Sam Kiley - Desperate Glory

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Dozens of people have helped me to write this book. I am indebted to them all. It could never have been contemplated had Mark Carleton-Smith not agreed to take the extraordinary risk of backing the idea that a writer should accompany his brigade, for a full tour of Afghanistan, and have unrestricted access throughout Helmand. His staff at Air Assault Brigade Headquarters, Colonel Neil Hutton, Major Simon Gilderson, Major Chips Broughton, Major Andy Rhodes, Captain Andy Rogers, Captain Jim Crompton, Lieutenant Colonels David Reynolds and Robin Matthews, and many others, were unstinting in their courtesy and support to me.

Commanding officers Lieutenant Colonels David Williams, Rufus McNeil, James Learmont, Nick Borton, David Richmond, Huw Williams, Sandy Fitzpatrick, and Joe OSullivan allowed me to roam around their respective military tribes and gave generously of their time, and hospitality, in very trying circumstances.

Infectiously enthusiastic Majors Harry Clark, Neil Den-McKay, Dave Kelly, Adam Dawson, Dave Lee, Joe Fossey, Nick Calder, Jason Calder, Russell Lewis, and Wayne Davidson offered guidance and friendship to a lone traveller hitching rides across the province on scarce helicopters or their personal vehicles. They somehow spread the notion that relentless fighting, terrible food, malnutrition, sleep deprivation, and outright exhaustion were a privilege for the men and women under their command. These men and women, some of whom appear in this book, are too numerous to thank here in person but if they felt uncomfortable with a stranger in their midst, they had the good manners to hide it. Thank you.

In London, at the Ministry of Defence, Colonel Ben Bathurst, and later Colonel Andrew Jackson, supported the genesis of this project and Paula Edwards kindly saw it through to its conclusion, frequently smoothing away bureaucratic sand traps.

The families of Jay Bateman and Jeff Doherty were kind enough to share their memories with me. I would like to thank Joyce Wakefield, Jeff Doherty senior, and Victoria Bateman in particular.

Natasha Fairweather, my friend of many years who, against her better judgement, is also my agent, has been a source of great encouragement and rigorous editing. I have always wanted, and failed, to be half as stylish as Richard Beeston; a true gentleman and a great journalist, he remains an inspiration to many of us lesser hacks.

My editor at Bloomsbury, Michael Fishwick, has been an invaluable guide to a novice author and Katie Johnsons meticulous efforts to turn my prose into English were close to miraculous. Anna Simpson somehow got this book through the production process. Lavina Penrys-Evans did sterling work turning many hundreds of hours of interviews into text. Henry Edwardes-Evans offered perspicacious comments on an early draft. Olivia Tollemache caught several solecisms in the text. Theresa Tollemache has provided our families with a happy manyatta . This book was put to bed at Charlotte Scotts incomparable Trasierra . I have been proud to follow in the footsteps of my father, the journalist and author Dennis Kiley.

Above all my thanks and love must go to my children, Ella and Fynn, and my Editor-in-Chief, Melissa Kiley. Not only did Melissa comb through this book and help sew it together, she is the very fabric of my life. Those of us who choose to go to war leave behind husbands, wives and children who do not choose to be left. They are the heroes.

Between 9 April and 15 October 2008, thirty-three service personnel died on Operation Herrick Eigh t . (Source: www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/OperationsFactsheets/ OperationsInAfghanistanBritishFatalities.htm)

This book is dedicated to their memory.

Senior Aircraftman Graham Livingstone, Royal Air Force Regiment, aged 23 from Glasgow

Senior Aircraftman Gary Thompson, Royal Auxiliary Air Force Regiment, aged 51 from Nottingham

Trooper Robert Pearson, Queens Royal Lancers Regiment, aged 22 from Grimsby

Trooper Ratu Sakeasi Babakobau, Household Cavalry Regiment, aged 29 from Fiji

Trooper James Thompson, 21 Special Air Service Regiment, aged 27 from Whitley Bay

Marine Dale Gostick, Armoured Support Company, Royal Marines, aged 22 from Oxford

Private Nathan Cuthbertson, 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, aged 19 from Sunderland

Private Daniel Gamble, 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, aged 22 from Uckfield

Private Charles Murray, 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, aged 19 from Carlisle

2nd Lance Corporal James Bateman, Battalion The Parachute Regiment, aged 29 from Staines

Private Jeff Doherty, 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, aged 20 from Southam

Corporal Sarah Bryant, Intelligence Corps, aged 26 from Liverpool

Corporal Sean Reeve, Royal Corps of Signals, attached to 23 SAS, aged 28 from Brighton

Lance Corporal Richard Larkin, 23 Special Air Service Regiment, aged 39 from Cookley

Trooper Paul Stout, 23 Special Air Service Regiment, aged 31

2nd Warrant Officer Class 2 Michael Williams, Battalion The Parachute Regiment, aged 40 from Cardiff

4th Private Joe Whittaker, Battalion The Parachute Regiment attached to 2 Para, aged 20 from Stratford-upon-Avon

Warrant Officer Class 2 Dan Shirley, 13 Air Assault Support Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, aged 32 from Leicester

Lance Corporal James Johnson, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, aged 31 from Strathclyde

Corporal Jason Barnes, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, attached to 2 Para, aged 25 from Exeter

Lance Corporal Rowe, Royal Army Veterinary Corps, aged 24 from Newcastle

Sergeant Jonathan Mathews, 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, aged 35 from Edinburgh

Private Peter Cowton, 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, aged 25 from Basingstoke

Signaller Wayne Bland, 16 Signal Regiment, Royal Corps of Signals, aged 21 from Leeds

Corporal Barry Dempsey, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, aged 29 from Ayrshire

Ranger Justin Cupples, 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, aged 29 from Co. Cavan, Ireland

Warrant Officer Class 2 Gary ODonnell GM and Bar, 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, aged 40 from Edinburgh

Private Jason Rawstron, 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, aged 23 from Clayton-Le-Moors

2nd Lance Corporal Nicky Mason, Battalion The Parachute Regiment, aged 26 from Aveley Trooper James Munday, Household Cavalry Regiment, aged 21 from

Birmingham Staff Sergeant Henrik Christiansen, Danish Battle Group Warrant Officer 2nd Class Ivan Brok, Estonian Army Corporal Jesper Pederson, Danish Battle Group.

Chapter 1

Departure

A man usually at ease with going away, he lay beside his sleeping wife and allowed a few tender tears to roll through the cracks at the corner of his closed eyes. Beyond the pre-medieval yard-thick walls of his home on the Welsh borders, not far from Hereford, the unseasonable April warmth of the earth was swelling flower bulbs. The crocuses were already over, even on the cold windswept hill where the brigadier had made his home. He could almost hear the ground crackling with life and the promise of a shimmering summer. His children were similarly blooming into their own, emerging as sporting stars of their schools. He would miss the rest of spring, their months of cricket and horses. The leaves would be falling from the trees by the time he returned home.

He crept from his bed aching with sadness. There was barely a blue hint of dawn off to the east as he fumbled with his luggage and dragged himself out of his home life. His driver waited outside with the interior light on. He closed the car door shut with a gentle thump and looked up at his home. Only a corridor shone. He sighed. His son and his girls; his wife and their daughter, were asleep, warm and safe.