platoon. “Clear,” comes the call. The meeting can begin. The VIP disappears into the building accompanied by just one soldier. The others form a security cordon outside. After a few moments, the meeting ends. The VIP does not get into the car, however. He decides to walk farther down the street, for example, to meet local residents.
“Sniper at ten o’clock!” someone from the security detail suddenly shouts. The VIP is thrown to the ground. Two soldiers cover him with their own bodies. Others kneel, ready to fire. One truck stops across the road; the other turns around. The soldiers lead the crouching VIP toward it. They load him inside. The truck speeds into the neighboring street. The danger is over. “Securing official meetings during the mission will be one of our main tasks,” explains Staff Warrant Officer Wojciech Ziółkowski, deputy commander of the fifth protection platoon of the Polish Military Contingent. “The procedure is similar each time. There was no direct attack here, but the soldiers had to react instantly to a potential threat. Our VIP must always remain in the so-called security zone,” he adds.
We move on. The street climbs toward another intersection. Between the buildings on the right is a burned-out bus, looking like a postcard from a war zone. Several hundred meters farther on, more soldiers. Their unit is focusing solely on searching buildings. “According to the scenario, a team consisting of two sections is conducting a patrol when it comes under fire. It is not known exactly where the shot came from, so the surrounding buildings must be checked. The soldiers regroup. One section remains outside, while the other will enter the rooms,” announces Junior Warrant Officer Wojciech Chojnacki, team commander in the fifth platoon.
What will they be looking for? “Everything, from piles of rubbish gathered against the walls, where explosive devices could be hidden, to suspicious-looking wires or guy lines that could be used to trigger them,” the warrant officer explains, adding that searching rooms is one of the most difficult elements of black tactics. “The entire section is prepared for this type of task, but experience is crucial here. Soldiers enter an enclosed, unfamiliar space. On top of that, everything happens very quickly. In the event of a threat, they have only a fraction of a second to react. You really need strong nerves here,” the noncommissioned officer emphasizes.
This time, I will be able to see with my own eyes what is happening inside the building. “Just tell the guys that inside there will be a man in a burgundy sweatshirt,” Lieutenant Colonel Fiałka tells the team commander. “Otherwise, they will treat you as someone from the opposing side. A potential enemy,” he says to me. I enter the house and take up position in the corner of one of the rooms. Meanwhile, a truck brakes outside the building. A moment later, a rifle barrel slides into the room. Behind it comes a fully equipped soldier. He scans the room and then moves to the next one. At the same time, his colleagues spread out through other parts of the building. One goes down to the basement. It all takes no more than a few minutes. Finally, the soldiers gather on both sides of the exit, run outside one by one, jump into the truck, and drive away. Clear.
“We have been training at the Wędrzyn training ground for three weeks now. Of course, not only at the urbanized center,” emphasizes Lieutenant Colonel Fiałka. The soldiers practice shooting—individually and as a team—and also improve their technique for assaulting a hill. “On Monday, colleagues from the Academy of Land Forces will come to us with a laser shooting simulator (LSS) that records hits. Thanks to this, we will be able to recreate conditions as close as possible to those of a real battlefield,” announces the acting contingent commander.
All of this is preparation for the team-level certification scheduled for the end of May. After that, the soldiers face several more months of training. Certification of the entire contingent will take place in the autumn. “We will most likely leave for Afghanistan at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. Although the mission there has changed from stabilization to training and advisory work, the country remains dangerous, and at any moment we may be assigned tasks outside the base, such as the protection of VIPs or convoy escort. That is why we must be prepared for every eventuality,” Lieutenant Colonel Fiałka concludes.
Text: Łukasz Zalesiński, Polska Zbrojna. Photos: Captain Monika Wywiórka