Tag Archives: IED
His last lonely walk
The Sunday Times Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid sounded uncharacteristically strained as his tearful words crackled over the telephone line from Afghanistan. Exhausted after another gruelling four-day operation defusing bombs in one of Helmand’s most dangerous districts, he told his wife, Christina: “I’m hanging out, hun. Can you come and get me, babe?” The next day […]
Carnage in the Devil’s Playground
The Sunday Times, Wishtan, Sangin THE first explosion that tore through the alleyway flung an 18-year-old soldier into the air, killing him instantly. As the dust cleared, troops racing towards the body of Private Johnathon Young came to an abrupt halt: one improvised explosive device (IED) after another lay in their path. It was Sergeant […]
Taliban ‘daisy chain’ kingpin captured in Afghanistan dawn raid
The Sunday Times The two point men failed to spot the booby trap hidden beneath the water as they waded along an irrigation canal. Then the shouting started. “Get the f*** back now. We’ve gone over a tripwire,” bellowed Sergeant Lee Slater, the 17-stone section commander as he turned and splashed back towards the rest […]
Blood brothers scarred by war
The Sunday Times ‘Dad, I’m sorry,” were my brother’s first intelligible words, whispered through swollen lips and an oxygen mask. Dad leant in close and told his son how proud he was of him. For three days we had hovered around Jim’s bedside in Birmingham’s Selly Oak hospital — as he lay doped up on […]
Helicopter shortage has troops at mercy of Taliban
The Sunday Times Five British troops killed in Afghanistan on Friday were caught in a cruel trap, retreating from one blast only to become the targets of a second, even more lethal explosion. At 5am, a 30-man platoon was making its way along an alley in Wishtan, one of the most dangerous parts of the […]
Miles Amoore 