People wear this type of beret in mountain areas for a long time, in Alps or in Pyrenees.
Alpine Troops and Chasseurs ( Light Infantry, Motorised or Mechanised) wear this beret. It protects from the sun in summer and the cold in winter. It was useful in breaking the head shape and kept the face from reflecting the light before helmets were worn and camouflage face paints were used.
The nickname for this beret in french armed forces is "tarte", pie.
The french horn insignia on the beret indicates Chasseurs.
A group of 100 French, ANA and US SF were ending a patrol at high altitude and making a RECO, no UAV available, when a group of 100 Talibans opened fire.
8 french paratroopers of the 8th RPIMA and one medic of the 2nd REP were instantly killed, a dozen of soldiers including the CO were wounded.
Sergent-chef DEVEZ Sébastien,8eme RPIMa
Caporal-chef BUIL Damien,8eme RPIMa
Caporal-chef GREGOIRE Nicolas,8eme RPIMa
1ère classe CHASSAING Kevin,8eme RPIMa
1ère classe GAILLET Damien,8eme RPIMa
1ère classe LEPAHUN Julien.8eme RPIMa
1ère classe RIVIERE Anthony,8eme RPIMa
1ère classe TAANI Alexis,8eme RPIMa
Caporal-chef PENON Rodolphe, 2eme REP
Firefight last for hours during the night until morning, fire support came from two Apache and two A10 and partly from two Caracal used for MEDEVAC.
30 Talibans killed (their leader presumably among them), 30 talibans wounded according to available informations.
With the known informations and reports, it appears that there was no friendly fire, when French have been wounded by shrapnells or bursting rocks, it is because the A10s cleaned up very close to them and the French thank those A10 pilots because the talibans were so close that it was close quarter combat in some areas.
Because of this, the F15 could not do anything.
The AC-130 shot one 40 mm and 4 105 mm rounds.
More than 1000 30mm rounds have been used by the A10 (according to reports 1340 rounds)
Two OH 58 opened fire on nearby taliban positions to block reinforcements to reach the main combat zone.
The taliban fire was so intense that the US MEDEVAC helicopters did not want to approach the zone, only when the two Caracal reached the zone, they supported briefly the attacked troops and brought one medic and 10 troopers to secure a landing zone in the combat zone plus ammunition.
The Caracal made a few rotations to bring a total of 2 metric tons of small arms ammunitions and grenades plus 81 mm mortars and mortar rounds.
There was a double ambush at the same time near the ridgeline and near the hamlet where the vehicles had stopped to allow a recon on the ridgeline, that's the reasons troops had no more access to their ammo in the vehicles plus the fact that the French were entrapped and the ANA platoon was unable to move under the taliban fire.
The ridgeline patrol, 31 men, faced a well prepared group of approximately 60 talibans including many sharpshooters who were very accurate and selected their targets after identifying them, squad leaders, platoon leader, sharpshooters, radio.
The Medic, Corporal PENON (2eme REP) was shot at least twice. Despite the fireball he went once in the open, received a first bullet, pulled a wounded behind a small wall of stone and went back for a second wounded soldier and took care of him when he was shot to death.
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