Ninth Commando
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In 2005, Russian director Fyodor Bundarchuk filmed the film Commando Ix, one of the classics of Russian war films, based on real history.
From January 7 to 8, 1988, 9 companies of the 3rd Battalion, 345th Independent Airborne Regiment of the 40th Army of the Soviet Army were sent to hold Hill 3234, which controlled the Gardez-Horst Road. In a period of 12 hours, they repelled 12 attacks by more than 300 people of the rebel "black detachment" with only 39 people in a row. Six of them were killed and 28 wounded, and they held their ground until they ran out of ammunition.
A photograph taken from a Soviet helicopter, near this hill is the famous 3234 Highlands
The reason for controlling this high ground was to ensure the safety of the transport line of Soviet troops from Gardez to Khost and to rescue the Afghan government forces trapped in the city. The Order of the Red Banner 345th Airborne Regiment (hereinafter referred to as the 345th Airborne Regiment) sent its first and third battalions to control the seven highlands along the route to ensure the safety of the transport line, from which Afghan mujahideen could use rockets and mortars to fire at Soviet convoys, so safety must be ensured.
The Ninth Company, on the other hand, was split into two detachments, which controlled Hill 3234 and 3228 respectively. On December 27, 1987, the Ninth Company covered the reconnaissance platoon of the 345th Airborne Regiment and took control of Hill 3228. But the next attack on Hill 3234 failed. After a round of artillery fire preparation, the Soviets took control of Hill 3234 that night and eliminated all the jihadists on the seven heights. The commander of the 345th Airborne Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Col. Vostrotin, redistributed the troops, with Captain Sergey Tkachev, deputy company commander of the Ninth Company, commanding 39 airborne troops to defend Hill 3234.
All survivors of the Ninth Company were awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star
In the movie "The Ninth Company", after a day and a night of fighting, when the Soviet rescue troops arrived, the entire Ninth Company was almost killed or injured. In reality, the situation in the Ninth Company of the 345th Regiment was not far behind: after a night of fierce fighting, 6 of the 39 officers and men of the Ninth Company were killed and 28 seriously wounded. Subsequently, Soviet helicopters arrived in the morning light and took all the seriously wounded to a nearby field hospital for emergency treatment.
When the remaining officers and men of the Ninth Company were cleaning up the battlefield, they found that what they were facing last night was not the so-called Pakistani mercenaries, but the members of the Pakistani special forces who came to Afghanistan as "mercenaries" to participate in the war. In fact, in this confrontation, the Ninth Company of the Soviet Army withstood the attack launched by more than 400 militants and Pakistani special forces soldiers and won the final victory!
In October 1988, 10 months after the end of the battle, the Soviet Ministry of Defense's Red Star (equivalent to our military newspaper) published a special newsletter entitled "Oath of 39 People", detailing the Battle of The 3234 Heights.
In fact, before this, the Ninth Company had become a well-known heroic unit in the army. During the Soviet raid on Kabul in 1979, Operation Storm 333, the current Lieutenant Vostokin, who was then Lieutenant Vostokin, was one of the first Soviet soldiers to enter Afghanistan. In 1979, the Ninth Company of the 345th Airborne Regiment of the Guards, assisting the KGB and the special forces of the General Staff Intelligence Service (GRU), killed Amin with single-digit personnel losses, captured thousands of Afghan soldiers, and took control of the entire city of Kabul.
On February 15, 1989, the last unit of the Soviet 40th Army passed through the Friendship Bridge, and the Soviet army completed the formal withdrawal from Afghanistan.
After withdrawing from Afghanistan, the 345th Airborne Regiment was assigned to Azerbaijan, and in 1993 it withdrew back to Russia and was incorporated into the Seventh Mountain Division. It was disbanded in 1998. In 2016 the 345th Air Assault Brigade was rebuilt in Voronezh,