The faces of the fallon

From The Sunday Times

October 28, 2007

The faces of the fallen

Over 250 British military personnel have lost their lives since operations began in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the bloodshed is likely to continue. Here, we reveal the men and women behind the statistics — and speak to loved ones from around the world who have been left to pick up the pieces

Faces of the fallen: Pictures 1 | Pictures 2 | Pictures 3 | Pictures 4 | Pictures 5 | Pictures 6 | Pictures 7 | Pictures 8 | Pictures 9 | Pictures 10 | Pictures 11 | Pictures 12

It is the war that will not go away. To date, more than 250 British troops have died serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, roughly equivalent to one death for every week since operations began in Afghanistan in 2001.

As the death toll has mounted, we have become accustomed to news of the daily bloodshed in Basra, Baghdad and Helmand province. Phrases such as "insurgent action" and "improvised explosive devices" have quietly slipped into the lexicon of warfare. And the conflict rumbles on. By the time you read this, our forces will almost certainly have suffered more casualties, some of them fatal.

Since the start of hostilities, hundreds of soldiers have been left with devastating injuries. As the Help for Heroes campaign, supported by The Sunday Times, has revealed, some are now being forced to fight again — just for the right to basic support and care.

Click on the links above to see the pictures, names and ranks of the UK military personnel who have died so far in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of us can sympathise, but only families who have lost loved ones in war can comprehend the true scale of the sacrifice.

SARAH GEORGE, UK.

Lost husband in Afghanistan

Darren George, a lance corporal with the Royal Anglian regiment, was the first British fatality of the Afghan conflict. The 23-year-old from Basildon, Essex, was shot in the head in a friendly-fire incident while on patrol in Kabul on April 9, 2002. His wife, Sarah, 25, has been left to bring up their six-year-old son, Connor, with the help of a new partner and her parents.

"It is becoming harder. The older Connor gets, the more he asks about his father," she says, going on to recall that the way her husband's body was repatriated "was not the sort of welcome you'd want. It was all very hush-hush. The plane arrived at RAF Brize Norton at night with just a few officers there. I felt it was being done on the quiet. I was told I could only take one other person, so took Darren's mother. But I was only 20, I'd have liked my parents there too.

"I arranged most of the funeral myself, though it was a military funeral and the army covered most of the cost. With that they were good. But two days after Darren died I got an eviction notice: I had to leave my army home within six months. I had a one-year-old son, I wasn't working, and I was given no help with rehousing. So I had to turn to my local council. That was pretty daunting.

"After that I didn't hear much from the battalion, except for an invitation to attend a memorial three months later – I was assured the soldier who caused my husband's death wouldn't be there. When I arrived, he was parading 20 yards in front of me. I had my son with me, so I didn't make a scene, but I was shocked. It was so insensitive.

"My husband loved being a soldier. I wanted our son to know more about his life and battalion. I wanted to take him to some of their annual events, but I'm not informed of any.

"I was given a lump sum death benefit of about £8,000. The pension took a long time to sort out and was preceded by months of uncertainty. My husband had no life-insurance policy. For several weeks I had no money coming in and had to contact the British Legion for help. They told me I had a good case to sue the army concerning Darren's death. The court battle took four years. But, eventually, I was awarded substantial compensation.

"My visiting royal admin officer did more than his share of aftercare. But the battalion didn't really want to know. When Darren joined up we were told we were part of a big family. After he died I felt pushed aside. Once, when I phoned to ask how to apply for a service medal that he was due, which I wanted for our son, I was told: 'Your husband will have to come and pick that up.' After that I gave up contacting them."

TRACEY WILSON, UK

Husband killed in Iraq

Left to bring up a son on a pittance because her husband only served for 21/2 years, Tracey feels abandoned by the army

Danny Wilson, 28, a kingsman with the 2nd Battalion of the Duke of Lancaster's regiment, died in a sniper attack in Basra on April 1, 2007. His wife, Tracey, is bringing up their three-year-old son, Leo, with the help of her mother and mother-in-law.

'It hurts a lot that my son will never know his dad,' she says. 'It was very hard when Danny's body was brought back to RAF Lyneham. There was a full military ceremony. The Last Post was played. Most of the funeral costs were covered, though the army said they'd only pay for a hearse and one car. We had to pay for more cars for the family and one for all the flowers. But what's really upsetting is there's still no headstone for Danny's grave. The army is meant to be organising and paying for it. But I'm still taking my son up there to a piece of brass. If it's not sorted soon I'll tell them to forget it and pay for it myself.

'When it first happens, you get swamped with letters, and at the funeral people say they're there for you. But that's the last you hear of them. I've had a lot of support from Danny's friends, lads who were in Iraq at the same time. But I don't feel supported by the rest of the army at all, except for my welfare officer from the local Territorial Army centre, who's been great.

'We were to move into married quarters when Danny got back from Iraq, and were still in rented accommodation. So I didn't have to go through losing a house. I received a payout of £10,000 from a dependants' trust within a few days, then later a lump-sum death-in-duty benefit. But when it came to filling out pension forms, the woman who was sent to help me didn't have a clue.

'For the first six months I received a short-term pension of my husband's full wage. After that it depends on length of service. What really hacked me off was the letter telling me how much it would be [just under £8,000 a year for her and her son]. It started: "Due to the fact that your husband only served 21/2 years..." I felt like ringing them and saying, "It's not his fault he's not here."

'After that I got a letter addressed to Mr and Mrs Wilson asking if we'd like to go to the ceremony inaugurating the new war memorial. I was raging. Then I got an invitation to meet the Queen to represent all the widows whose husbands' names aren't on the wall yet.'

DEBBIE BRIDGES, USA

Husband killed in Iraq

She was told she would receive just $29 a month in benefits after her husband's death in the Iraq war — and she had four children to look after. So Debbie turned to a war widows' internet chatroom to find out what she was really entitled to

Debbie Bridges lost her husband in Iraq in 2003. Staff Sergeant Steven Bridges, 33, had been in Iraq only days when his Stryker vehicle plunged into a canal, killing all aboard.

'You hear about that knock on the door,' says Debbie from her home in Washington state. 'It was 9pm. We were driving home and my daughter said: "Mommy, look at the moon!" I said: "You know what? Daddy sees that same moon." Less than a minute later I pulled into my driveway. They were at my house and I knew.'

Before leaving for Iraq, Steve Bridges bought a supplemental life-insurance policy. Debbie received a $12,000 army 'death gratuity' and $250,000 in insurance benefits. 'My husband had said: "If anything happens, the first thing I want you to do is buy a house so the kids have a home." I was in such a fog I didn't know what to do. So I bought a house.'

The family had lived in army housing on Fort Lewis. After Bridges was killed, they were allowed to stay for six months. 'I got out of there as soon as I could,' Debbie says. 'All the other men were coming home from Iraq in my neighbourhood; it was just too hard to see the "Welcome Home Daddy" signs.' But she did return to the base to see the bereavement counsellor. 'I went every week for three years. It was very helpful. One group was all Iraq widows. They know how I feel.'

As well as the death gratuity and insurance payout, Debbie was eligible for dependants' compensation from the Veterans Administration (VA) and for a portion of Bridges' projected pension. But the formula the government used to fix such payments offset one against the other, leaving her with a monthly income of just $29. 'It was ridiculous,' she says. So she found support from an internet chat group of war widows. She learnt she could sign over to her children their father's pension, and the family could keep a monthly total of $2,342 instead of the nominal $29. But once the children are of age, those payments will end, leaving her with the VA stipend of $1,033.

Debbie's experiences with the veterans' benefits system have turned her into an advocate. She has campaigned in Washington state for free tuition at state colleges and universities for students with a soldier parent lost in Iraq or Afghanistan. She has lobbied to change the rules regarding the dependants' and pension benefits. Her lobbying is therapeutic. But regarding her loss, she says: 'It never gets easier. It just gets less intense.'

ANGELA NICHOLLS, UK

Husband died in Afghanistan

From organising the funeral to sorting out her pension, the support that Angela has received since her husband's death has been "brilliant"

Ross Nicholls, a 27-year-old lance corporal from Edinburgh with the Blues and Royals regiment, was killed in a Taliban bomb attack when his convoy was ambushed in Afghanistan's Helmand province on August 1, 2006. His wife, Angela, 31, who works for the Foreign Office and has been left to raise their three-year-old son, Cameron, and her 16-month-old daughter, Erin, with the help of her parents, says: "It was never meant to be this way. It's so hard. Sometimes it's only the children who pull me through.

"The army was brilliant in the way things surrounding Ross's funeral were arranged. His body was brought back to RAF Brize Norton and I was advised I could take five people with me to the ceremony there, and told more people could be accommodated if I wanted. Any help I needed with the funeral was given to me and everything was paid for. The Household Cavalry Association also paid for extras like food at the reception, flowers at the church and coaches to bring Ross's family down from Scotland.

"I was in army housing and told I could stay in the house for as long as I needed until I found somewhere else to live, even if that took years. But my husband and I were already in the process of buying a house in Milton Keynes when he died, as Ross was due to leave the army when his tour of duty would have finished in February this year. We were just about to exchange contracts when he was killed. I wanted to move into the house we had chosen together and went ahead with buying it with the help of money from a private life-insurance policy.

"I did not have to wait as long for an inquest as some families who have had to wait years. This was because it was handled by the new centre of excellence at the Oxford coroner's court [set up to help speed the process of inquests for those killed in combat abroad]. So I feel the aftercare I received was very good. But I know a lot of help is needed for people who have not been as lucky as me.

"The pension was all sorted quite quickly. I receive a certain amount each month for the children and a certain amount for me. The money for the children I put into a trust fund.

"The thing I feel very strongly about is that some provision should be made for the future education of children of soldiers killed in combat. I have asked questions about this and been told that if the children had already been in boarding school their fees would continue to be paid, in the same way they are for servicemen stationed for long periods abroad. But because mine are so young, this doesn't apply. I think every child of a serviceman or woman killed should be entitled to receive the same allowance as those serving abroad. After all, my husband is 'away' for good."

KYLIE RUSSELL, Australia

Husband died in Afghanistan

Appalled by the lack of help she received following her husband's death, Kylie's relentless campaigning for better compensation helped change the law for the better

Sergeant Andrew Russell, 33, the first Australian to die on active service since the Vietnam war, was killed when his vehicle hit a landmine in Afghanistan in February 2002.

'It's ironic, the afternoon I'm interviewed, I get a call saying there's been a second casualty,' says Kylie Russell. 'It makes it fresh and raw again.'

His wife had been home barely 48 hours after giving birth to their first child, Leisa, when she heard the news.

There are around 1,000 Australian troops in Afghanistan, and about 550 in southern Iraq. As one of the first contingents to go with the Special Air Service Regiment in November 2001, Andrew was not allowed to have written contact with his wife. The last time they spoke was that Christmas Eve.

Russell was buried privately in a memorial park frequented by kangaroos and kookaburras. The then minister of defence visited the widow at her Perth home; Prime Minister John Howard called to express his condolences and publicly promised, 'to look after Mrs Russell'. The reality would prove very different.

Kylie and her daughter were eligible for a one-off payment of A$92,000 (£40,288), plus a tax-free $13,000 (£5,692) annual pension. Under a different scheme, there was an option of receiving a sum of A$220,000 (£96,348) and no pension. As she was only 29, her financial adviser encouraged her to take the former settlement.

Kylie wrote countless letters to ministers requesting more assistance for the families of soldiers killed on active service. But nothing changed. In January 2003, she started a campaign that would help change the law in Australia.

In October, when George Bush was in Canberra, Kylie was not invited to a ceremony in which Bush praised 'Sergeant Russell and the long line of Australians who have died in service to this nation'.

'I got a call saying "where are you?"' she says. 'I have no doubts it was a deliberate snub. The government wasn't happy.' A claim later denied by the prime minister.

In July 2004, the new Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act promised better entitlements. But the scheme is not backdated, so the amount Kylie gets is the same. 'That's hard. But my husband's death was not a money-making venture. When you lose someone you need to make something positive of it.'

Margherita Coletta, Italy

Husband killed In Nasiriyah

Giuseppe Coletta was in Iraq on a peacekeeping mission. His wife had no idea how much danger he was in

Giuseppe Coletta, a brigadiere with the Italian military police, was one of 28 killed in November 2003 when two bomb-laden vehicles drove into his base in Nasiriyah. Nineteen of the victims were Italian, making these Italy's heaviest military losses since the second world war. The Italians also have troops in Afghanistan.

"He didn't talk much because he didn't want me to get worried. He just said it was hot and that he was tired. He accepted all that because for him it was a vocation more than a job," says Margherita, 37, who lives with their daughter, Maria, 6, near Syracuse in southern Sicily. "But I could tell from his voice that things were getting more difficult. We never spoke about the danger. I didn't realise just how dangerous it was; all I thought about was how much I missed him."

Giuseppe, 38, was on a peacekeeping mission; Italy did not take part in the invasion of Iraq but sent a military contingent afterwards. His main job was as the major's driver, but he helped out with all sorts of tasks, from filling in sandbags to protect the barracks to helping rebuild roads and aqueducts. "Giuseppe simply wanted to help people, and that's something he felt more strongly after we lost our son, Paolo," she says. The boy died of leukaemia at the age of four, in his father's arms. "Giuseppe saw Paolo in each kid he came across in the streets of Nasiriyah and in the children's hospital, but that didn't make him sad – it gave him joy."

She has refused to become involved in a demand by a military prosecutor that three officers be indicted for failing to adopt adequate security at the Nasiriyah base. "You can't carry out a peacekeeping mission from a tank. Why are we blaming military officers for what happened? The terrorists are to blame, no one else," she says.

From The Sunday Times

October 28, 2007

Heat, dust and bayonet charges: life on the Afghan front line

Michael Smith

BEHIND-the-scenes pictures of British troops in Afghanistan released this weekend show how soldiers on patrol against the Taliban cope with the exhausting conditions of their life at the front and fill the time in-between by trying to make themselves comfortable in their crowded, semi-derelict quarters.

They show every aspect of daily life, from Brigadier John Lorimer, the British commander, plotting military operations with his Afghan counterparts, to an army doctor treating a small Afghan child with stomach ache.

The pictures were taken by Sergeant Will Craig, an army photographer who lived and worked with the fighting men for several months.

Craig followed 12 Mechanised Brigade as it fought pitched battles with Taliban insurgents while trying to win the hearts and minds of local Afghans.

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It was bloody fighting, often at the point of a bayonet, that left 29 men dead and almost 100 wounded, more than 20 of them seriously. The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters lost nine men, as did the 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment.

As the last of Lorimer's men returned to Britain last week he praised their efforts. "The fighting was tough and the terrain and climatic conditions made it even tougher," he said. "The temperature hit 50 degrees during the peak of the brutal summer months.

The enemy was cunning, determined and ruthless. However, every time we closed with the enemy, we beat him - and beat him well."

In some of the pictures, men of the Grenadier Guards, who saw five colleagues killed in Afghanistan, go out on patrol in Garmsir.

They are shown closing with the Taliban with fixed bayonets and mortaring them as they attempt to drive them out of the town.

The troops are also shown in their makeshift barracks, a ramshackle former agricultural college known as Forward Operations Base Delhi, where meals are cooked on mess tins over small tins stoves fuelled by hexamine firelighters. One soldier takes time to shave his head.

An army medic is shown inspecting a young Afghan boy brought to the camp gates by his elder brother with a stomach ache. An interpreter stands alongside, translating the doctor's diagnosis that the child simply needs more fluids.

Grenadiers who have been dropped off by a Chinook helicopter are then shown orienting themselves in the cloud of dust thrown up as it departs to pick up more troops.

Read Mick Smith's defence blog at www.timesonline.co.uk/micksmith

Brown's Afghanistan appeal raises fea...

Brown's Afghanistan appeal raises fear of UK troop increase

By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor

Published: 26 October 2007

Fears that Britain could be forced to send more troops to Afghanistan grew after Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a desperate appeal to Nato partners to share more of the burden of the war against the Taliban.

Mr Brown put pressure on France and Germany to do more fighting, but so far the 26 Nato allies have left British, American, Dutch and Canadian troops taking heavy casualties.

"I firmly believe that burden sharing has got to become part of our strategy for the future," Mr Brown said at a press conference in Downing Street after talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"Afghanistan is the front line against the Taliban. We cannot allow the Taliban to be back in control," he said.

Mr Karzai said: "Burden sharing is necessary if we in the international community are to succeed against terror," adding: "Is it time to leave Afghanistan? No. Is it time to add more responsibility to the Afghan people? Yes."

The Prime Minister's appeal highlights tensions within Nato over the mission. Britain agreed to send a battle group of 1,400 men, but Nato requested a second battle group in February which was refused.

Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned defence ministers that the mission has 90 per cent of the forces it needs. Mr Brown is under pressure not to fill the gap with British forces, but his official spokesman refused to rule out another deployment of reinforcements.

The lack of reinforcements is making it harder for the 41,000-strong force to consolidate gains against the Taliban. There are shortages of helicopters and the Americans are furious with Britain for allowing farmers to produce a bumper poppy harvest for the heroin trade.

Lord Ashdown, the former international peace envoy in Bosnia, has warned that a defeat in Afghanistan would be worse than defeat in Iraq, and trigger a regional war.

Former American ambassador Robert Hunter said on BBC radio: "I think it's premature to say it's lost. I asked him (Lord Ashdown) to try to go to Afghanistan and try to do what he did in Bosnia. He answered with a short phrase that I cannot repeat on the radio."

The Netherlands warned during the Nato defence ministers' meeting on Wednesday that public pressure could force it to pull its 1,600 troops out next year if they do not get more support from other allies.

France's Defence Minister Herve Morin yesterday urged the Netherlands to maintain their troop levels.

However, Mr Morin made it clear France would not be sending combat troops to assist.

The prospect of a Dutch withdrawal has raised fears that other nations could follow suit. Mr Morin told reporters: I would say there is an extremely great risk of a domino effect."

He said France would send a training unit to prepare Afghan army forces to help the Dutch and continue to provide air support in the south. But he said France would not be sending combat troops to the southern region.

Nine nations have come forward with more troops. The offers ranged from 20 to 200 troops from countries including Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and non-Nato members Georgia and Croatia. But the US said there are too many "caveats" about not operating in the south.

Germany offered about 100 instructors and France 50, but there was no sign, along with Italy, Spain and Turkey, that they would send combat forces.

Helping wounded soldiers defy the odds

Helping wounded soldiers defy the odds

By Victoria Bone BBC News

Giving treatment while in the rescue helicopter can save precious time

More British servicemen were seriously injured in Afghanistan in the first nine months of 2007 than in the whole of the rest of the present conflict.

Grim as that fact is, many of those so-called "catastrophic" wounds would have been fatal in previous wars.

Even as recently as five years ago many would not have returned home alive, the head of battlefield medicine for the armed forces says.

Indeed, military medicine has come so far that Professor Tim Hodgetts believes the chances of a soldier surviving can be greater than a civilian with similar injuries.

Medical advances

Prof Hodgetts told the BBC: "These are very, very serious injuries that a good number of people would not really be expected to survive.

"We're talking about penetrating brain injuries. We're talking about multiple injuries of limbs which would include amputations with life-threatening blood loss at the scene."

Soldiers are at the peak of physical fitness, which certainly helps them defy medical odds.

Healthcare is embedded at the point of wounding Prof Tim Hodgetts

But great strides in clinical techniques and technology have also made a big difference.

Prof Hodgetts says the military has a "sophisticated trauma system" that puts field hospitals like that in Camp Bastion in Afghanistan "ahead of the National Health Service" when it comes to dealing with casualties.

All doctors know the ABC protocol for handling emergencies - first clear the Airway, then check Breathing, then focus on Circulation.

But military medics learn CABC, so "catastrophic haemorrhage" is tackled first of all.

And the equipment available to do so is second to none.

Prof Hodgetts himself helped develop a dressing containing crushed prawn shells which can stop bleeding from the aorta - the body's main artery - in just two and a half minutes.

'Instantaneous treatment'

Army doctors have also mastered the technique of "intra-osseous access", injecting drugs or vital fluids into bones when access to a vein is impossible due to massive injury.

Then there is the training of the soldiers themselves. As Prof Hodgetts puts it: "Healthcare is embedded at the point of wounding."

Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson suffered severe brain damage

Soldiers know how to apply a tourniquet to stem bleeding and they practise in realistic situations to deal with the worst-case scenario.

Finally, improved communications technology means field doctors can send live 3D pictures of a soldier's injuries via satellite back to specialists in the UK for a second opinion.

And combat medics can call from the rescue helicopter to the field hospital to prepare them for arrival.

"We can get all the right people and all the right equipment ready so as soon as they hit that trolley in the field hospital they get all the right treatment started instantaneously," Prof Hodgetts says.

And it is not just British soldiers who are benefiting.

'Hit by a bus'

Recently, four members of the Afghan National Army survived very serious brain injuries because of the treatment they were given by the Helmand province field medics.

Prof Hodgetts said: "These are people who really should have died."

MILITARY MEDICAL UNIT Selly Oak treats all UK forces medical evacuees from Iraq and Afghanistan 6,000 military personnel have been admitted since 2001, of whom nearly 200 were hurt in conflict 30,000 military outpatients have been treated since 2001 Its specialities are trauma, orthopaedics, burns, plastic surgery and neurology

All seriously injured medical evacuees from Iraq and Afghanistan are treated at a dedicated unit at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham.

The MoD says there are 24 there at present.

Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson - often described as the most badly injured soldier ever to survive - was treated there, something his mother thinks made all the difference.

Diane Dernie told BBC Radio Five Live: "One specialist said that if it had been a member of the public who was hit by a bus outside Selly Oak Hospital they couldn't possibly have survived.

"It was only because of the extreme fitness of the boys and because of the improvements in battlefield medicine that we even got Ben back to the UK."

L/Bdr Parkinson lost both legs and suffered severe brain damage while serving in Afghanistan.

His case hit the headlines when the level of compensation he was given by the MoD was branded as derisory.

Headley Court helps soldiers recover from catastrophic injuries

Like many soldiers he has now reached a suitable stage of recovery to be transferred to Headley Court, the military's dedicated and much-praised rehabilitation centre in Surrey.

There are currently 45 inpatients there, according to the MoD.

Wing Commander Steve Beaumont, who runs Headley Court, says he has three to four patients at any one time that he would put in the same severely injured category as L/Bdr Parkinson.

"We're constantly seeing a handful of patients at all times through Headley Court which five years ago we wouldn't have seen," Wing Cdr Beaumont said.

Long-term care

In Afghanistan, between 1 January 2006 and 15 September 2007, the MoD reported 72 seriously and very seriously injured personnel.

For the same period in Iraq, the figure was 94.

While many severely wounded personnel do recover and some even return to the military, there are others whose injuries leave them unable to undergo rehabilitation.

A small number - less than five, according to Veterans Minister Derek Twigg - are so badly injured that they cannot be sent to Headley Court.

They are being cared for in long-term high dependency beds in other hospitals.

The Duke and Duchess

of Rothesay

LINDSAY MCINTOSH (lmcintosh@scotsman.com)

PRINCE Charles was last night praised for personally honouring Iraq veterans at his private Scottish residence, but questions were asked as to why the task had fallen to him rather than political and military leaders.

The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay met 40 Territorial Army troops at Birkhall, Royal Deeside, just weeks after the head of the army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, made an unprecedented plea to the British public and local councils to support his servicemen.

The move was seen by commentators and opposition politicians as evidence the prince was also dissatisfied with the treatment the armed forces received on their return to Britain.

Conservative MSP Bill Aitken said: "My own view is that the Scottish public in particular are immensely appreciative of the contribution which our armed forces make, and Prince Charles is to be commended on recognising this.

"It is a pity, but unfortunately true, that the army doesn't feel appreciated and, bearing in mind the sacrifices made in Iraq and Afghanistan, governments both in Scotland and Westminster have to recognise soldiers more effectively."

Clive Fairweather, a former SAS colonel, said he was "delighted" Prince Charles had taken such a "positive position" and said it showed the prince was in tune with the concerns of serving and former soldiers. He said: "He has spent a lot of time in the services and he meets a lot of soldiers and ex-soldiers. What I think would surprise most people is just how up to date and clued up the Royal Family are.

"He has not done this out of the blue. He is doing his best - he's showing an example. He doesn't have to do it but he has. What he wanted to say is there is a better way of coming home that you have had so far."

Defence analyst and former army officer Stuart Crawford said the Duke of Rothesay "should not have had to take the lead" but added that his actions were "very important".

"One of the things the Royal Family can do is lead by example and Prince Charles is good at these sorts of things," he said. "I think it is entirely appropriate. Let's hope our military and political hierarchy gets the message."

It is believed the prince had wanted to thank members of 51st Highland, 7th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland (7 Scots) for their efforts during a recent tour of duty in Iraq. He is the Royal Colonel of the TA regiment.

A spokesman for Clarence House said: "The Prince of Wales has held several events of this sort for regiments with which he is associated. He has held them regularly and has often presented medals to servicemen on their return to the UK and that is about recognising the service they give to the country."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "We welcome the decision by His Royal Highness to fulfil his customary role as the Royal Colonel in Chief of the regiment and present medals to the troops."

The servicemen and women at yesterday's event were also quick to commend the prince.

Captain Susan Duthie, 37, a bank worker from Perth, was one of six women who served in Iraq with the company. She described it as "a nice surprise".

"Charles certainly takes an interest in what we are doing as he sent us messages and telegrams of good wishes when we were away," she said. "It is a good feeling to know there is someone so important backing you."

Major Frank Philip, a trainer with the battalion, said the prince took his role as Royal Colonel very seriously. He said: "When we were in Iraq he always kept abreast of what was happening. We were enormously impressed when we received the invitation to come to Birkhall."

'NO PLANS' TO UP AFGHANISTAN TROOPS

THE Ministry of Defence yesterday said there were no plans to send more British troops to Afghanistan, after James Appathurai, a spokesman for the NATO secretary-general, said he understood the UK was considering increasing its 7,700-strong force.

NATO sources later backtracked, stressing that Mr Appathurai was not expecting any offer of additional UK troops and was simply seeking to reflect the solid nature of Britain's commitment to the International Security Assistance Force.

Mr Appathurai was speaking ahead of a NATO summit on next week at which NATO secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will call on member states for additional contributions to its mission in Afghanistan.

Mr Appathurai said the mission was currently only at 90 per cent to 95 per cent of its intended strength and needed more helicopters, transport aircraft and training units.

He said: "In the south, we don't think the Dutch are going to leave. The Canadians are looking at exactly what they can do. The British are talking in the south not only about keeping what they have, but potentially increasing it."

An MoD spokesman said: "We are keeping our force levels under review but we are not about to make any announcement on troop levels."

Forgotten heroes: how we've abandoned...

Forgotten heroes: how we've abandoned the wounded from Blair's wars

By SARAH SANDS - Last updated at 00:34am on 20th October 2007

When a British soldier is killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, he is publicly named so that proper tributes can be made.

But no one knows about the horrors of the wounded. They are not identified.

No official figures are released - indeed, we have no idea how many there are.

The closest estimate is that, in the past six years, there have been 5,500 emergency medical evacuations from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Brave: Rory MacKenzie with his girlfriend, Storm

Shamed by two conflicts that have no end in sight, the Government does not care to draw attention to these thousands who have returned from battlefields far away - many so horribly maimed and disfigured that even their own relatives have struggled to recognise them.

Nor does it afford them the level of care they might expect. Britain's last specialist military hospital - at Haslar, near Portsmouth - was closed at the beginning of the year.

In its place is an ordinary NHS hospital, Selly Oak in Birmingham, where a single military ward is dedicated to the care of wounded soldiers.

It has 14 beds. Yet in one month alone this year, 145 personnel were flown back from Iraq or Afghanistan requiring emergency treatment.

And what then?

The lucky ones will get a place at Headley Court Army rehabilitation centre in Surrey - a facility that offers wounded servicemen the best hope of coming to terms with their injuries, yet which one British soldier's young girlfriend, Nicola Curtis, describes bitterly as "the place no one wants us to know about".

She says: "The first time you see it, you feel sick with shock seeing all these wheelchairs and amputees and bandaged-up heads . . . all these terrible injuries, just hidden from the public."

Small wonder, then, that Forces charities and ex- officers have grown increasingly outraged about a breach of the "military covenant", which states that soldiers and their families should be properly looked after by the State in return for their sacrifices in the line of duty.

To discover the full scale of that breach, I have spoken to the families of some of those wounded in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Stories like theirs have remained hidden from the public, not least because injured soldiers who stay in the Army's employ are prohibited from speaking about their treatment.

But they deserve to be heard, for in the face of public indifference and political denial, their courage is as inspiring as it is shaming.

Ilai Derenalagi and his wife Anna are originally from Fiji, but moved to Britain with their daughter in 1999 so that he could join the Army.

"It was a dream for me to move to the Motherland and see Buckingham Palace," recalls Anna, smiling.

Then, in April this year, Ilai, 33, was posted to Afghanistan for his second tour of duty. He phoned his wife to say that it had become much more dangerous since his previous tour.

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Stoic: Ilai Derenalagi with his wife Anna

He was right.

Early one July morning, Ilai was accompanying his commanding officer to meet local leaders of Helmand when their Land Rover reversed over a landmine. Ilai took the full force of the blast.

He was hurled 20m into the air and landed on nearby rocks.

Ilai says: "I remember looking down at my shattered legs, and feeling my mouth full of blood because shrapnel had gone through my chin.

"My body was swollen up from the force of the blast.

"Then I could hear people shouting around me - they said 'We are going to pull you away, we will save you' but I saw the despair in their faces and the tears in their eyes.

"I said a prayer, confessed my sins and asked, 'Lord, give me life.'"

Ilai's friends say that although he was barely conscious, he called out two things.

First he wanted to know that his commanding officer was safe.

Second he wanted his Bible, which he always carried with him. (It was subsequently retrieved, unscathed, from the wreckage.)

After that, Ilai remembers being taken to the field hospital where surgeons amputated his leg. Attempts to save the other leg would also subsequently fail.

His pulse stopped and the doctor reported his death to the commanding officer.

Then, after the medical team pumped him with oxygen in a desperate attempt to save him, his breathing started again.

The next thing Ilai remembers is waking at Selly Oak hospital and seeing his wife and 17-yearold daughter crying.

During World War II, between 30 and 50 per cent of soldiers died from their injuries. In Iraq and Afghanistan it is nearer 10 per cent.

That is the good news for the wounded returning from the frontline today.

The bad news is that there are no dedicated military hospitals to care for them; still less a hero's welcome to lift their spirits in their lowest hours.

Most are left to fall back on the support of a relative or loved one, who will have to dedicate their own lives to care for the wounded, with minimal assistance from the State.

Ilia has his wife, Anna. Rory Mackenzie has his South African girlfriend, Storm. It was a medical miracle that Rory, 25, survived his injuries from the roadside bomb that ripped through the belly of his tank in Iraq in January.

No one believed that Rory could have survived the blast that tore through him and into the chest of the soldier opposite him, killing him instantly. But he did.

Rory says: "I remember lifting my head, trying to focus - it was broad daylight, but I couldn't see.

"Then I remember someone saying 'One dead, one traumatic amputation' - my leg had been severed in the blast.

"Then I remember holding the nurse's hand and not letting go.

"And I remember saying to the surgeon: 'Are my balls going to be OK?' Then I woke up in Selly Oak hospital a week later."

That's when the harsh reality of his new existence began to dawn. Rory had to endure seven separate amputations on his leg as infections spread up it.

Afterwards he remained in isolation at Selly Oak, where the only people he was allowed to mix with were elderly patients suffering from dementia on a non-military ward, because they carried the least risk of infecting him.

When Storm came to see him, she didn't know what to expect.

"I was so nervous," she says. "His face was all bruised, he looked like a yellow candle, he had had so many blood transfusions and there were tubes everywhere in his cheeks and his neck.

"But there were no tears, I was just so happy.

"I said: 'I am so glad you are alive and I am not going to leave your side.'"

Storm was in her first year of a fine arts degree, but she let her lecturer know that she would not be returning.

"I can do a degree anytime, Rory needs me now."

The reunion between a wounded soldier and his loved ones is unbearably poignant. The last time wives or girlfriends or mothers saw these men they were strong and capable.

Suddenly, they are helpless.

As Anna Derenalagi recalls: "When I first saw Ilai at Selly Oak, I just broke down in tears. He looked so vulnerable as he lay unconscious.

"I sat there with my daughter reading the Book of Psalms to him and then the Book of Proverbs and then singing songs from church. After about six days he began to twitch and he woke up slowly.

"The doctors had told me what to say. I had to repeat to him: "You have been in an explosion and your legs have been amputated."

"He looked at me and said that he knew about the explosion and that his legs were injured. Then he said: "Could you take off my shoes please, my legs feel very hot.

"I told him again that he had lost his legs but he thought I was just joking.

"In the end I took a picture with my camera and showed him, and then he asked: 'Is that really me? Well if that is it, then it must be God's purpose.'"

Ilai has shown a remarkable acceptance about his fate. His wife says that since July he has never once complained, or blamed anyone for what happened.

He has been in and out of Headley Court rehabilitation centre since August and doctors are astonished by his progress.

He is in a wheelchair now but hopes to progress to prosthetic legs.

He is already talking about training for the Paralympics of 2012, competing in the wheelchair rugby and the rowing.

In the meantime, he has become a youth pastor. He is a much-loved figure at Headley Court, where he comforts the frightened and the stricken.

For others, like Rory Mackenzie, the recovery is a much deeper struggle. Though so badly disfigured that his mother said he was only recognisable by his eyebrows, Rory looks back on his early days at Selly Oak as his most hopeful period.

Sedated by valium, he believed that he would overcome his injuries and resume an almost normal life.

As time passed, though, the realisation of what he had lost hit him hard. Because his leg has been amputated right up to the hip, it makes fitting a prosthetic limb very difficult and, at present, he has to rely on crutches.

He was a young, active man who will never run again. Jobs will not be open to him and if he stays with the Army, it will be in a deadend desk job.

The administration and paper work of his predicament also overwhelmed him. Scandalously, his insurance company would only acknowledge a loss of foot, which kept his payment down to £100,000.

While he was being treated at Headley Court, his mother and girlfriend had nowhere to live.

They were temporarily housed in a small property available to relatives next to Headley Court, which had no hot water, no fridge and no washing machine.

Storm shared the accommodation with the young wife and baby of a badly-injured soldier.

One day, the mother disappeared with her child and could not be traced. She simply could not cope with having a crippled husband.

Certainly, the strain on the families of the wounded is so great that many relationships do not survive.

Nicola Curtis, 26, from London, had been with her boyfriend for four years when he was posted to Iraq in 2004.

When his vehicle overturned in a convoy in Basra and his neck was fractured, she realised that the gregarious man with the wide grin and dark eyes whom she loved would return utterly changed.

He is still in excruciating pain from a titanium plate in his neck, three years later, and cannot concentrate for more than a few minutes.

He is afraid of crowds or attention and did not wish to be named or quoted for this article, but let us call him Jack.

Jack was shockingly slow to be treated on his return from Iraq.

After his initial operation at a specialist neurological unit, he was returned to Nicola's home and simply left there.

He wore his neck brace for six months because he did not know what else to do.

It was only thanks to Nicola's perseverance that she found out about Headley Court, and Jack was admitted and treated there for two-and-a-half years until his recent discharge.

Nicola, a pretty, outgoing young woman who had imagined a full, adventurous life ahead with her boyfriend, was told that there was nothing more that could be done for him.

The damage to his spinal cord is permanent and he remains partially paralysed and in constant pain.

What makes their burden even harder to shoulder is the inconsiderate attitude of so many of the public.

"Sometimes we are on the Tube and Jack is being pushed about I want to scream to the passengers: 'Do you know what this man did for his country?

"'These people go to fight, to risk their lives, and then when they return nobody wants to know.['"

Often people ask Nicola why she stays. She is young, she is not married, why should she assume the burden of care, bathing him, driving him to hospital appointments, leaving her mobile on all the time she is at work in case he needs her and she has to rush home?

She rubs her hand over her smooth forehead.

"When Jack was at Headley Court and came home for weekends, I couldn't wait to hand him back sometimes.

"And when I knew he was coming home for good, I was in a panic, full-scale tears.

"But then I think: this isn't his fault and I love him and if that is the way it is, then that is what we have to live with.

"But I gave him to the country as an able-bodied young man and he should not be treated like this."

At least Nicola and Jack now have a house provided by an exservicemen's charity.

Rory Mackenzie and Storm have no such security. When I met them recently, their attempt to buy a small house had fallen through.

A few weeks ago, Pippa Dannatt, wife of Sir Richard, the head of the British Army, lent them her house for a week.

They are now staying with a South African couple whom they have only recently met.

"I am embarrassed that we are staying with a civilian family who don't even really know us," says Storm.

Her polite manner masks terrible anxiety. "There was something Storm said last night," adds Rory.

"It was that everything in our lives is a worry."

But Storm has no intention of abandoning her boyfriend.

"I love this man dearly and I am not going to leave him at the very worst moment in his life," she says.

"We have been brought up in good homes and we have a good moral base, and we will see this through."

In America, men and women like Rory, Ilai and Jack would be treated with respect as the brave men that they are.

But in Britain, they are the forgotten ones: the war victims whose names will not be carved on any proud memorial in a country that prefers to look the other way.

The Armed Forces charities are now trying to raise money to house the relatives of the wounded near Selly Oak and at Headley Court, but it is in the face of public indifference that sometimes borders on outright hostility.

When Headley Court recently applied for planning permission to convert a house nearby for relatives to stay, local residents objected on the grounds that the presence of so many weeping and distressed visitors might affect the value of their houses.

Instead of being hailed as heroes, our war wounded are being treated as pariahs.

Yet these are men who do not like to complain - it is not in their nature. So it is left to others to plead on their behalf.

It's not just about money.

Anna Derenalagi calls simply for public recognition of the wounded.

"Let them know that they are worthy, celebrate them when they come home," she says, wiping a tissue across her eyes.

"This is a great Army, a great country."

She is far from alone in her distress.

Rory Mackenzie has been called a "f***ing cripple" and been jostled on the Tube by impatient passengers.

Yet this is someone who wanted to join the British Army since he was a small child and who was honoured to serve.

Nicola's boyfriend, Jack, hardly dares leave the house now, but when he read that his regiment was off to Afghanistan he turned to her, his face twisted with pain and said: "I would give anything to be with them."

Their wounds may make us flinch. Their wars may be unpopular.

But when men like these are being ignored and abandoned, we have no right to call ourselves a civilised nation.

• ARMY charities: SSAFA 0845 1300 975; Army Benevolent Fund 0845 241 4828; The Not Forgotten Association 020 7730 2400.

British troops: Is this a homecoming ...

British troops: Is this a homecoming fit for the heroes of Helmand?

The Anglians have paid with their blood and their lives, for what?

Published: 21 October 2007

Nine dead, 116 injured, two VC citations. It is time to show we appreciate what our returning troops went through. By Andrew Johnson

There was no tickertape parade. No marching bands or flypast. A nervous knot of wives, mothers, girlfriends and children waited in the rain and under glare and scrutiny of TV and press cameras. After hugs and kisses, the Anglians went home for a slice of normal life and a well deserved holiday.

When they left for their six-month tour of Afghanistan in April, Tony Blair was yet to step down as Prime Minister, the nation was yet to cope with its wash out summer, foot-and-mouth crisis or to find its new obsession with rugby.

Members of the Anglians, nicknamed the Vikings, will be glad to be back. They leave behind the heat, dust, 400,000 bullets fired in some of the fiercest fighting since the Korean war, nine fallen comrades, the blood of 116 injured and many tears.

The ferocity of the fighting is evident from the number of casualties the regiment sustained. Three men, Privates Aaron McClure, 19, Robert Foster, 19, and John Thrumble, 21, died in August in a friendly-fire incident when American F-15s bombed their position.

Corporal Darren Bonner, 31, and Lance-Corporal Alex Hawkins, 22, died when their patrols were hit by explosions. Privates Chris Gray, 19, and Tony Rawson, 27, were killed in firefights with the Taliban; Captain David Hicks, 26, was fatally wounded during an attack on his patrol base and Lance Corporal George Russell Davey, 23, died in a fire arms accident.

Two regiment members have been nominated for the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest military honour. One is Captain Hicks (see box), the other Lance-Corporal Oliver Ruecker, 20, who rescued a comrade from a burning vehicle while under fire.

If both receive the award it will be the first time two men from the same battalion have received it since the Korean war. Lance-Corporal Ruecker would be only the second living recipient in 38 years.

The casualties bring the total number of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to 252. Another three and the tragic milestone of total lost in the Falklands war will be matched.

While the soldiers returning from the Falklands where honoured with a victory parade through London, for those enduring tours in Iraq and Afghanistan there has been only local, poorly attended parades.

Two local parades are planned for the Anglians next month, in Norwich and Bury St Edmunds.

Many, however, could do without a parade, and the bother of polishing boots and buffing up the buttons on their uniform.

What they would prefer is an acknowledgement of the trials they have been through by the public; and that the Military Covenant, which says that in return for risking their lives soldiers are well-treated and – in the event of their deaths – their families looked after, is honoured.

Colonel Bob Stewart, former commander of UN forces in Bosnia, said that troops found parades "tedious".

"What they want is for people to understand that they've been running risks on your behalf and some people have lost their lives," he said.

"General awareness of what's going on out there, the ferocity of the fighting, what they're going through day to day is limited amongst the public and that is an issue," Lt Bjorn Rose, of the regiment, said.

Another contentious issue for many Anglians back in barracks is that their accommodation is worse than they had in Afghanistan.

In September the powerful Commons Defence Select Committee produced a report describing the state of the Anglian's Pirbright barracks in Surrey as "disgraceful".

Shortly after the government announced there would be an extra £80m for improvement to the accommodation. Critics pointed out, however, that the money wasn't new.

Julie McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Army Families Federation, said: "The Government hasn't taken any notice of the Defence Committee report into army accommodation at all.

"The Treasury announcing £550m for Army housing was a complete red herring because that money had already been announced earlier this year. All army accommodation is being squeezed."

Many of them, despite the conditions, would have felt supported and understood on the battlefield. Now they are back, however, the horrific nature of what they have seen and done will take it's toll.

The charity Combat Stress said there was a strong likelihood that a percentage of men returning from the Royal Anglian Regiment would suffer "combat-related psychological injury" sometime in the future.

"For Combat Stress, it would be reasonable to expect that some of these men will experience long-term problems which may take years to show," said Commodore Toby Elliott, the charity's chief executive.

"But we may never know the true percentage because some of the men will never admit they have a problem."

Symptoms of combat-related psychological injury include: depression, raised anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder.

Commodore Elliott said adequate facilities do not yet exist to treat soldiers returning from war with psychological complaints.

"At the moment, the NHS is unable to provide what soldiers may need because it does not have the people or experience to deal with them," he said.

Last week, giving evidence to the Defence Select Committee's inquiry into the medical care of troops, Dr Chris Freeman, a psychotherapist, told MPs there was no specialist mental health care provision for former soldiers in the NHS.

"It hardly deals with them at all," he said. "If a man with a Service history was referred to us, it would be no different were he a postman, a painter or a squaddie in the Army. There is no specialist service."

The Anglians are recruited from Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire and are stationed at the Elizabeth barracks in Pirbright.

Patrick Mercer, Conservative MP and former commander of the Sherwood Foresters, said another problem with local parades is that the merger of regiments means many have lost their unique local identity. He has joined a campaign to mark the sacrifice of those who have fallen with a medal or plaque for the family.

"People are coming back and people don't seem to know what they've been through," he said. "In Newark we've set up the Newark Patriotic Fund to raise money for families whose son's have come back seriously injured. The soldiers are well treated but the mums and dads are having to make all sorts of sacrifices in order to visit.

"It's all very different in America. Disembark at almost any airport across the United States today and somewhere on your journey from the jet-way to the luggage carousels a large banner will be hanging above with the words, 'Welcome Home Heroes' or something similar. No one gets back from Iraq without some kind of hullabaloo," he adds.

While a homecoming might not always make the national news in America , it will always generate excitement locally.

This was demonstrated in rural Alabama on Thursday, when returning members of the 152nd Military Police wound through the state to the town of Scottsboro escorted all the way by members of the Hellfighters and Patriot Riders, two Christian biker clubs, as well as fire engines and police cars from towns along the route.

The soldiers, on three chartered buses, arrived at the Scottsboro National Guard Armory in the afternoon to a crowd of 500 cheering people, mostly made up of wives, husbands, children and parents.

"It was overwhelming," serviceman Stacey Exley of Scottsboro said. "There were a lot of people out in support. They were there waiting. It felt great to see old faces."

In the UK, soldiers can expect no such homecoming or official recognition in the shape of medals or goodwill gestures.

An MoD spokesman said medals are only awarded to the men, not families, and then to those who had earned them.

"Medals are issued posthumously to the next of kin when the person earning the medal has died," he said. "The institution of a posthumous medal would be a fundamental change to the British Honours system.

"Memorial plaques were sent to the families of those who died while on active service during the First World War as recognition of the unprecedented scale of deaths and due to many of those serving at that time being conscripts. Neither circumstance applies today.

"It was decided that the most effective way to commemorate those service personnel who had died while on duty since 1945 was by way of a national memorial that would be accessible to all. The National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield in Staffordshire was opened last week by the Queen."

The grand ceremonial opening there meant little to Daniel Gent, a 22-year-old Anglian, who was still in Afganistan as the great and good toured the new monument: "We just want people to know the Anglians have come home. We took over from the marines and have been fighting just as hard but nothing seems to have been said. Good lads have died fighting and some people don't even know there is fighting going on."

The Anglians have set up their own fund for a memorial for their fallen comrades, and hope to raise £100,000. They will be marching through Norwich on 22 November and through Bury St Edmunds on 23 November.

Additional reporting by Ian Griggs and David Usborne

The housing

Soldiers' barracks worse than front line, warns MP

The bereaved

Regiment's return is a bitter reminder of loss

Allan McClure couldn't help feel a tinge of jealousy when he watched TV images of smiling family and friends greet the Royal Anglian Regiment on its return home. His cherished nephew, Aaron (above), 19, was killed with two of his comrades in a friendly-fire incident when an American F-15 bombed their position. "It was horrendous," Mr McClure, 38, said. "We knew the platoon was coming back and Aaron should have been with them. It broke our hearts." He added that recognition of what the troops have been through is incredibly important for grieving families.

The hero

Captain who died leading his men to safety

Captain David Hicks (above) is one of two soldiers from the Royal Anglian regiment to be nominated for the Victoria Cross – Britain's highest award for bravery. Capt Hicks, from Wokingham, Berkshire, was fatally wounded during an ambush when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his command post. Despite being in agony from the shrapnel injuries he knew would soon kill him, he refused morphine and an airlift to safety so that he could remain aware and continue to lead his 50 men in a rearguard attack against the rocket position.

The housing

Soldiers' barracks worse than front line, warns MP

Pirbright barracks in Surrey, home to the Royal Anglian Regiment, was criticised in a scathing report on armed forces' accommodation. James Arbuthnot MP (above), chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, told the 'IoS' that troops in Afghanistan "dreaded" returning home because the standard in Afghanistan was so much better. Non-commissioned officers "slept eight to a room, with minimal privacy and negligible storage" at Pirbright, a situation which is fuelling the military recruitment and retention crisis.