The Fort: 4. The Break-in

Summary

The History Podcast – "The Fort: 4. The Break-in"

Date: September 10, 2025
Host: BBC Radio 4

---

Episode Overview

This episode of "The Fort" delves deep into the harrowing assault on Jugurum Fort in Afghanistan, as experienced and narrated by the commanders, soldiers, and pilots involved. The focus is a firsthand, immersive account of a grueling military operation, a sudden firefight, the dangers faced, the camaraderie among the troops, and the astonishing acts of bravery during the rescue and extraction of wounded comrades. The episode balances adrenaline-filled action with reflective, personal narratives, drawing listeners into the chaos, uncertainty, and courage of military life under fire.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Planning and Approach

[00:37–01:54]

• Orders for the attack on Jugurum Fort come at 0900.
• The fort is described as "almost impenetrable, easily defendable for any attacking force" (Shep Shepherd, 00:41).
• The plan is simply sketched by the troop commander: "He drew a line on the paper with a gap in it and calmly said, we are lead troop. Al, you are lead Viking. Darbs, you're the second Viking. We're going in..." (Al Welden, 01:13).

2. Crossing the River – The Calm Before the Storm

[02:54–03:54]

• The assault begins in mist and fog, increasing tension.
• Enemy spotted moving back to the fort; bayonets fixed in preparation.
• The silence is thick and tense: “It was really quiet, eerily quiet, if anything.” (Mike Cleary, 03:54).

3. Initial Breach and Entry

[04:09–05:15]

• The team identifies a massive breach point in the fort wall—a result of earlier bombardments.
• Civil twilight adds to the atmosphere of uncertainty.
• Grenade thrown into the breach before entry: “I took out my grenade, showed my assault partner grenade ready to go through the grenade into the, into the fort.” (Mike Cleary, 04:43–04:55).
• The entry is unopposed at first: “Nothing. We just went into the fort. Scanning round. Couldn't see anyone.” (Mike Cleary, 05:15).

4. Sudden Ambush and Chaos

[05:15–07:44]

• The operation shifts unexpectedly from eerie calm to intense danger: “It went from eerily quiet to haywire.” (Mike Cleary, 05:38).
• An “overwhelming rate of fire” engulfs the troops: “It just felt like the oxygen was getting sucked away from us due to the velocity and the sheer amount of projectiles...” (Al Welden, 05:49).
• Several soldiers are hit. Al Welden and his number two are both wounded.
• CPR and battlefield medicine are rapidly administered amongst heavy fire.

5. RPGs and Close Calls

[07:57–09:33]

• Shep Shepherd describes the sheer volume and proximity of RPGs: “The only thing I can describe it as is if you got one of them long balloons... that's what it was like. But it was RPGs.” (Shep Shepherd, 08:27).
• Soldiers are literally “jumping over RPGs.”
• A gunner narrowly avoids death as an RPG skims his helmet: “He turned around as if someone attacked him on the shoulder, completely oblivious that he was millimeters from having his head taken off...” (Shep Shepherd, 09:17).

6. Rescue and Extraction

[09:33–11:25]

• Vikings (armored vehicles) are summoned to extract casualties under fire.
• Al Welden’s Viking commander drives into the danger zone for rescue: “...drove straight at us under enemy fire to assist with the extraction, which again, is another brave act, but only seen by those that were there at the time.” (Al Welden, 09:41).
• Numerous near-misses: “He had a bullet go straight into [his chest Leatherman], and it folded in half, you know, saved his life.” (Shep Shepherd, 10:21).
• Magazines and webbing absorb bullets, saving further lives.

7. Aftermath and Recovery

[11:25–12:35]

• Welden recounts being shot multiple times, but still able to walk to the extraction vehicle: “He was in a bad way, but he was still walking back to the Vehicle.” (Shep Shepherd, 11:25).
• Post-operation, Welden undergoes multiple surgeries and rehab, determined to return: “...wanted to go back and finish the job... I was able to go back to Afghanistan and was able to continue the fight.” (Al Welden, 12:14).

8. The Missing Comrade

[12:35–13:54]

• During the chaotic headcounts, one man—codenamed “40”—is missing.
• Desperate search efforts in deadly conditions; Darbs, a respected section leader, personally searches for 40.
• The show closes with Shep Shepherd making a command decision to withdraw and save the living: “We've got to get people off this killing ground now.” (Shep Shepherd, 13:54).

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Orders and Leadership

• "Al, you are lead Viking. Darbs, you're the second Viking. We're going in. Al, your section will break in and go left. Darb's, your section will go right. Any questions?"
  — Troop Commander as recalled by Al Welden [01:13]

The Point Man’s Courage

• "If you're in a patrol formation, simple as a single file, then he's the—he's literally the first man that's walking towards the enemy... Mike had that in abundance."
  — Al Welden [02:11]

• “There was no kind of, would you like to do this? Or it's like, yeah, you're the point man.”
  — Mike Cleary [02:45]

The Onset of Violence

• “It just felt like the oxygen was getting sucked away from us due to the velocity and the sheer amount of projectiles that were flying around.”
  — Al Welden [05:49]

• “[The RPGs] were so close to the enemy, they either weren't arming or they were bouncing on the ground and not detonating... if you got one of them long balloons... that's what it was like. But it was RPGs.”
  — Shep Shepherd [08:27]

Luck, Survival, and Brotherhood

• "He had a bullet go straight into that and it folded in half, you know, saved his life."
  — Shep Shepherd (on Leatherman tool) [10:21]

• "All of the casualties walked. And I don't know how they walked."
  — Shep Shepherd [11:01]

• “I was able to go back to Afghanistan and was able to continue the fight.”
  — Al Welden [12:34]

---

Important Timestamps and Segments

• [00:37] – Orders given, setting the scene for the attack
• [01:05–01:56] – Section commanders receive their roles and plan
• [02:54–03:54] – Approach to fort under fog, tension before breach
• [04:43–05:15] – Grenade thrown, entry into the fort
• [05:38–07:44] – Ambush erupts, casualties, field medicine under fire
• [07:57–09:33] – RPG barrage and near-miss stories
• [09:33–11:25] – Vikings extract casualties under gunfire, acts of bravery
• [11:25–12:35] – Injuries, surgeries, and determination to return
• [12:35–13:54] – Headcount, the search for missing man, decision to withdraw

---

Tone and Style

The speakers maintain a matter-of-fact, unembellished seriousness characteristic of military storytelling, punctuated by moments of gallows humor, camaraderie, and emotional candor—all giving listeners a raw, immersive sense of both the chaos and the humanity present in battle.

---

This summary covers the main events, the emotional and operational highs and lows, and gives a clear overview of the heroic acts and severe trials faced by those at Jugurum Fort.

Transcript

[Al Welden]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.

[Alex von Tunzelman]

This is History's Heroes. People with purpose, brave ideas, and the courage to stand alone, including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War.

[Narrator]

You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, sonny. You'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you.

[Alex von Tunzelman]

Join me, Alex von Tunzelman for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts.

[Mike Cleary]

Orders were given at 0900 for an.

[Shep Shepherd]

Attack on Jugurum Fort.

[Mike Cleary]

Almost impenetrable, easily defendable for any attacking force. That's a real nightmare.

[Shep Shepherd]

Can you remember seeing the wall and seeing the big V shape smashed out of it that we were going to use as our breaching point? 5 troop, they had to move quickly. You know, their task was to get straight to the wall to start the braking.

[Al Welden]

My name is Al Welden, and I was the commander of the lead assault section at Jugran Fort. My troop commander got on the radio and asked me and Darbs, who was the other section commander and good friend of mine in 5 troop, to come to the back of his Viking. And the boss had, quite simply, a piece of white paper. And he drew a line on the paper with a gap in it and calmly said, we are lead troop. Al, you are lead Viking. Darbs, you're the second Viking. We're going in. Al, your section will break in and go left. Darb's, your section will go right. Any questions? And I'll. Obviously, at that point, we knew there was no time for questions.

[Mike Cleary]

I'm Mike Cleary. On the day of Jug Room 4, I was a Rifleman Marine in 5 troop. On the day of the attack, I was the point man.

[Al Welden]

Yeah, Mike Cleary was my point man. If you're in a patrol formation, simple as a single file, then he's the. He's literally the first man that's walking towards the enemy. He's normally the most experienced guys in the section that has a great awareness up front and he can provide security, but also the eyes. And Mike had that in abundance. So a completely trusted individual and a real brave individual as well.

[Mike Cleary]

Al was my section commander. He's one of the guys you'd aspire to be like. So he was ultra professional. I think it was just a, this is your role.

[Al Welden]

That's it.

[Mike Cleary]

There was no kind of, would you like to do this? Or it's like, yeah, you're the point man.

[Al Welden]

So we crossed the river. And I remember looking back at the back cab. There's a small window and I could see the water sort of halfway up this window. And beyond that there was just thick mist and fog. I remember the Viking commander coming over the net in my vehicle stating he could see at least 8 enemy moving back to the fort. I basically turned to the lads and said, right lads, let's get the bayonets on.

[Mike Cleary]

When we came over the river, the vehicles went firm. I sat next to Al, cross at Al, nodded at each other, opened the door and jumped out the Viking.

[Al Welden]

And I just remember in that split second, the quietness of it all. The main thing that concerned me was to my left, which would have been to the northwest, which was high rise buildings. And they had the open apertures as windows, no glass obviously, but they were looking down at us. And that was a big concern for me.

[Mike Cleary]

Based on what we'd been told, I was kind of expecting to take some incoming at that point, but nothing. It was really quiet, eerily quiet, if anything.

[Al Welden]

But I immediately saw the break in point and it wasn't that difficult to see because there was pretty much a small house worth of rubble, obviously being done by the intense bombardment. And it created a huge hole in the wall. And the walls were massive, high and gray. So we fanned out and lined up with Darbs's section and then bounded forward. I vividly remember now it being civil twilight, which is that period of grainy light just before sunrise.

[Mike Cleary]

I moved up to the, to the breach point, the hole in the wall. I took out my grenade, showed my assault partner grenade ready to go through the grenade into the, into the fort.

[Al Welden]

There's like the obvious crump that you hear when that, when that happens. And we were off. My two assault pairs in front of me moved in through the breach and myself and my number two as the command pair followed as expecting.

[Mike Cleary]

At that point. Now we're going to start taking some incoming. Nothing. We just went into the fort. Scanning round. Couldn't see anyone. Handrailed the wall on the inside of the fort. I got about, about 50 meters or so inside of the wall. And then it was like night and day. It went from eerily quiet to haywire.

[Al Welden]

At that point there overwhelming rate of fire that sort of engulfed us. It took the air out of our lungs. It just felt like the oxygen was getting sucked away from us due to the velocity and the sheer amount of projectiles that were flying around. It was that point that I heard my number two shout, man down. Man down. I could See being hit in the lower body and I got a burning sensation up my back. At that point I realized that something had gone through, probably hit something in my, in my webbing and then hit my back. There was that many rounds going past me. I do vividly remember going into the second, thinking there's definitely another one's going to hit me now. But I came out of the second and I'm talking literally a second, it hasn't hit me. So let's crack on. And I've got on the radio and.

[Mike Cleary]

I heard on my radio, Al Weldon been ambushed south. Get out the fort. I ran down this little pile of rubble basically to the bottom of that, which is where Al Weldon was, and sat next to Al, you know, right. What we do next. So Al gave me some, some details of what we're doing. To me sounded winded and he said, oh yeah, don't worry about it. And the other side of Al was Steve, who had been shot in the leg. So his, his leg was, was just covered in blood. He was getting a tourniquet on Steve's leg. I could hear man down shouts all over the place. Everybody was man down, man down. And people were just doing the same, patching colleagues up while other people. So I had Kev, the other side of me, he was putting down fire into this tree line that was off to my right at that point.

[Al Welden]

At this point I felt my left leg give way. We took cover in a small ditch and it got mega noisy now and there was projectiles flying everywhere, RPG trails all over the place from all angles.

[Shep Shepherd]

I'm Shep shepherd and I was the company site manager of Zulu Company during the operation at Juggernau Fort. We'd done some cheeky company level attacks and ambushes and stuff up to that point, but it was the most intense firefight I've ever been involved in. It was the amount of rocket propelled grenades that started to engage us. And I'd not seen this before. A lot of them were coming along the ground and I think the reason for it was they're trying to engage maybe from trenches from a ground level. We were so close to the enemy, they either weren't arming or they were bouncing on the ground and not detonating. The only thing I can describe it as is if you got one of them long balloons that's blown up and you let it go, how it goes mad along the floor, that's what it was like. But it was RPGs. I'm doing this. And there was lots of them, and blokes are literally jumping over RPGs. One of the gunners who was in one of the Viking vehicles, and he stood up proud over the vehicle. He had his back towards the direction from which he came. And I saw an RPG come flying in. And he hit the back of his helmet, but he must have just skimmed it. I saw his helmet cover come off, go up in the air. It landed back on his helmet and I looked around and I could not believe what I'd just seen. He turned around as if someone attacked him on the shoulder, completely oblivious that he was millimeters from having his head taken off by an rpg. The FSC commander, I remember seeing him in the middle of it all, you know, he looked at me and I looked at him and he just goes, did you see that? And I was like, yeah.

[Mike Cleary]

Our troop commander called some Vikings over for support so that we could start getting casualties in the back of these Vikings.

[Al Welden]

And it was at this point that my Viking commander that originally dropped me off drove straight at us under enemy fire to assist with the extraction, which again, is another brave act, but only seen by those that were there at the time. A couple of lads I remember helping me and Steve, my number two, to the Viking. And then they returned to the flight.

[Shep Shepherd]

All of a sudden it was like, man down. And that's all the cry you can hear. Man down. Man down. We had a lot of luck. Even though he was in a bad.

[Mike Cleary]

Situation, our troop boss had been given a Gerber, one of these folding multi tools that he'd had for Christmas or something like that.

[Shep Shepherd]

He'd been given, like, a Leatherman tool by his mum and dad for Christmas. He had it in his chest pocket. He had a bullet go straight into that and it folded in half, you know, saved his life.

[Mike Cleary]

Just beneath that, he had his pouch where he kept his grenade. The top flap of it had been shot. That would have made a mess.

[Shep Shepherd]

There was other lads shot in the weapon. Loads of them had been hit.

[Mike Cleary]

He had another guy. He had three magazines in each magazine pouch. A round had gone through the first two magazines and stuck in the third one.

[Shep Shepherd]

All of the casualties walked. And I don't know how they walked. I don't know how Alden walked, but we didn't need stretchers. We didn't need four men on them. Al was shot in the back, being shot multiple times. His radio blew up and that went into his back. Rounds had exploded and that had gone into his back. He was in a bad way, but he was still walking back to the Vehicle.

[Al Welden]

The Viking. DOOR LOCKS OPEN and as I looked out of the Viking, you could see the fort wall still. And then there's a trail through the air which is another RPG that was coming towards us. And again, another split second of looking at that, thinking, well, that's that then. Fortunately for us, it banked upwards and missed the Viking. Once I'd had my two operations in Bastion, I stayed in Selly Oak hostel for five weeks and I received a further three operations that really got to me in terms of leaving the blokes, my blokes behind, and I wanted to go back and finish the job. I went into Headley Court where I conducted a lower back and spinal program which saw me fully recover. And I went on and did my senior command course in the October and I was able to go back to Afghanistan and was able to continue the fight.

[Mike Cleary]

Spinner, so he's the troop sergeant, he was doing headcounts.

[Shep Shepherd]

Sergeant Spence Spinner. He says one of his section commanders had come to him and says he's accounted for the casualties. He can't find 40.

[Mike Cleary]

So initially what we were told to do was our section would enter the fort, hold a position and then two shoot was going to come through us. 40 would have been just behind us in the. In the stack, so to speak.

[Shep Shepherd]

So I've got to say, you know, Steve Darbs shows a fantastic bloke. He died on the next Afghanistan tour he did. Darbs went back up to the wall. He was looking around it, you know, where his section had been. You've got to put it into perspective that we're not walking around at this stage. You know, people are crawling and you're firing as you're crawling and, you know, mad fire coming in. I've sent his troops, Argent, up there to look for him. He can't find him. Before 5 troop moved off Saint Spence, he took his vehicle, he went up and along the edge of the wall and stood up looking out of the hatch to see if he could see him. They still couldn't see him. We had to do something. So I made a command decision and that was, we're gonna keep on losing people if we stay here any longer, but we've got to get people off this killing ground now. The Fort was produced by Kev Kaur. The editor was Sue Roberts. It's a BBC Audio north production for Radio 4. You can hear the next episode now on BBC Sounds.

[Alex von Tunzelman]

Hello, my name is Alex Von Tanselman and I want to introduce you to history's heroes, the BBC's breathtaking high stakes story led podcast shining a light on extraordinary people and ordinary people who become extraordinary, including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers.

[Narrator]

You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you.

[Alex von Tunzelman]

And the woman who created the international charity Save the Children. Subscribe to History's Heroes on BBC Sounds. This is History's Heroes. People with purpose, brave ideas and the courage to stand alone, including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the first World War.

[Narrator]

You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you.

[Alex von Tunzelman]

Join me, Alex Von Tunzelman for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts.