AUSTRALIAN special force soldiers have killed more than 150 Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the fiercest battle involving Diggers since Vietnam.

Six commandos were wounded when they were hit by a rocket-propelled grenade during nine days of brutal fighting in southern Afghanistan.

A sergeant-major sustained serious leg injuries in the July battle.

Several soldiers will be awarded gallantry medals for their actions.

The Special Forces Task Group used superior weapons and overwhelming airborne fire support from US Spectre gunships to annihilate enemy forces.

The battle was part of Operation Perth, a year-long special forces deployment in Afghanistan.

It happened during search-and-destroy missions in the Chora district, 40km northeast of the Australian base at Tarin Khowt, the capital of Oruzgan province.

The Herald Sun has uncovered previously classified details of Operation Perth.

There have been 11 casualties in three rotations of the taskforce.

Several were seriously wounded.

One commando's jaw was blown off, another was shot in the buttocks, and a Special Air Service Regiment soldier was shot in the stomach.

The round missed vital organs.

In the battle at Chora, three Spectre aircraft, known as "spitting witches", ran out of ammunition for their cannon and machineguns.

"That was the first time for some of the crews they have bled the magazines dry," a special forces source said.

Australian long-range patrol vehicles also used up all of their ammunition, including Javelin anti-armour missiles and machineguns.

The vehicles are so bullet riddled that the Federal Government has approved the rapid purchase of $74 million worth of replacements.

The Australians have been operating with special forces troops from the US, Canada, Holland and other countries from the Middle East region that cannot be named.

The task group includes a Commando platoon of 50 men from the Sydney-based 4th Battalion, and part of an SAS squadron based in Perth.

The 100 support troops include chemical weapons experts from the Incident Response Regiment.

It is commanded by an SAS lieutenant-colonel known only as "Mark".

The SAS troops operate undetected to find enemy targets and the commandos then move in and destroy them with air support.

Troops from both the commandos and the SAS are angry the task group will not be replaced when it leaves this month.

"It is not right to pull out," one special forces soldier said.

"We shouldn't just go there for a shoot-'em-up and then come home."

Another long-time special forces soldier warned that the reconstruction task group (150 engineers and 250 infantry) now deploying to Tarin Khowt would be dangerously exposed when the special forces troops pulled out.

"There are a lot of baddies out there and you need a strong reaction force," he said.

The commandos are also unhappy because their SAS comrades are paid a special actions forces allowance of $40,000, compared with their $12,800.

The Howard Government and defence chiefs have promised to provide detailed briefings on the Afghanistan mission after the Diggers return home this month.