[Map] Battle of Chora

[[R-CON]Glimmerman]

The Battle of Chora took place in and around the town of Chora (3,000 inhabitants), in Orūzgān Province, between June 15 and June 19, 2007. It was a battle between ISAF and Afghan forces on one side and Taliban forces on the other for the control of the Chora District which is regarded by the Taliban as a highly strategic area. This battle has proved to be the biggest Taliban offensive of the year in Afghanistan, and resulted in the death of more than 100 people in just three days

Prelude
The Oruzgan province, a Taliban stronghold, was secured by 1,400 Dutch soldiers, 100 Australian soldiers and Afghan forces. Because the area is far too large to control for only 1,500 soldiers, the Dutch had set up checkpoints, which were manned by local Afghan forces, around villages in the area.

Some of these checkpoints were near the strategic town of Chora. There were 100 Afghan police in Chora.

As part of winning the-hearts-and-minds the Dutch troops were working in Chora on projects such as a school, a mosque and a bridge. 60 Dutch troops were deployed in Chora.

A few days before the attack, many Taliban fighters gathered in the mountains around Chora, unnoticed by Coalition and Afghan troops.

The battle
On Friday evening June 15 some shooting took place near Chora. In the morning of that day a Dutch convoy in Tarin Kowt, ten miles from Kamp Holland, was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing Dutch soldier Timo Smeehuijzen and several Afghan civilians.

On Saturday morning June 16 three Afghan police posts (Kala Kala, Nyazi and Sarab) on the edge of Chora were attacked simultaneously [1] by 500 Taliban fighters, some sources say even 1,500. Dutch troops deployed in Chora and locals came to the aid of the Afghan police posts. Apparently to decrease morale, the Taliban executed the two brothers of the commander of the Sarab police post. The same day the Dutch and Afghan forces were pushed out of the checkpoints and were forced into the center of the town.

The Dutch troops assembled near the white district building and at 19:25 contacted Colonel Hans van Griensven in Tarin Kowt for a decision whether to retreat to Kamp Holland. Without consulting ISAF or The Hague Griensven decided the troops would stay.[6] In the evening some Dutch reinforcements led by Lieutenant-Colonel Rob Querido arrived at Chora. Meanwhile Australian Special Forces were deployed as a shield between Baluchi Valley and Mirabad.

Also on Saturday June 16 US Staff Sergeant Roy P. Lewsader was killed when his vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Tarin Kowt.

On Sunday June 17 and Monday June 18 more Dutch reinforcements arrived from Kamp Holland and Deh Rahwod thus increasing the number of Dutch troops at Chora to 500.

As the balance of the battle changed, Taliban militants, who had gained control of most of the residential areas forced civilians to fight with them or face execution. Taliban militants also used civilian homes as shelter, but were still bombed by NATO aircraft, causing many civilian casualties. As the battle continued, Taliban forces sustained heavy casualties by airstrikes and in gunfights.

At one time all six Dutch F16's were in the air attacking ground targets assigned by the infantry.

In the night of Sunday June 17 to Monday June 18 during the loading of an 81-mm mortar, which was deployed in the courtyard of the district building, the shell exploded inside the launch tube, killing the Dutch Sergeant-Major Jos Leunissen and wounding three other soldiers.

On June 18, the Taliban forces retreated and fled in the mountains, leaving the city heavily damaged but in the hands of ISAF.

On Tuesday morning June 19 the Dutch and Afghan troops made a big push. The checkpoints were recaptured and back in Afghan control.

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Any mappers think there up to the job??

Please report here or by PM to AfterDune, Celica or me.

[[R-DEV]AfterDune]

Visual explanation of how the battle of Chora went;

Index of /images/chora-juni2007

This is also good to get an idea of where places are located.

[Jantje|NL^]

Battle of Chora / / Valley of Chora

One of these two names will be THE name of the map..


The first thing I will show you guys 'n girls is my Vehicle checkpoint, which can be found in the centre of the map.

Since I didn't know how Poentjak (an important checkpoint in Afghanistan) looked-like in real life, I began to make an fictional VCP.

It will be named after an old 'Dutch-indonesian'-Camp (like Poentjak is named after a camp).

I wanted to call it; 'Sunda kelapa' which means 'coconut from sunda',..

But since that city was destroyed by Jan Pieterszoon Coen in 1619 it would be known as 'Nieuw-hoorn', named after the city where he was born (means; 'New-Hoorn')

The VOC where he worked for didn't like this.. and named the fortress, what was build on the destroyed city, 'Batavia'.

(this city and fortress was known as Batavia 'till 1942, when the BBQ-sauce-Japanese came, stole and ate all teh cookies,.. Batavia and the city around were called and still known as 'Jakarta'.)

And now your question is... What will it be called?!

'Sunda kelapa',.. no.. that wouldn't be that good for gameplay (let's fall back at sand.. so.. sun.. THE VCP! and is never used by our famous VOC)

Maybe 'Nieuw-Hoorn' than?.. no,.. that never really did excist..

Jakarta than?! OFCOURSE NOT! THE JAP'S GAVE IT THAT NAME!!!

It will be called; 'Batavia'.

Another new Virtual VCP is born..









Still WIP, still have to add alot.

// If there is more information about this map you will find it in the latest post, or you can find the whole progress in the third post on this topic //

[Celica`]

Hey Jantje,

It has to be an insurgency map.
Use this for the overall map;

Index of /images/chora-juni2007

And i made this, for a closer look into what the village set-ups look like.
It's not exact but its just to show you a little bit.
Examples; the VCP has to be further away from town.
kamp holland is further away offcourse.
Btw; I think this is one of the few maps that will hold the F16 and Apache both.

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4...mapplansj2.jpg

[[R-DEV]AfterDune]

A guy I know is trying to get this map done as well. It's not official yet, because he first would like to try some things out, before really saying "yes, i'll do it". So we'll see where this will go .

[Maxfragg]

i can understand the map because ger and nl are similar languages, but it would be nicer to keep it in english

[Jantje|NL^]

Originally Posted by [R-CON]AfterDune

A guy I know is trying to get this map done as well. It's not official yet, because he first would like to try some things out, before really saying "yes, i'll do it". So we'll see where this will go .

Celica' said I had to do this one after he said he was impressed by my 'sollicitation-work'..

So.. If this will now be someone else's task..


Thanks for a whole evening of painting a 4 square km's of terrain

[[R-DEV]AfterDune]

No man, it's certainly not a waste of time and effort . Just go ahead and do your thing. The terrain is something that needs to be done first.

I'm sure one of the maps will be Chora, the other one may need some modifications maybe, and then could count for another map .

Btw, you're two totally different persons, with different ideas, so the results will differ very much.

[[R-CON]Glimmerman]

Your map wont be a waste of time i will post more map ideas, so you can choose

[Jantje|NL^]

Ok, It's not a waste anyway. cause I gonna finnish this map no matter how it will be called or modified, but I would like to stick to the Idea how I started this map.