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This programme contains very strong language and some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
Where I lived you either work in a chicken factory or went on the dole. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:08 | |
It was basically a case of, "What am I going to do with my life?" | 0:00:08 | 0:00:11 | |
And I was 15 years old and I decided to go and join the army. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:17 | |
Luke Langley is 22. He's going to Afghanistan for the second time. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:23 | |
See that, yeah? | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
You know when Daddy goes away, isn't that far away? | 0:00:26 | 0:00:28 | |
You're all the way there, Daddy's going to be down there. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
The first time Langley went to war in 2009 | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
his platoon held an isolated fort deep in no-man's land. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:39 | |
That used to be Daddy's boss, that did. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:48 | |
Seven Platoon's commander was Lt Mark Evison, | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
a rising star in the Welsh Guards. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
At the time, British forces were overstretched | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
in one of the most dangerous areas of Helmand. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
"We are walking a tightrope. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
"Injuries will be sustained | 0:01:09 | 0:01:10 | |
"which I will not be able to treat | 0:01:10 | 0:01:12 | |
"and deaths could occur which could have been stopped." | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
Seven Platoon's lifeline | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
was their ability to summon devastating firepower | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
at a few minutes' notice. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
This film is about the day that lifeline failed... | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
..and Seven Platoon had to fight alone. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
It was the most scared I've ever been in all my life. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:38 | |
I said, "We're on our own, bud. We haven't got the fire support." | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
I've never felt as lonely as I did in that ditch. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:45 | |
In Afghan there was never "Look after number one." | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
It's always, "Look after numbers two and three | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
"and numbers two and three will always look after you." | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
And that's the way we were that fucking day. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
Seven Platoon's commander, Lt Mark Evison, was 26 when he went to war. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:19 | |
"Afghanistan 2009. 15 April. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:25 | |
"It is always the hardest part to start a journal. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:27 | |
"Where to begin? | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
"Anticipation, excitement, fear, | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
"all words which could be used to describe | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
"what one should be feeling right now | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
"but the only one that I really feel is uncertainty." | 0:02:36 | 0:02:40 | |
He was in my platoon at Sandhurst. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
He was one of those guys that sort of, everything seemed effortless, | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
which is pretty painful, when for you it's a struggle. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:51 | |
For a lot of us, you want to be a hero, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
and Mark was exactly the same | 0:02:55 | 0:02:57 | |
he wanted his moment in Afghanistan | 0:02:57 | 0:02:59 | |
to be a hero, to lead his men well. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
In the weeks running up | 0:03:07 | 0:03:08 | |
there was lots of black humour being bandied around, as you can imagine. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:12 | |
I asked him for his motorcycle if anything happened. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
He asked me for my DVD collection. It was that sort of atmosphere. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
A lot of officers try to distance themselves from the men. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:24 | |
You listen to them because they command, | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
but you haven't got that friendship bond. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
But with Mark, you did. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
When we were back in the UK | 0:03:33 | 0:03:34 | |
he'd go out drinking with you. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
He was just a really nice bloke. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:37 | |
But at the same time he could turn and be the officer | 0:03:37 | 0:03:41 | |
and the commander who he really had to be at the time. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
No-one took him for granted just cos he was a nice bloke. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:48 | |
I though I was fit until I met him. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
Bloody hell! He was a fit guy. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
"007" they called him. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
"I just want to get stuck in and see for myself what it is like. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
"How will I react with my first contact? | 0:04:05 | 0:04:08 | |
"Will I freeze, or hopefully prove my worth?" | 0:04:08 | 0:04:13 | |
In the spring of 2009 the Welsh Guards | 0:04:19 | 0:04:22 | |
took over a string of remote bases in Southern Helmand. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:26 | |
Mark Evison and his platoon | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
were assigned to a fort known as Haji Alem. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
Evison was delayed by a brief illness. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
Seven Platoon went on to Haji Alem without him. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:42 | |
This is Spooner, rooting for a fag! | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
Like many British soldiers before them, | 0:04:45 | 0:04:47 | |
they recorded their war on video. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
Few in Seven Platoon had seen combat. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:54 | |
Most were barely out of their teens. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
I think I was, like, born to do it. | 0:04:57 | 0:04:58 | |
I did want to join the Paras, | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
first thought, then obviously, being Welsh and that, | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
I thought, Welsh Guards. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:05 | |
The only thing I wanted to do was I wanted to go on patrol | 0:05:05 | 0:05:09 | |
and carry a weapon. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
You felt powerful. You do feel like you're untouchable. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:15 | |
I loved that weapon. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
I were really young and my mum asked me, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
"What do you want for Christmas?" | 0:05:20 | 0:05:21 | |
And I said, "I want a trifle." | 0:05:21 | 0:05:24 | |
She went, "A trifle?! With cream?" | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
I went, "No, with bullets!" | 0:05:26 | 0:05:27 | |
I joined up, wanted to got to war, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
to have a blast, fire my weapon, and having fun. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:35 | |
I wanted to be a soldier, bring peace, | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
see the world, like. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
When you're a scrapper, you're a scrapper. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
In my eyes the infantry was the one, because they want the scrappers. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
That boy inside me that joined the fight, it must have been because | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
I wanted to take men to fight, I wanted to lead them to fight. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
Haji Alem was 4km from the main Forward Operating Base in the area. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:06 | |
Haji Alem was like an island in a sea of fucking Afghans. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:12 | |
In the middle of nowhere basically. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:15 | |
It looked like, you know one of those Western forts you see? | 0:06:17 | 0:06:21 | |
Back in the Cowboys and Indians days? | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
It looked exactly like that. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
Just a keep with a metal shitty door at the front. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:29 | |
It must have been about 50 by 60 metres. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:31 | |
Like a football pitch basically. It's got massive sangars in it. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:36 | |
Owned by some drug lord. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:38 | |
Used to have his family and his own little army in there. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
So it had four big towers which stood four, five metres tall. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
DISTANT GUNFIRE | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
It was dead quiet until you heard the odd gunfire from somewhere else, | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
either a FOB or a PB, 10k away. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:58 | |
The crack, "Tshuu!" Cos it was obviously that quiet at night. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
You know, just, "Papapapapa! Papapapapa!" | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
The sky just feels so empty really, I know there's stars there, | 0:07:05 | 0:07:10 | |
but you just think to yourself, | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
I'm here, and I was in Rhyl not so long ago. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
Where we was, was a very, very dodgy place | 0:07:21 | 0:07:26 | |
The first road, basically, is the enemy FLET. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:36 | |
The forward line, basically, where they can shoot at you. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:41 | |
A few kilometres down the road | 0:07:41 | 0:07:42 | |
was the biggest Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
The Taliban had, like, a massive training base | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
in Southern Helmand, called Marjah. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
We were basically there as the buffer to stop them | 0:07:50 | 0:07:52 | |
infiltrating into the rest of Afghanistan. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
That would be the first contact | 0:07:55 | 0:07:57 | |
a lot of the young Taliban coming through would have, | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
would be fighting us. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:01 | |
Just use us as target practice for their blokes. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
One of the lads used to nickname the Taliban | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
the hide and seek champions of the world, cos you'd never see 'em. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
I've seen about two. They just literally vanish. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:19 | |
You don't even know where they go. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
We were all, "Yeah, I want to go to Afghan, I want to kill people | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
"I want to get the first confirmed kill | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
"in, like, fucking North Wales or wherever." | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
But when it first started to happen | 0:08:31 | 0:08:33 | |
and people are actually in contact | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
I think they started to realise what they were actually fucking in for. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
On Seven Platoon's first day at Haji Alem, | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
shots were fired from across the canal. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
Within five minutes I just seen a village elder come round the corner | 0:08:49 | 0:08:54 | |
with about four people, carrying, like, a fucking stretcher. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
In the crossfire, the son of a village elder had been hit. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:03 | |
We done our best, we treated him as if he was one of our own. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
The American Black Hawk come in. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
When it lands it's like the scene out of The Mummy | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
where the sandstorm comes in, it just goes, "Wwccchhht!" | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
Sweeps through fucking everything. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:21 | |
It was a 15-minute flight from Haji Alem | 0:09:27 | 0:09:29 | |
to the operating theatre at Camp Bastion, 30k away. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
But then we heard three hours later that he died. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
So that was a bit of a fucking wake-up call. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
I were thinking, "Fucking hell, it IS real." | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
The next day, Mark Evison arrived at Haji Alem | 0:09:44 | 0:09:48 | |
to take command of his platoon. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:50 | |
"It is good being back. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
"The Platoon cheered me when I turned up | 0:09:54 | 0:09:56 | |
"and so for some strange reason I think they must have missed me." | 0:09:56 | 0:10:01 | |
This was a man that wanted to take the fight to the Taliban | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
and knew what he was on about. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
The first thing he wanted to do was go and just study all the ground, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
what routes the Taliban would be using, | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
and their possible firing points. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
Seven Platoon had been at Haji Alem a week | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
when Evison took them out on their first major patrol. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
"Around the fort, it is hard patrolling country. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:25 | |
"There is not much cover and therefore movement is restricted. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
"Extraction back is difficult." | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
Their route would take them just a few hundred metres from the fort. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:37 | |
The patrol moved down irrigation ditches | 0:10:42 | 0:10:47 | |
which carried water to the opium fields. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:51 | |
It's like the most horrible, stinkiest pool | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
you can ever imagine in all your life. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:57 | |
Full of shit. Absolutely fucking stunk. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
But that's what we mainly used to walk to compounds and that, | 0:11:01 | 0:11:06 | |
and obviously to keep us safe. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:08 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:11:18 | 0:11:21 | |
You think to yourself, "Fuck me! This is really happening. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
"I'm here, I'm getting fucking shot at here. For fuck's sake! | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
"What's going on?" | 0:11:34 | 0:11:36 | |
Just turned 20 about two weeks ago, there I was. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
The first time you get shot at, you hear it, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
and you see, like, dust kicking up, | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
and you just stand there like a deer caught in the headlights. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
"I'm actually getting shot at! I can't be getting shot at!" | 0:11:52 | 0:11:54 | |
It would take just minutes | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
for the platoon's two-man fire-support team | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
to bring massive firepower down on the Taliban. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
Andrew Spooner was in charge of fire-support. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:14 | |
His number two Steven Gadsby was wearing the video camera. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:21 | |
Clever lad. He has like a degree so he's a lot more intelligent than me. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:27 | |
I knew if something happened to me | 0:12:27 | 0:12:29 | |
Gadsby would be right there next to me like he was all the way through. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
Once a patrol called for support, an Apache attack helicopter | 0:12:32 | 0:12:37 | |
- or AH - could be launched from Bastion within minutes. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:41 | |
The fire-support team could also call in long-range artillery | 0:12:41 | 0:12:45 | |
from Forward Operating Base Silab, 4km away. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
You all right, there, mate? | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
On this occasion, an Apache attack helicopter was already close by. | 0:12:55 | 0:13:00 | |
The fire control radio gave Gadsby and Spooner | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
instant communications with British bases | 0:13:08 | 0:13:12 | |
and with the Apache pilot hovering nearby. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
# Let's get it on! # | 0:13:17 | 0:13:18 | |
With an attack helicopter overhead, the Taliban quickly melted away. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
As Evison's platoon patrolled back to the fort, | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
the Taliban struck again. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
Spooner radioed Camp Bastion | 0:13:43 | 0:13:46 | |
to get the Apache helicopter back overhead. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
There was no reply. The fire control radio had gone dead. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
Hello, Witchcraft 42, Witchcraft 42, this is Witchcraft! | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
Hello, Witchcraft 42, Witchcraft 42, this is Witchcraft 44 Bravo! | 0:14:11 | 0:14:15 | |
Radio check. Over. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
The patrol had lost a vital link | 0:14:27 | 0:14:28 | |
to the long-range firepower which was available to back them up. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
And the Taliban were closing in. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:34 | |
The fort - and safety - lay across the canal. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:39 | |
But Evison and his men | 0:14:39 | 0:14:40 | |
would have to get back without any outside help. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:44 | |
Evison launched a handheld missile | 0:14:49 | 0:14:53 | |
to give the platoon some cover as they crossed the canal. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
Go on son! Fuck off! | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
Wahey! | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
Go on! | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
Go on, boys. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:08 | |
As they prepared to run across to the fort, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
Evison's interpreter noticed bullets coming from behind them. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
While Evison regrouped the platoon, | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
Spooner was able to inspect his fire-control radio. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:35 | |
The fire-control radio was a satellite radio, | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
far more capable than the standard army radio. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
The cable from the antenna to the radio were broken, we snapped it. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
So that radio were useless. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:02 | |
What had started as a routine patrol | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
had turned into a dash for home under enemy fire. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:14 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:16:18 | 0:16:21 | |
It had been Mark Evison's first experience of combat. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
"More luck than anything else | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
"saw the platoon back behind sturdy walls | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
"and laughing at the contact we'd just been in." | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
It's a fucking cracking buzz, like, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
everyone going, "Whooar!", like that, fucking loving it. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:48 | |
I loved the fucking feeling, I did, I just loved getting shot at. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:55 | |
Obviously not in that way, but the feeling, the adrenaline rush. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
The combat high you feel is amazing but at the same time | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
you don't realise that it's probably fragging with your head in a big way. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
Your body shakes, your stomach turns, everything slows down. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:12 | |
You don't want more, but you want more at the same time. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
"Come on, let's fucking go out for one more! Let's go and smash 'em!" | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
Then you realise, then fucking you calm down a bit, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
and you've got to go again tomorrow. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:27 | |
"For me it is still the fear of making a wrong decision | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
"which sits heavily on my mind. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:34 | |
"I am responsible for every person within this Patrol Base | 0:17:34 | 0:17:38 | |
"and I fear we will not always be as lucky as we were today. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
"At least today I proved to myself | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
"that I will not freeze the next time I get shot at. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
"I do not expect this to be in the distant future." | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
The two dozen men of Seven Platoon in their mud fort | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
tried to make the best of life under siege. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
"The fort is now fairly sorted. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:06 | |
"There are showers, one a week, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
"a chill out area with BBQ - nothing yet to cook - and a gym. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:13 | |
"The loos are fairly basic with just a hole in the ground for pissing | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
"and an ammo tin for turds, | 0:18:16 | 0:18:18 | |
"which must be burnt by the unfortunate individual | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
"who fills it up. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:22 | |
"We could be here for six months | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
"and so it is good to get it up and running to a good standard | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
"so the boys can relax." | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
You know when life is bad | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
when all you look forward to is a contact to keep you busy. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
I remember sitting around, thinking Afghan | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
wasn't what people made it out to be, like, it wasn't war. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:39 | |
Apart from one or two shoot-outs nothing had really happened. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:44 | |
"The biggest fear I have is keeping the morale up of the men. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
"Life is hard in these forward patrol bases | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
"and we need all the morale we can get." | 0:18:50 | 0:18:52 | |
If you weren't on patrol life were very dull. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
So we made our own sources of entertainment. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
And it got disgusting. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
Deal or no Deal with ration boxes. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
Squaddies Got Talent. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
Me, Barclay and Mr Evison was the judges. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
In the final we popped a smoke grenade | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
as if walking on to a stage, and things like that. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
Everyone had to come up and do a thing. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
Me and Hobbs couldn't think of one | 0:19:28 | 0:19:30 | |
so me and Hobbs just did the disappearing act. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
We got on there and then went, and they were there for 20 minutes, | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
"Where have them two cunts gone?!" | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
I had a pack of cards and I walked over | 0:19:40 | 0:19:42 | |
and said, "Right we're going to play a game of Cowboys and Indians. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
"I'm going to be an Indian and I want the judges to be the cowboys." | 0:19:45 | 0:19:48 | |
Squirted a pack of cards and said, "Round them up, cowboys." | 0:19:48 | 0:19:51 | |
They just turned round to me and said | 0:19:51 | 0:19:53 | |
"The funniest part of that is going to be watching you pick them up." | 0:19:53 | 0:19:58 | |
Lucas ate a raw onion then downed a bottle of water and started spewing. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:03 | |
He was sick into a cup, and then he would drink his cup full of sick. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:08 | |
Because you're in such an extreme place | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
normal things and jokes don't seem as funny | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
cos everything else is so extreme, | 0:20:17 | 0:20:18 | |
so I think your sense of humour matches it. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
I tried doing a magic trick, and that were shit, I got booed off. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
There was loads of horrible things, | 0:20:24 | 0:20:26 | |
my mind's tried to block out half of them! | 0:20:26 | 0:20:28 | |
Good memories, they are. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
A kilometre away from the fort was a key road junction | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
known as Green 5. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
But the fort didn't have a clear line of sight to Green 5, | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
and the Taliban were able to plant bombs there unhindered. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
We had no eyes on Green 5 hence why we got cut off | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
because Green 5 was our main supply route | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
and they used to IED it to the max. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:56 | |
It became eventually a huge operation just to get to us, | 0:20:56 | 0:20:58 | |
which took a couple of days. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
It was a logistical nightmare. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
The spare parts Spooner needed for his fire-control radio | 0:21:03 | 0:21:08 | |
had to come by road via Green 5. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
I didn't have a spare antenna for this, not the same cross-wing one. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
They were like rocking-horse shit, they were in rare supply. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
It would take another two weeks for the replacement antenna | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
to reach Haji Alem. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:23 | |
"7th May. Our first base attack last night." | 0:21:25 | 0:21:29 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
In his diary, Evison noted the name of his opposite number, | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
the Taliban commander whose men were closing in on the fort. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
"Ferooz was again mentioned on the ICOM | 0:21:38 | 0:21:43 | |
"as the main player instigating the attack. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
"The signal strength was high, showing his proximity to the fort. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:50 | |
"The most frustrating thing is that they take us on, on their terms. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
"It is almost impossible to identify the firing points. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:58 | |
"Without that knowledge I cannot make decisions and I'm fairly useless. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:03 | |
"There is a definite lack of steer from above | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
"as to how to play this one. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
"I am yet to be given a definite mission | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
"and clarity as to my role out here." | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
On the 9th of May, two weeks after arriving at the fort, | 0:22:15 | 0:22:19 | |
Evison set out on his second major patrol, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
towards a group of compounds across the canal. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
They were known Taliban firing points | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
so Mr Evison wanted to see what the fuck they were doing basically, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
he wanted to have a look. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
The compounds were a stone's throw | 0:22:33 | 0:22:34 | |
from where Evison's men had been ambushed a week ago. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
I said to the boss, I said, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
"Sir, if we go up there we're going to get smashed" | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
Spooner's fire control radio was still out of action. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
So we had to revert back to the old sort of radio, | 0:22:48 | 0:22:52 | |
the Bowman radio, which the range and chance of getting | 0:22:52 | 0:22:55 | |
a signal on that is quite... it's not as easy. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:58 | |
The army's standard Bowman radio used a waveband | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
that was prone to atmospheric disruption. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
I can remember getting across the bridge across the canal, | 0:23:07 | 0:23:10 | |
went to send a radio check, wasn't working, couldn't get through, | 0:23:10 | 0:23:13 | |
and I just thought we were in a blackspot for some reason. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
I remember a couple of the lads | 0:23:16 | 0:23:18 | |
saying they were having difficulty on their radios. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
The most important thing in battle is comms. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
And if we didn't have comms back to 2 Company HQ, | 0:23:23 | 0:23:28 | |
i.e. zero, we were dead. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:30 | |
As soon as I lost radio communications out of Haji Alem, | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
I wish I'd turned round and said to Lt Evison "We should go back." | 0:23:33 | 0:23:39 | |
I thought I could have got it further down the road. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
There was no reason for me to think otherwise. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
I thought I was just in a black spot. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
Carry on, we'll pick them up, it happens all the time with radios. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:49 | |
The civvies were just dropping their tools and running away. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:52 | |
No one was there to be seen | 0:23:52 | 0:23:53 | |
so we knew something was obviously happening. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
As Evison's patrol approached the crossroads | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
his interpreter was listening in on the Taliban. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
300 metres into the patrol the chatter picked up saying, | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
"Yeah, they've got eyes on us." | 0:24:06 | 0:24:07 | |
I can remember Mr Evison passing it down, | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
"Tell 'em they're getting ready, they're going to be opening fire" | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
We heard a scream come down the ICOM radio pretty much saying, "Fire!" | 0:24:14 | 0:24:18 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
-Fucking get out. They're coming. Is that recording? -Yeah. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:24 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
Spooner, wearing the camera, took cover next to Langley. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:31 | |
It was just a shit-storm. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
No crack and thump, it was just, "Doof-doof! Doof-doof! Doof-doof!" | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
As if it was our own blokes firing. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:39 | |
Cos they must have been about 40, 50 metres away. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
From that we got hit by, I think it was two or three firing points. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
I remember seeing an RPG coming, | 0:24:46 | 0:24:48 | |
just come over the fucking top of us. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
And then they contacted us from the right, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:52 | |
from about four, five firing points. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
Contact right! | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
That's where I basically just grabbed my LMG | 0:24:56 | 0:25:00 | |
and just swung it round, and let off, like, a burst of 20 rounds. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:04 | |
So now we're in a fire-fight. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:25:06 | 0:25:07 | |
At that point we'd lost all comms pretty much. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
You have dead spots, basically, like mobile phones. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
Me and Spooner just had to revert | 0:25:13 | 0:25:15 | |
to being an infantry soldiers that day | 0:25:15 | 0:25:17 | |
and just join in with the sections. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:18 | |
By this point, if Spooner's radio been working, | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
he would have called in artillery fire | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
from the forward operating base 4k away. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
If we'd had a replacement for that little cable | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
I'd maybe have got guns, mortars, | 0:25:33 | 0:25:35 | |
I would have got some sort of aircraft. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
I would have jumped at the opportunity to call an Apache. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
Me and Gadsby would have been doing our usual thing of giggling | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
while we blow up the Taliban. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
But we didn't and Mark got hurt. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:47 | |
The 20-man patrol was divided into two sections. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:54 | |
One led by Mark Evison, the other by Lance Sergeant Peek. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:59 | |
Mark Evison is in clean view of one of the compounds | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
we was getting fired at. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:08 | |
Peek shouted across to Mr Evison, "Get in the compound!" | 0:26:08 | 0:26:12 | |
And he pushed into Compound 1. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
Evison's section was now inside Compound 1. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
Langley and Spooner were with Lance Sergeant Peek | 0:26:19 | 0:26:24 | |
in the irrigation ditch across the road. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
And something whizzed past me and Langley. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
Fuck! | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
"Did that hit the fucking wall? We're getting contacted from behind now!" | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
Fuck! They're firing straight down the road, | 0:26:42 | 0:26:44 | |
it just hit the fucking wall! | 0:26:44 | 0:26:46 | |
That fucking wall! | 0:26:46 | 0:26:48 | |
So at this point now, we're in the middle | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
and they were just shooting at us. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
I think it was something like 15 firing points. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
The Taliban were smart, | 0:26:57 | 0:26:58 | |
we were fucked from the very beginning of that patrol. | 0:26:58 | 0:27:00 | |
Cut down there again? | 0:27:00 | 0:27:02 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
Where did that come from?! | 0:27:04 | 0:27:06 | |
If I were them, I'd have been pissing my pants laughing. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
"Look at these idiots, we're going to shoot them, | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
"they're getting brassed up." | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
You could tell we were outnumbered, we were basically just surrounded, | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
getting shot at like fish in a barrel. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:20 | |
What? That's coming from behind us, dude! | 0:27:20 | 0:27:24 | |
They had trapped us in a 360 ambush. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
They'd started firing in on automatic fire | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
into Compound 1, where Mark Evison was. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:34 | |
Within the walls of Compound 1 | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
Mark Evison couldn't see what was happening outside. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
And he couldn't get a radio signal. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
We couldn't get comms. So everything's word of mouth then. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:46 | |
So, old school. So everybody's screaming. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:48 | |
To get a radio signal, | 0:27:48 | 0:27:50 | |
Evison stepped into the doorway of Compound 1. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:53 | |
I told him to get the fuck back in there, like, | 0:27:53 | 0:27:57 | |
they're coming from everywhere. | 0:27:57 | 0:27:58 | |
And that's when the burst | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
of three to five rounds come through that doorway. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
He actually just stood, took it as if he was fine, | 0:28:06 | 0:28:10 | |
speaking on the radio until he seen a bit of blood on his hand, | 0:28:10 | 0:28:13 | |
he actually realised that he'd been shot. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
His face just went pale. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
I heard Lance Corporal Evans screaming, "Man down! | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
"The boss is down! The boss is down!" | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
In the ditch, a stone's throw from Compound 1, | 0:28:26 | 0:28:28 | |
Langley and Spooner didn't know their commander had been hit. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:32 | |
I heard somebody scream. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:41 | |
I was like, "No, it's probably somebody just shitting themselves | 0:28:41 | 0:28:43 | |
"or something like that." | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
And this bright red ginger head poked up over the wall | 0:28:46 | 0:28:48 | |
which was Evans 74. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:51 | |
I got on a haystack myself and shouted over to them. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:53 | |
"Man down." That's when it's time for you to man up. | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
Which is what you'd expect of your mate if it was you. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:09 | |
"Oh, fuck. Fucking hell, who is this now?!" | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
Then I thought, "Here we fucking go." | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
Everyone expects it eventually, it's just a matter of time. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:21 | |
Medic, we've got a man down! | 0:29:21 | 0:29:23 | |
He'll have that fucker. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:25 | |
Inside Compound 1, Guardsman James, who'd had first aid training, | 0:29:25 | 0:29:30 | |
attended to Evison. | 0:29:30 | 0:29:32 | |
I took his body armour off. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:34 | |
And...it was just blood everywhere. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:38 | |
He had a gunshot wound to his shoulder. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:44 | |
I was an emotional wreck. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:49 | |
I was crying, you know, and... | 0:29:49 | 0:29:51 | |
He lost consciousness on me. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:55 | |
I punched him into the chest. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:57 | |
I managed to get him back round. | 0:29:57 | 0:30:00 | |
In the ditch, Langley and Spooner | 0:30:00 | 0:30:04 | |
heard another shout from Compound 1. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:06 | |
Langley wanted to put up a smoke screen | 0:30:15 | 0:30:18 | |
so the medic could run across the road to Compound 1. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:22 | |
There was a bit of a fucking fuck-about with the smoke grenade | 0:30:22 | 0:30:26 | |
He made a right meal of it. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:30 | |
"You skinny little rat, you can't even pull the pin out of a grenade!" | 0:30:32 | 0:30:35 | |
Twisting it and pulling it, and he chucks it... | 0:30:38 | 0:30:40 | |
..and nothing happens. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:44 | |
I turned round to Lacy and was about to say, "Are you going anyway?" | 0:30:44 | 0:30:47 | |
And he just went, "Get me the fuck over there." | 0:30:47 | 0:30:49 | |
The guys pointed me to the compound the door I needed to go through. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:53 | |
I was like, "Right, rapid fire!" | 0:30:53 | 0:30:54 | |
We just unleashed hell on the fucking Taliban. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:00 | |
HEAVY GUNFIRE | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
We sent a wall of lead flying at them. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:07 | |
If I was at the other end of that I wouldn't want to hang around. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
Lacy got about half way across. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:12 | |
The guns jammed. There was no fire. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:14 | |
Spooner had to change a mag. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:17 | |
I had a stoppage and then Gadsby had a stoppage on his LMG. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:22 | |
-Aaargh! -You all right? | 0:31:22 | 0:31:24 | |
Running for my life basically. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:25 | |
I managed to run past the door, couple of metres past the door, | 0:31:25 | 0:31:28 | |
saw it in the corner of my eye, ran back. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:30 | |
There was fucking rounds pinging off the wall behind him | 0:31:30 | 0:31:33 | |
like there was in a film trick, like, chasing him, | 0:31:33 | 0:31:35 | |
and fuck knows how he got in the compound alive. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
As the medic examined Evison, a guardsman in Compound 1 | 0:31:39 | 0:31:44 | |
got through to Lance Sergeant Peek on the radio. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:46 | |
All I could hear was, "It's the boss." | 0:31:46 | 0:31:49 | |
Old muggins got to step up, | 0:31:49 | 0:31:51 | |
and I got to become the platoon commander. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:53 | |
Peek now had to relay this information back to Two Zero, | 0:32:20 | 0:32:24 | |
the forward operating base 4k away. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
It was four minutes since Evison had been shot. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:40 | |
A 9-liner is a standard casualty report. | 0:32:45 | 0:32:48 | |
At first I got told that he got shot in the hand. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:52 | |
So I sent up my 9-liner as a walking casualty. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:57 | |
"Walking wounded" meant that Evison would be listed | 0:33:00 | 0:33:04 | |
as a low-priority casualty. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:06 | |
In the chaos, Peek hadn't yet realised that Evison couldn't walk. | 0:33:06 | 0:33:10 | |
At this point then I got a platoon of fucking boys, | 0:33:16 | 0:33:19 | |
I'm in a 360 ambush, I got a casualty, | 0:33:19 | 0:33:22 | |
I didn't go into the careers office thinking | 0:33:22 | 0:33:24 | |
I was going to be doing that, let's just put it that way. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
Spooner warned Peek to request a Black Hawk helicopter, | 0:33:35 | 0:33:39 | |
call sign, "Shocker", and not a large twin-engined Chinook. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:43 | |
We had nowhere to land a Chinook. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
We couldn't secure an area big enough | 0:33:45 | 0:33:47 | |
so if they send a Chinook we're fucked, how can we deal with that? | 0:33:47 | 0:33:51 | |
So he needed to get that message across. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:53 | |
Because my radio wasn't working that day, I achieved nothing. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:07 | |
I achieved nothing. My purpose there... I didn't have one. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:11 | |
I asked for mortars, I asked for Apache, | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
I asked for anything and everything. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:19 | |
Two Zero needed to know which compounds | 0:34:30 | 0:34:32 | |
the Taliban were firing from. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:34 | |
But Peek's radio kept breaking up. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:37 | |
I was trying to explain where I'm getting fired upon. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:40 | |
So I'm telling them where I was, | 0:34:40 | 0:34:42 | |
but it kept going "uh-uh-uh", like, sort of blanking out. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:46 | |
So I'm telling them which compound I'm getting fired upon, | 0:34:46 | 0:34:50 | |
however, they couldn't work out where I was. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:52 | |
I looked at Langley, I said, "We're on our own, bud. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:02 | |
"We haven't got the fire support." | 0:35:02 | 0:35:05 | |
He just looked at me as if, "What the fuck are we going to do?" | 0:35:05 | 0:35:10 | |
I was in the ditch, and I thought, "I'm going to die here." | 0:35:10 | 0:35:13 | |
It was the most scared I've ever been in all my life. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:17 | |
We're on the ground and there's no help, basically. | 0:35:17 | 0:35:22 | |
You can't stop and think, or really be scared, | 0:35:22 | 0:35:25 | |
you can't let your emotions take over you, | 0:35:25 | 0:35:28 | |
you've got to be like a machine | 0:35:28 | 0:35:30 | |
and just fight through it, and just keep on going. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:33 | |
The whole platoon becomes... It's a strong bond. | 0:35:33 | 0:35:38 | |
You love each other, basically. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:43 | |
A quarter of an hour after being hit, | 0:36:10 | 0:36:12 | |
Evison was stretchered out of Compound 1 | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
and over to the irrigation ditch. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:17 | |
They'd had Taliban in the poppy field, plus the road was heightened. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:22 | |
So the plan was take him on the stretcher down the irrigation ditch. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
The way back to Haji Alem was down two narrow ditches | 0:36:30 | 0:36:35 | |
which ran side by side. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:37 | |
Cos I were giving covering fire I had to take the front ditch. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
An Apache attack helicopter had been sent from Camp Bastion | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
to assist the patrol. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:51 | |
It was heavily armed and looking for targets. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:55 | |
Spooner told Gadsby to make contact. | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
Before Gadsby could react, an order came from Lance Sergeant Peek. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:08 | |
Gadsby crossed over into the back ditch to help carry Mark Evison. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
I can remember saying, having a laugh with him, | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
"You weren't expected that in the morning at breakfast!" | 0:37:21 | 0:37:24 | |
All that sort of stuff, just to keep him talking. | 0:37:24 | 0:37:26 | |
If he's talking he's conscious, isn't he? | 0:37:26 | 0:37:28 | |
He was all right, chilled out, relaxed, | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
he had morphine, couldn't feel the pain | 0:37:31 | 0:37:34 | |
The bullet had sliced through an artery in Mark Evison's shoulder. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:38 | |
He'd been bleeding heavily now for nearly 20 minutes. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:42 | |
It was a slow move, the irrigation ditch was probably two-foot wide. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:45 | |
There was mud everywhere, like, up to your knees. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:50 | |
It's not a stable stretcher. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:55 | |
It's a sheet, pretty much, and that was filling up with water, | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
and it kept getting heavier and heavier. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:01 | |
It just seemed to be like a dead weight laid inside a bag. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:04 | |
So you're all bumping into each other | 0:38:04 | 0:38:06 | |
and because it was awkward, the boss, I think he slipped off once or twice. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:11 | |
The stretcher party still had 200 metres to go. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
But they were barely moving. | 0:38:14 | 0:38:15 | |
Cometh the man, cometh the hour. Joe Korosaya stepped in. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:21 | |
I asked the medic if I can... | 0:38:21 | 0:38:26 | |
Is it possible for him to be put on my back? | 0:38:26 | 0:38:31 | |
I was counting the steps, and there was blood dripping out of him. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:38 | |
So he told me he was... | 0:38:38 | 0:38:41 | |
He could feel blood dripping out of his chest. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:45 | |
It didn't look like him. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:47 | |
It just looked like a rag doll just covered in blood. | 0:38:47 | 0:38:50 | |
He took off and I thought, "Look at him go, he's blasting down there." | 0:38:53 | 0:38:56 | |
Getting shot at, no regard for his own safety, | 0:38:56 | 0:38:58 | |
just wanted to get his mate out of there. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:00 | |
"Sir we're going to the PB now. | 0:39:00 | 0:39:03 | |
"You'll be safe, don't worry." | 0:39:03 | 0:39:07 | |
Spooner gave covering fire | 0:39:07 | 0:39:08 | |
as Korosaya powered down the parallel ditch | 0:39:08 | 0:39:11 | |
carrying Evison on his back. | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
We were in contact the entire the way down. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:24 | |
The Apache attack helicopter had been hovering for ten minutes. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:35 | |
The pilot couldn't see any Taliban from the air. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
And because the patrol couldn't communicate with Two Zero | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
to tell them exactly where the Taliban were, | 0:39:41 | 0:39:43 | |
the Apache was powerless to help. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
I'm thinking, "This is shit, Andrew. | 0:39:48 | 0:39:50 | |
"This is shit, this is shit, this is shit." | 0:39:50 | 0:39:52 | |
I'd never felt as lonely as I did in that ditch. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:02 | |
Guardsman Korosaya had carried his commander 200 metres | 0:40:05 | 0:40:10 | |
through the irrigation ditch and up to the compound by the canal. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:15 | |
He was exhausted. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:17 | |
Gadsby picked Evison up, and headed for the bridge. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:23 | |
Over the bridge | 0:40:23 | 0:40:24 | |
gave me less cover but was a much faster option. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:27 | |
I could hear all the enemy fire coming in. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:33 | |
I could hear it hitting the bridge, | 0:40:33 | 0:40:35 | |
I could hear it go down the canal and hit the water in the canal. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:39 | |
I was thinking, "You fucking idiot." | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
I remember running across and tucking my arms in to my sides. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
If I'm going to get shot in the side, if I put my arms there | 0:40:45 | 0:40:49 | |
at least it might hit my arm-bone and ricochet off. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:52 | |
The only thing on our side was they were shit shots. | 0:40:52 | 0:40:54 | |
If it was us in that position waiting for them | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
there wouldn't have been anybody left standing. | 0:40:56 | 0:41:00 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:41:00 | 0:41:03 | |
It had taken Seven Platoon | 0:41:06 | 0:41:08 | |
less than 35 minutes to get Evison back to the fort. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
Assuming a medevac helicopter would touch down in the next few minutes, | 0:41:14 | 0:41:18 | |
Spooner went to clear the landing area. | 0:41:18 | 0:41:21 | |
Then he took off his helmet and went to the radio. | 0:41:25 | 0:41:29 | |
The camera carried on recording the voices of Mark Evison | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
and the men trying to keep him alive. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:41 | |
On the radio, Spooner asked Forward Operating Base Silab | 0:41:43 | 0:41:48 | |
when the medevac helicopter was due. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:51 | |
They know Lt Evison had been shot, | 0:41:51 | 0:41:53 | |
but I can remember speaking to Captain Lambe at Silab, | 0:41:53 | 0:41:57 | |
asking me to verify, has he been shot in the hand or in the shoulder? | 0:41:57 | 0:42:00 | |
What aircraft do you want? | 0:42:00 | 0:42:02 | |
So they didn't even have a clear picture of what were going on either. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:07 | |
Amid the chaos, a Chinook helicopter had been sent by mistake. | 0:42:08 | 0:42:13 | |
It was too big to land inside the fort. | 0:42:13 | 0:42:17 | |
I asked on the radio, and they said, | 0:42:17 | 0:42:19 | |
"Oh, they sent a Chinook by accident." | 0:42:19 | 0:42:21 | |
I sent them a new 9-liner. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
I sent them everything, and I'm getting different excuses why. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:28 | |
Outside Haji Alem the rest of the platoon | 0:42:42 | 0:42:45 | |
were still fighting for their lives. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:48 | |
Joe Korosaya, who'd carried Mark Evison most of the way, | 0:42:48 | 0:42:51 | |
was at the end of his strength. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:54 | |
I ran down the canal. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:57 | |
I went straight down. | 0:42:57 | 0:42:59 | |
I fell inside the water, just didn't want to move any more. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:06 | |
I just wanted to stay in that canal, | 0:43:07 | 0:43:10 | |
I think I would fall asleep in that canal. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:14 | |
It's quite hard to keep the boys going, | 0:43:14 | 0:43:17 | |
and sometimes you just want to stop. | 0:43:17 | 0:43:20 | |
"Fucking hell, can't be arsed now, enough's enough." | 0:43:20 | 0:43:25 | |
I froze, pretty much nearly, at one point. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:28 | |
I was so... | 0:43:28 | 0:43:30 | |
..traumatised, and so upset by it all. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:37 | |
Peek hit him on the head, "Get a fucking grip!" | 0:43:37 | 0:43:40 | |
Yeah. A bit of encouragement! | 0:43:40 | 0:43:43 | |
It gave me the motivation to get over that ditch | 0:43:43 | 0:43:47 | |
and up the other side. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:49 | |
If you took them in there, | 0:43:49 | 0:43:50 | |
you've got to be able to get them out of there as well. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:53 | |
Under heavy fire, Gizzie clambered out of the canal. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:56 | |
I was just about to get my head over. | 0:43:56 | 0:43:58 | |
And then...boof! Just got fucking shot then. | 0:43:58 | 0:44:00 | |
I shouted, "Man down! Man down!" as I was in the water | 0:44:00 | 0:44:04 | |
and it all got echoed. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:06 | |
The pain was just too much. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:08 | |
I never had pain like that before in my life. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
I thought, "That's it. I'm fucking gone, I'm dead." | 0:44:11 | 0:44:15 | |
21 years of age, fucking dying. | 0:44:15 | 0:44:19 | |
Then I seen Langley's head coming over the fucking canal. | 0:44:19 | 0:44:22 | |
I thought, "Here we go!" | 0:44:22 | 0:44:25 | |
"Hey, Giz, who's been fucking hit?" And he went, "Me!" | 0:44:25 | 0:44:28 | |
"What the fuck d'you mean, you?" | 0:44:28 | 0:44:30 | |
He goes, "I've been shot in the foot, I'll be all right. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:33 | |
"Just crack on, leave me." I'm like, "Shut up, you stupid cunt." | 0:44:33 | 0:44:36 | |
"I owe you 50, I'm not leaving you here! | 0:44:36 | 0:44:39 | |
"Come on, a real man always pays his debts." | 0:44:39 | 0:44:42 | |
And as we got into the straight 50, 60 metres that runs into Haji Alem | 0:44:42 | 0:44:47 | |
he just screamed as hard as he could, "You fucking Taliban cunts!" | 0:44:47 | 0:44:52 | |
People was on the radio all the time saying, "Where's the helicopter?! | 0:45:07 | 0:45:11 | |
And then, "Yeah, it's en route. Oh, no, it's not en route." | 0:45:11 | 0:45:13 | |
I felt like the entire platoon were asking where was it | 0:45:13 | 0:45:16 | |
and why haven't I sorted it out yet? | 0:45:16 | 0:45:18 | |
And they're still asking me, "Spoons, where's the MERT?" | 0:45:18 | 0:45:21 | |
Like somehow I can make it physically get here quicker. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:24 | |
There was still no sign of the MERT - the medical helicopter. | 0:45:29 | 0:45:34 | |
The flight time from Camp Bastion was around 15 minutes. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
It had been nearly an hour since Evison was shot. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
I couldn't understand it, why it wasn't there. | 0:45:47 | 0:45:51 | |
There was a lot of anger inside the checkpoint | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
because the helicopter took so long. | 0:45:54 | 0:45:56 | |
I just felt like shit, | 0:45:56 | 0:45:57 | |
so I'm asking again, "What's happening?!" | 0:45:57 | 0:46:00 | |
Gadsby picked up his camera and switched it off. | 0:46:17 | 0:46:20 | |
It would be another nine minutes before the helicopter arrived. | 0:46:20 | 0:46:24 | |
From that point on he just got worse and worse and worse. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:28 | |
To where they had to give him mouth to mouth and stuff | 0:46:28 | 0:46:32 | |
to keep him alive. | 0:46:32 | 0:46:34 | |
We'd slap him across the face, | 0:46:34 | 0:46:35 | |
"Wake up, stop being daft, stop being a fanny", basically. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:40 | |
We lost him twice in the PB, I think. | 0:46:40 | 0:46:43 | |
That's when you know it's pretty bad, | 0:46:43 | 0:46:47 | |
and the chance of making it... | 0:46:47 | 0:46:50 | |
through that is obviously going to be quite tricky. | 0:46:50 | 0:46:53 | |
As the helicopter arrived | 0:46:55 | 0:46:57 | |
Mark Evison lost consciousness for the last time. | 0:46:57 | 0:47:00 | |
I put Gizzie on, fucking Gizzie give me the old thumbs-up, | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
and I just looked left, | 0:47:04 | 0:47:06 | |
and I could just see Mark Evison's hand hanging off the stretcher | 0:47:06 | 0:47:09 | |
and just blood dripping from it as they put him on. | 0:47:09 | 0:47:13 | |
"Life is fragile | 0:47:17 | 0:47:19 | |
"and out here it feels like it can be removed in an instant. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:22 | |
"It almost makes life even more valuable | 0:47:22 | 0:47:25 | |
"and shows the fragility that many in the West | 0:47:25 | 0:47:27 | |
"I believe do not understand." | 0:47:27 | 0:47:31 | |
At that time no soldier flown back to the UK had ever died. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:35 | |
So we were like, "He's fucking safe, we've done a good job. | 0:47:35 | 0:47:39 | |
"We done exactly what we had to fucking do. Happy fucking days." | 0:47:39 | 0:47:43 | |
We were all fucking head-shocked. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:52 | |
We were all fucking sat round thinking, "How the fuck am I alive? | 0:47:52 | 0:47:55 | |
"How the fuck am I alive?" | 0:47:55 | 0:47:58 | |
We fucking worked for each other, | 0:47:59 | 0:48:01 | |
every man carried on with the battle and kept on fighting until the end | 0:48:01 | 0:48:05 | |
which is what it fucking means to be a soldier. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:07 | |
By the time Mark Evison got to surgery at Camp Bastion | 0:48:10 | 0:48:13 | |
there was no more blood left in his heart. | 0:48:13 | 0:48:15 | |
The surgeon would later testify | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
that Mark's injury had not been survivable. | 0:48:19 | 0:48:22 | |
He was flown back to England where he would die | 0:48:22 | 0:48:26 | |
with his family by his side. | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
"May 7th. Spoke to Mum this morning. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:37 | |
"I hope I have not scared her too much. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:39 | |
"Don't think I should have mentioned the ambush a few days ago." | 0:48:39 | 0:48:43 | |
Gizzie was treated at the same hospital as Evison. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:51 | |
He met Mark's mother. | 0:48:51 | 0:48:52 | |
Hardest thing I've ever done. | 0:48:54 | 0:48:57 | |
Like, I know her son is... | 0:48:57 | 0:49:00 | |
You know, obviously he's about to die. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:03 | |
She was asking, was he OK? | 0:49:03 | 0:49:05 | |
Stuff like that. "Was he good to youse?" | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
He was a brilliant bloke, | 0:49:08 | 0:49:10 | |
I couldn't praise him no more, cos he actually was. | 0:49:10 | 0:49:13 | |
I don't know how I didn't cry, | 0:49:13 | 0:49:17 | |
I just tried to keep myself strong for her. | 0:49:17 | 0:49:21 | |
Mark Evison died on May 12th 2009, three days after he was wounded. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:29 | |
"It is hard as the two worlds are so far apart. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:32 | |
"I hope this journal will help to put things in perspective | 0:49:32 | 0:49:36 | |
"for those back home who want to read it." | 0:49:36 | 0:49:40 | |
At Haji Alem, Seven Platoon | 0:49:40 | 0:49:42 | |
had not been given the news of their commander's death. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:45 | |
I phoned my missus and she said, "Are you all right?" I said, "Yeah." | 0:49:45 | 0:49:49 | |
She said, "Oh, it's just come on the news, | 0:49:49 | 0:49:52 | |
"Mark Evison's dead." | 0:49:52 | 0:49:56 | |
I had my cry, and then you've just got to dry your tears | 0:49:56 | 0:50:01 | |
and look at your boys and tell them, like. | 0:50:01 | 0:50:06 | |
The fucking boys were devastated, | 0:50:06 | 0:50:09 | |
and in the middle of the night we built a pukka cross. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:12 | |
And as we were coming to the end of building the cross | 0:50:12 | 0:50:15 | |
a load of green tracer come up. | 0:50:15 | 0:50:18 | |
They fucking chose the wrong night | 0:50:18 | 0:50:19 | |
to fucking come and start shooting at our compound | 0:50:19 | 0:50:22 | |
with automatic fire. | 0:50:22 | 0:50:24 | |
You want to kill them. No matter what. | 0:50:26 | 0:50:29 | |
In some ways you want to blow them up, | 0:50:29 | 0:50:32 | |
in some ways you want to shoot them and then retrieve the body. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:36 | |
Just a lot of mixed feelings. | 0:50:36 | 0:50:41 | |
Woo-hoo! Yeah! | 0:50:44 | 0:50:48 | |
That night, a lot of ammunition got fired. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
It were brilliant. I needed that. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:55 | |
"I seem to be the only one here | 0:50:57 | 0:50:58 | |
"who believes that war might not be the answer | 0:50:58 | 0:51:01 | |
"to this particular problem. | 0:51:01 | 0:51:02 | |
"We must work on relationships with the Afghans | 0:51:02 | 0:51:05 | |
"if we are to build a future for them. | 0:51:05 | 0:51:07 | |
"Maybe my perspective will change in the next few days and weeks." | 0:51:07 | 0:51:11 | |
A hard summer's fighting lay ahead for Seven Platoon. | 0:51:11 | 0:51:14 | |
But some of them would find | 0:51:14 | 0:51:16 | |
the homecoming which followed harder still. | 0:51:16 | 0:51:19 | |
I come home, and I'm walking through town | 0:51:23 | 0:51:26 | |
and it was on a Sunday, and it was fucking dead. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:28 | |
And I thought, "I can't fucking do this. | 0:51:28 | 0:51:32 | |
"I want to go fucking back to Afghan. I can't fucking do this." | 0:51:32 | 0:51:36 | |
I couldn't really cope so I started drinking a lot | 0:51:38 | 0:51:41 | |
and I was looking for a fight, almost. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:45 | |
I've killed people. | 0:51:48 | 0:51:50 | |
You wouldn't really think that to look at me. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:52 | |
And I've seen my mates get hurt. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:54 | |
And I've seen my mates die for this country. | 0:51:54 | 0:51:58 | |
And sometimes I do ask myself, "Is it all worth it?" | 0:51:58 | 0:52:03 | |
I think a lot of people in fucking Seven Platoon, | 0:52:04 | 0:52:07 | |
that were in that Seven Platoon, | 0:52:08 | 0:52:10 | |
heads are fragged, in a big fucking way. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:15 | |
Some nights I'm lucky to get an hour's sleep. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:21 | |
Any bang, I jump. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:23 | |
Your body just goes hot. | 0:52:23 | 0:52:27 | |
I used to start shaking, your stomach is turning. | 0:52:27 | 0:52:33 | |
You feel angry. | 0:52:33 | 0:52:35 | |
You have sort of flashbacks, you have nightmares. | 0:52:35 | 0:52:38 | |
But it's not just nightmares of that place, it's like day to day. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:43 | |
I'd fall asleep, I'm in the supermarket, | 0:52:43 | 0:52:48 | |
but I'm fighting the Taliban in the supermarket. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:52 | |
So, it's sort of, I'm in a 360 ambush in a supermarket. Stuff like that. | 0:52:52 | 0:52:56 | |
It's just weird dreams like that. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:58 | |
I was drinking, a lot. | 0:53:01 | 0:53:03 | |
Well, every day. | 0:53:03 | 0:53:05 | |
And I started fighting. | 0:53:05 | 0:53:07 | |
Lance Sergeant Peek is currently being treated | 0:53:07 | 0:53:10 | |
for post-traumatic stress. | 0:53:11 | 0:53:14 | |
He's being medically discharged from the army. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:17 | |
You can see an injury. | 0:53:17 | 0:53:19 | |
This, you can't. | 0:53:19 | 0:53:20 | |
It dragged me right down to the bottom | 0:53:20 | 0:53:23 | |
and I'm slowly making my way back up. | 0:53:23 | 0:53:26 | |
I didn't have a father I could be proud of | 0:53:27 | 0:53:31 | |
so my daughter's going to have one that she can be proud of. | 0:53:31 | 0:53:35 | |
I won't tell her bad stuff, you know, | 0:53:35 | 0:53:37 | |
I'll tell her the happy stuff, like Squaddies Got Talent! | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
Spooner has left the army. | 0:53:40 | 0:53:43 | |
I miss the army. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:46 | |
You feel part of a team, of something bigger. | 0:53:46 | 0:53:49 | |
It sort of gave my life meaning. | 0:53:49 | 0:53:51 | |
If you're going to be a soldier you've got to accept | 0:53:51 | 0:53:54 | |
the consequences of what may happen to you. | 0:53:54 | 0:53:56 | |
You can't pick the war you're fighting. | 0:53:56 | 0:54:00 | |
You choose to join the army and you fight the war you're sent to fight. | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
I think about it a lot, about what happened that day, | 0:54:03 | 0:54:08 | |
but not to the extent where it depresses me. | 0:54:08 | 0:54:11 | |
I don't want to be one of those people where I'll live my life | 0:54:14 | 0:54:18 | |
based on one event that happened to me. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:21 | |
Cos it's only going to go bad from there. | 0:54:21 | 0:54:24 | |
Medic! Medic! Medic! | 0:54:24 | 0:54:27 | |
In your life there's, like, milestones. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:30 | |
For me, there's always the before that day and the after that day. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:34 | |
The Welsh Guards are going back to Afghanistan. | 0:54:40 | 0:54:46 | |
Luke Langley is going with them. | 0:54:46 | 0:54:49 | |
I don't feel that, personally, for me, that I fucking finished the job. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:53 | |
At the moment I've just found it easier to fucking try and forget | 0:54:55 | 0:54:59 | |
about everything that's fucking happened and try to block it out | 0:54:59 | 0:55:02 | |
and put it to the back of my mind. | 0:55:02 | 0:55:05 | |
Not to deny that it happened, | 0:55:09 | 0:55:13 | |
but to just carry on with my fucking life, and think, | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
"That's behind me, it stays there for now." | 0:55:16 | 0:55:19 | |
Until one day when I feel strong enough | 0:55:19 | 0:55:21 | |
I can look back on it and really think about | 0:55:21 | 0:55:24 | |
what I fucking went through as a young fucking lad. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:30 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:56:11 | 0:56:15 |