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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Finally, A Perfect World
Honoured at last: Churchill's secret guerillas who were poised to execute senior British figures if there was a risk of them helping the Germans after Nazi invasion
That might also buck up this Administration and Congress!
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Sunday, Mar 31 20136PM 46°F9PM46°F5-Day Forecast
Honoured at last: Churchill's secret guerillas who were poised to execute senior British figures if there was a risk of them helping the Germans after Nazi invasion
PUBLISHED:17:50 EST, 30 March 2013| UPDATED:17:55 EST, 30 March 2013
Honoured at last: Members of the British Resistance Organisation's Sandford Levvy Auxiliary Unit near Winscombe, Somerset
They were Britain’s ‘secret army’, courageous volunteers prepared to sacrifice their lives to fight against a Nazi invasion of the UK.
Issued with top-secret orders, their role has remained unsung for decades. But now the undercover resistance units Churchill planned to activate in the event of a German invasion during the Second World War are at last to be honoured.
The Royal British Legion has agreed to officially recognise the 4,000 volunteers who once formed the secret guerrilla cells created to resist the Nazis. And for the first time, former members are to parade with other veterans at this year’s Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Cenotaph.
If wartime church bells rang to warn of enemy invasion, the orders for the Auxiliary Unit volunteers were to disappear without telling anyone and to report to hidden bases in the countryside.
Each was issued with sealed orders giving a list of potential collaborators, some as senior as county chief constables, who might have to be executed if there was a risk of them helping the Germans.
Most of the volunteers worked in the countryside and were chosen for their knowledge of the local area and ability to use a weapon.
Trained at Coleshill, in Oxfordshire, they operated in tight groups and their role was to disrupt and destroy the enemy’s supply chain, kill collaborators and take out strategic targets. Unable to tell anyone about their activities, they disguised their real mission by pretending to belong to the Home Guard.
Tom Sykes, of the Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team, which has campaigned for the men to be honoured, is delighted by the RBL’s decision. ‘Many of these veterans were in reserved occupations and could not join the regular Forces,’ he said. ‘But when the call came, they did not hesitate to join what would have been a suicide mission to confront the enemy.
‘They were taught cutting-edge guerrilla warfare and even used Thompson sub-machine guns before they were given to the British Army.
‘But they were sworn to secrecy and sadly suffered taunts and were sent white feathers by people who thought they were cowards for not fighting.
Pictured left is the Auxiliary Unit badge, and right, Trevor Miners with his parents Anne and John
‘Thankfully, the invasion never came and many who joined feel they did not contribute. Nothing could be further from the truth, as I’m sure the majority would agree. They signed the Official Secrets Act and many still believe their memories should be carried to the grave.’
Trevor Miners, 86, from Perranporth, Cornwall, joined an Auxiliary Unit at 16. He says: ‘Our base was in an old mineshaft at a local farm. We learned to make booby traps and explosives, and how to blow up fuel dumps. We learned unarmed combat and we had all sorts of weapons. No one knew the secret army existed.’
Andy Gwynne, who is co-ordinating the Auxiliaries for the march, is anxious to trace former volunteers so the nation can recognise their bravery. He urged them to contact staybehinds.com or call 0872 045 9940.
He added: ‘The march allows the public to learn about them and might also encourage the Government to honour them.’
Unsung hero: Trevor Miners stands in front of the entrance to the secret HQ in Cornwalll
The Implications of Obama's Foreign Policy Team for the Middle East
The Implications of Obama's Foreign Policy Team for the Middle East
A briefing by Jonathan S. Tobin
March 20, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3481/obama-foreign-policy-team-middle-east
Jonathan S. Tobin, senior online editor of Commentary magazine and writer for the magazine's "Contentions" blog on its website, briefed the Middle East Forum via conference call on March 20, 2013. The briefing took place during Obama's first presidential visit to Israel.
Mr. Tobin began his talk by comparing the foreign policy teams of the two Obama administrations. He argued that while all three members of the first-term team (Secretary of State Clinton, Secretaries of Defense Panetta and Gates) were no advocates of a strong forward foreign policy, they were keenly aware of Washington's security requirements and the need to stand by its allies. By contrast, the composition of the second-term team raises the specter of a dark period in U.S.-Israeli relations, an undeterred Iranian nuclear threat, and a weakened U.S. national security. Specifically,
- Secretary of State John Kerry, a believer in multilateralism and the U.N., has described Syria's President Assad as a moderate and is afflicted by the dangerous hubris of solving the crises in the Middle East.
- Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel belongs to the old Realist school of thought that upholds the unrealistic belief in an outreach to Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah while questioning the value of the U.S.-Israel alliance.
- Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan sought to appease Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in his former capacity as chief counterterrorism advisor to the White House, displaying a distinct lack of resolve in pursuing the war on terror.
In the final account, however, it is Obama who sets policy in this top down administration rather than his team; and having wasted his first term on dead-end diplomacy with Tehran and the Palestinians, the president's Israel visit suggested that he has learned from his mistakes. This was demonstrated, inter alia, by his reaffirmation of Washington's "eternal" alliance with Jerusalem in language validating Israel's ancient history: in stark contrast to his 2009 Cairo speech which ascribed Israel's right to exist to the Holocaust. Obama also upped his rhetoric regarding Iran, leaving himself little room short of a full diplomatic success that would contain Tehran's nuclear threat.
These positive aspects notwithstanding, given Obama's past failure to follow through on his rhetoric, it remains to be seen whether his recent pronouncements translate into actions that make the U.S. more secure while maintaining its close alliance with Israel.
Summary account by Marilyn Stern, Associate Fellow with the Middle East Forum
How deadly CAR battle unfolded
Muslim : Jihadi's - AQ? " It was also clear that many were not from the CAR, some speaking with Chad accents and others having distinctly Arabic features."
http://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/how-deadly-car-battle-unfolded-1.1493841#.UViSARnWQvO
How deadly CAR battle unfolded
INL SA
Civilians and members of the SANDF observe a moments silence for the fallen soldiers in the Central African Republic during the change of command parade at the Defence Force Sport Club, Thaba Tshwane. Picture: Phill Magakoe
From March 22 until about 9pm on March 24, 200 South African soldiers fought a series of running battles outside Bangui in the Central African Republic (CAR) against 3 000 or more well-armed opponents. And they did so while the CAR Army (Faca) evaporated and the peacekeeping forces of the Central African Standby Brigade disappeared from the scene.
That series of running battles claimed 13 soldiers and 27 others were wounded, but the force retained its cohesion and was able to fall back from two separate engagement areas to its base and to hold it until their attackers gave up trying to overrun them and proposed a ceasefire and disengagement. By then the rebels had suffered as many as 500 casualties, based on estimates by officers with considerable operational experience and estimated by a number of NGOs in the country. In the process the soldiers fired off more than 12 000 rounds of 12.7mm machinegun ammunition, 288 rockets from 107mm rocket launchers and 800 bombs from 81mm mortars, and thousands of rounds from 7.62mm machineguns and 5.56mm rifles.
This was one of the hardest-fought actions that the SA Army has experienced, and the soldiers fought well, even outstandingly. That is not only reflected in the fact that this small unit retained cohesion to the end of the action, but also in the casualties that it inflicted on its opponents: such casualties that it was the Seleka rebels who proposed a ceasefire and disengagement.
Their valour was underlined by the French force at Bangui airport when it held a formal parade to bid farewell to those who died.
South Africa has since withdrawn the bulk of its small force in the CAR following the fall of the CAR government.
The South African government had wanted to relieve the troops and deploy a stronger force to stabilise the situation pending a decision by the AU, but the French government – whose troops control the only viable airport – would not permit deployment of new combat forces lest it draw an attack on the airport or on French citizens in Bangui.
Helmoed R�mer Heitman
INLSA
Information from Uganda suggests that South Africa is, instead, deploying some force elements there and perhaps also to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to provide early action capability should Seleka endanger the remaining South African troops in the country, or should the AU decide on a military intervention.
The small South African force was deployed to the CAR on January 1/2, to protect the two training teams already there under a 2007 Memorandum of Understanding, and to help stabilise the security situation after a startlingly swift rebel advance from the east of the country to near Bangui. Aircraft had to be chartered for the purpose, as the SA Air Force does not have the strategic air transport capacity for even such a small undertaking.
This protection force comprised a parachute combat team (a company of paratroopers and a support platoon with 12.7mm heavy machineguns and 81mm mortars), Special Forces teams with four 4x4 vehicles armed with machineguns and two Hornet vehicles armed with machineguns and 107mm multiple rocket launchers, tactical and electronic intelligence teams, signallers and engineers, for a total of 265 including the training teams.
The decision to deploy a small, lightly armed force was based on intelligence that the rebel force comprised some 1 000 to 1 200 men, lightly armed and poorly trained and led. According to the French force in the CAR, that intelligence was probably correct at the time.
The force deployed into a centre on the northern outskirts of the city and patrolled the area around the base, west towards Bouar and north to Damara, where Faca and Fomac forces had taken up defensive positions to prevent a rebel attack from the north. There were some 2 000 Faca troops, regarded as the most loyal, deployed in Bangui itself, with a battalion on the Bossembele road, protecting the only bridge in the area. A French force, down from 650 to around 250, was deployed to protect the airport and French citizens.
The situation remained quiet and the negotiations in Libreville produced what seemed to be a workable solution to the political issues. The South African government decided to leave the training team and protection force in the CAR.
On March 22, the Chad Army company deployed 10km north of Damara as part of the Fomac contingent, reported that it had been "overrun", albeit without casualties, a report that raised some suspicion in the South African force commander's mind. The Faca force at Damara shortly thereafter reported coming under fire.
The force commander tasked the special forces team to reconnoitre towards Damara to establish the actual situation. More than 20km north of Bangui, the patrol found itself in the middle of a 300m-long L-ambush, drawing fire from the bush just 10m from the road.
They carried out their practised counter-ambush drills, using the weapons of their vehicles to suppress the ambush and fight their way clear, suffering three wounded.
While the patrol took its wounded to the airport from where they were evacuated to Pretoria, the force commander moved the parachute company to a reconnoitred defensive position 15km north of the base.
The morning of March 23 brought some fire north of the company's positions before it came under mortar fire around 9.30am, which quickly escalated into heavy fire from mortars, heavy machineguns, RPGs and light weapons. The Faca and Fomac forces to its north having evaporated, this quickly developed into a major engagement.
Enveloped by the enemy, the company fell back to another previously reconnoitred position before re-taking its original position, which it held until 12pm. Forced back to the next line, it was again enveloped but used 107mm rocket launchers to clear the high ground on its flank and attacked to drive off the enemy forces.
At 2pm the force commander learned that the Faca battalion at the bridge on the western approach had decamped, and sent the special forces to confirm the situation. They immediately found themselves in a heavy contact with several hundred rebels supported by at least 15 "technicals" armed with heavy machineguns and perhaps 23mm cannon. Another special forces team with six Hornets, that had just been flown into Bangui, went to support them.
The combined force was, however, too small to hold, despite firing ripples of 107mm rockets directly into the advancing enemy, and was repeatedly enveloped. By about 6.30pm the fighting had moved into the suburbs, and they were ordered to fall back into the base. They had by then suffered several wounded, and many of the Hornets were running on rims, their tyres long since shot flat.
By 7pm the base itself was under attack by some 1 500 rebels with mortars, heavy machineguns and RPGs, which lasted until about 9pm, and all of the heavy weapons ammunition had been used.
The parachute company meanwhile found itself being attacked from behind, and was also ordered to fall back to the base.
At about 10pm the force commander was informed that the Seleka commander wanted to discuss stopping the fighting. Meanwhile, civilians in the city had been issued weapons by the government and there was random shooting and fighting in the city.
After a quiet night, the base was again attacked at about 6.30am, but after about 30 minutes the Seleka commander telephoned to ask for a meeting, saying he had 2 000 troops with which to attack the base but would prefer not to. He approached the base holding a white handkerchief to identify himself, and met with the force commander at the gate. He said he had no orders to fight the South Africans and was happy to break off the engagement if they would not fire on his troops.
After some discussion – while perhaps 2 000 rebels moved past the base towards the city – the rebel commander demonstrated his goodwill by bringing back a paratrooper who had been wounded and captured. The returned paratrooper reported that while being taken to Damara and then back, he had seen several thousand more rebel troops on the move towards the city. Later the rebels also brought in the bodies of several who had been killed.
By now it was clear that the attacking force was far different from the "rag tag" rebel force originally reported: Most of them in standardised uniforms with proper webbing and with flak jackets, new AK47s and heavy weapons up to 23mm cannons.
It was also clear that many were not from the CAR, some speaking with Chad accents and others having distinctly Arabic features.
Almost out of ammunition and with Faca having evaporated or changed sides and Fomac nowhere to be seen, the force commander decided there was no purpose to be served by further fighting, and the two sides disengaged.
One of the Fomac companies then made an appearance, offering to provide trucks to move the wounded to the airport, from where they were evacuated. The force commander now also decided to move his force to the airport. By 9pm on Sunday the troops were at the airport resting and cleaning equipment, while in the city various rebel elements had begun shooting at each other.
* Heitman is an independent defence analyst
Sunday Independent
How's that gun control working in Chicago?
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'It's robbery!' New Cyprus bombshell as Britons are told they may lose EVERYTHING over £85k
Sunday, Mar 31 20133PM 46°F6PM46°F5-Day Forecast
'It's robbery!' New Cyprus bombshell as Britons are told they may lose EVERYTHING over £85k
- Bank of Cyprus will see 37.5% of deposits over £85k converted into shares
- Laiki Bank customers are also reported to be facing the loss of 80%
- Experts say there is a good chance that shares will be worthless
By Dan Atkinson And Ian Gallagher
PUBLISHED:18:27 EST, 30 March 2013| UPDATED:04:30 EST, 31 March 2013
British expats in Cyprus face a near-total wipe-out of any deposits over £85,000 as the full nightmare of the stricken island's EU bailout became clear yesterday.
Although it was known that the wealthiest savers would take a large hit from last week's €10 billion (£8.5 billion) EU rescue deal, the loss is far greater than feared.
The blow will fall on customers of the country two biggest banks – Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank.
British ex-pats face a wipe-out of any deposits over £85,000 as the country sinks further into debt
Savers at the Bank of Cyprus will see 37.5 per cent of any deposits over £85,000 converted into shares in the bank
Bank of Cyprus savers will see 37.5 per cent of any deposits over €100,000 (£85,000) converted into shares in the bank, with a strong possibility that these will prove worthless. Another 40 per cent will be repaid only if the bank does well in future, while 22.5 per cent will go into a contingency fund that could be subject to further write-offs.
Laiki Bank customers are also reported to be facing the loss of 80 per cent of their deposits above the £85,000 limit.
An early bailout plan – highlighted by The Mail on Sunday two weeks ago – would have seen the losses shared across all bank customers, regardless of their balance.
However, that plan was voted down by the Cypriot parliament, leaving the country in urgent need of a new solution to raise its €5.8 billion contribution towards the bailout.
Thousands of Cypriots demonstrate to protest against the harsh treatment imposed on Cyprus by the Eurogroup earlier this week
The deal – which was clinched last Monday between Cyprus, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund – made clear that richer bank customers would shoulder a much larger bill.
Although it is not known how many of the 60,000 British expats living on the island have deposits of more than £85,000, it is likely that a considerable number will be caught in the net.
Neil Hodgson, 48, who moved to Paphos, on the south-west coast of the island, six years ago, said he has lost nearly £200,000. The former farmer, who has two accounts with Bank of Cyprus, added: 'I had more than €300,000 in my deposit account and €20,000 in my current account. When I went to the bank the other day I was told the total balance for both is €100,000.
'They were unable to explain how this had been worked out but indicated I might get some back at a later stage.
'I checked online and it confirmed that the €20,000 in my current account remains, but that I only have €80,000 in my savings account. It's robbery, plain and simple.'
Laiki Bank customers are also reported to be facing the loss of 80 per cent of their deposits above the £85,000 limit
Banks in Cyprus are open for normal business but with strict restrictions on how much money their clients can access, after being shut for nearly two weeks
Mr Hodgson, from Newcastle upon Tyne, whose wife died two years ago, said he moved to Cyprus believing he was destined for a 'happy life of semi-retirement'.
'Our farm in Ayrshire was bought by a mining company and I came into a lot of money,' he added. 'We moved to Cyprus for the sunshine and easy life but it has turned into a nightmare.
'My big mistake was to move all my money here, but at the time things were very stable. Most of the Brits here had the foresight to move their money in the last few months, but I genuinely thought it would be OK. I'm not sure what the future holds now.'
The Treasury has said it will compensate any of the 3,000 British Service personnel facing losses.
Those hit hardest include thousands of wealthy Russians who have deposited millions of euros on the stricken island. Peter Dixon, strategist at European bank Commerzbank, said: 'These suggested new sacrifices being demanded of better-off depositors sound even worse than we assumed.
'The problems in Cyprus are twofold. First, the central bank ignored the huge build-up of debt. There was a problem of mismanagement.
'Secondly, the Cypriots essentially imposed these tough solutions on themselves and the eurozone rubber-stamped them.'
Ordinary Cypriots step in the streets to protest against the massive "haircuts" imposed by The European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund
Last week markets took fright at suggestions that the Cyprus model could be a blueprint for future bailouts elsewhere in Europe.
Those with less than £85,000 in the bank have also seen themselves hit by the bailout. Temporary capital controls have been imposed to stop residents taking cash off the island, including capping cash machine withdrawals at €300 a day.
At the same time, businesses have been told they will be unable to transfer more than €5,000 abroad without approval, while no one, including tourists, can leave the island with over €1,000 in cash.
Meanwhile, the spotlight has now swung to Slovenia, another small member of the single currency in which investors are losing faith.
Last week, the price it had to pay to borrow money jumped sharply as markets began to take account of the risk that the country may default on its debts. However, on Friday, finance minister Uros Cufer insisted: 'We will need no bailout this year. I am calm.'
Dan Atkinson: How the euro turned into the biggest theft in history
For a currency that promised to provide a sure bet on a glorious future, the euro is turning into the biggest theft of people's savings in Western Europe since the war.
Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain were among the first to be crushed by the fallacy of a one-size-fits-all currency. Now it is Cyprus's turn, and the scale of losses for some savers is eye-watering.
Last week, the latest Cypriot bailout proposals hinted at a 40 per cent levy on all deposits of more than €100,000, or £85,000. This weekend, it emerged that the true cost for those better-off depositors could be much closer to 80 per cent. British expats feature prominently among those who will suffer from an effective confiscation of their assets.
The euro is setting out to be the biggest theft of people's savings since the war
Claims that the victims are shady Russian oligarchs have a nasty whiff to them, and even if some of the cash that will be taken is of doubtful provenance, that cannot justify the burden now being placed on the tiny island economy.
Smaller savers may not have been hit by a levy on their bank accounts, but they will be swept up in the economic storm that is sure to descend on Cyprus as a result of such draconian measures.
It's tempting to wonder why any troubled eurozone country like Cyprus was ever let into what was obviously a rich man's club.
But that is unfair – the poorer members were welcomed with open arms, with the assurance that the euro would turn them into German-style economic titans. It was like persuading a pauper to join a casino.
Yes, Cyprus let its banking sector balloon wildly and, yes, it is the Cypriot government that has dreamt up some of the more masochistic features of the various bailout plans.
But all this human sacrifice in the eurozone – austerity, mass unemployment, arbitrary bank account levies – is about saving the euro. You wonder how much pain there has to be before someone realises that what must be sacrificed is the euro itself.
Killed by his own grenade in last stand against the Taliban: Military report reveals for first time how VC hero James Ashworth died in firefight with sniper
Sunday, Mar 31 20136PM 46°F9PM46°F5-Day Forecast
Killed by his own grenade in last stand against the Taliban: Military report reveals for first time how VC hero James Ashworth died in firefight with sniper
- Unit had a Taliban sharpshooter surrounded but ammo was low
- L/Cpl Ashworth volunteered for dangerous solo assault with his last grenade
- Shot in chest as he crouched to throw it into compound
- Saved by body armour, but live grenade escaped his grasp as he fell
- Too dazed to escape the blast and was killed by explosion
By Mark Nicol
PUBLISHED:16:57 EST, 30 March 2013| UPDATED:11:08 EST, 31 March 2013
His incredible bravery in the heat of battle in Afghanistan earned 23-year-old Lance Corporal James Ashworth the ultimate military honour – a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Until now, details of his courage while storming a Taliban stronghold have been sketchy. But today The Mail on Sunday can reveal the astonishing story of his final hours, as told by his commanding officer who was fighting with Ashworth when he died. The official British Army report compiled by Captain Michael Dobbin – himself awarded a Military Cross for ‘repeated courage’ that day – reveals:
- Moments before his death, Ashworth fearlessly ignored the captain’s pleas to retreat to safety.
- He was killed by his own grenade in a final attempt to eliminate a Taliban sharpshooter who had pinned down UK troops.
- Crouching 10ft from the enemy, and with bullets fizzing overhead, he whispered his final words: ‘I’m almost in position.’
The previously unseen document describing the firefight in gut-wrenching detail includes accounts by Capt Dobbin and by Ashworth’s comrades in the Grenadier Guards Reconnaissance Platoon dispatched on a dangerous mission to eliminate insurgents.
June 13, 2012, dawned like any other day at Patrol Base Rahim in Helmand’s Upper Gereshk Valley. As the morning passed, temperatures soared to 45C and whenever possible L/Cpl Ashworth sought out the shade of the base’s baked-mud walls.
In the early afternoon, 6ft 8in Ashworth was summoned by platoon commander Capt Dobbin, who explained that a group of Taliban gunmen had been spotted in Mohammed Zai, a village just over a mile from their base.
VC HERO GRAPHIC
Dobbin outlined the mission to eliminate the insurgents and referred to maps and photographs. To avoid confusion in the heat of battle the compounds were identified by code numbers. The mission would also involve a jet equipped with video cameras circling thousands of feet above the battlefield and feeding live information to UK commanders.
The report reads: ‘The operation was to drop the ISAF [International Security Assistance Forces] by helicopter in locations to the East and West of a group of compounds in the Mohammed Zai area.
‘L/Cpl Ashworth was Second in Command of callsign Dragon 76 [a team of six soldiers] and would be positioned to the West area with the main objective being a tree-line where the insurgents were known to be.’
At around 4.20pm, L/Cpl Ashworth and his colleagues strapped themselves into two RAF Chinook helicopters. Ashworth, from Corby, Northamptonshire, was seated next to Guardsman Jordan Loftus. During the short flight the good friends squeezed together for what would prove the Lance Corporal’s final photograph.
Over Mohammed Zai, they came under heavy fire from below. The report continues: ‘At approximately 1630hrs the helicopter carrying L/Cpl Ashworth landed, the soldiers dismounted and ran across a bridge. Dragon 76 was instructed to secure what was believed to be the insurgents’ sniper position, located in a tree-line north-east of Compound 14.’
Sprinting into position, Ashworth fired grenades from his UGL – a grenade launcher bolted to his rifle barrel. For the next ten minutes, British and Afghan National Army troops bombarded the tree-line, killing two insurgents.
But Dobbin was radioed with new information. The pilot overhead had tracked the escape of a third gunman from the tree-line to Compound 22. Immediately Dobbin ran to the compound, throwing grenades over the 6ft walls.
When he had used up his grenades, he ordered those soldiers from Dragon 76 who still had grenades left to help clear the compound.
With the Taliban gunman firing from inside the compound, the Grenadiers knew how dangerous this was. And their fears were confirmed when an Afghan soldier was killed attempting to enter the compound.
Bravery: Lance Corporal Ashworth, left, became only the tenth member of the British Army since the Second World War to receive the Victoria Cross, right
Ashworth and Dobbin began their assault at 4.55pm. They climbed a perimeter wall and jumped into an alleyway. Ashworth threw a grenade ahead and they advanced, weapons at the ready, to an open area and a vegetable garden where they were joined by another soldier providing cover.
The report notes: ‘The garden was surrounded by a 2ft-high wall and was about 6ft in front of the man providing cover.’
There was a flat-roofed mud-hut inside the compound and Dobbin saw an insurgent emerge from a doorway and open fire towards the Grenadiers. Another member of the platoon returned fire, forcing the insurgent to retreat inside, firing through a window. Dobbin requested reinforcements and when two more soldiers arrived, he told them to join Ashworth. Trees prevented them from throwing grenades to kill the enemy.
Although it is not in the report, The Mail on Sunday has been told that an Afghan interpreter with the Grenadiers shouted at the Taliban fighter to surrender but he refused, shouting ‘Allah Akhbar’ (God is great).
Then Ashworth ran to Dobbin and put to him a daring plan: ‘He [Ashworth] suggested that he crawl up against the wall until he was level with the insurgent and then throw the grenade into the doorway.’ Dobbin had doubts, fearing Ashworth’s plan was too dangerous, but as the report notes, they agreed the Lance Corporal’s plan still represented ‘the most risk-free approach’.
Ashworth set off, shuffling forward on his elbows and knees.
Ahead, a table and two chairs blocked his route. The furniture was only 9ft from the mud-hut, meaning any attempt to move it would be noticed.
Proud:The family of Lance Corporal James Ashworth including his mother Kerry Ashworth, father former Grenadier Guardsman Duane Ashworth and his brother and serving soldier Coran Ashworth
Honour: The repatriation ceremony for Lance Corporal James Ashworth, at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire
So Ashworth decided to crawl around – a manoeuvre that risked bringing him into the insurgent’s line of sight.
Now Dobbin made a desperate plea, the report says. ‘He shouted to Ashworth to come back as he could see that the insurgent had seen Ashworth and was firing towards him with the rounds landing within a metre of him.’
But L/Cpl Ashworth – only the tenth member of the British Army to receive the Victoria Cross since the Second World War – could not be persuaded to retreat. He crawled on, clutching his last grenade. With Taliban rounds fizzing inches overhead, he even attempted to reassure his officer, whispering into his radio that he was ‘almost in position’.
Ashworth rose into a crouching position, pulled the grenade pin and took aim. Seeing him, the insurgent opened fire and a round struck Ashworth’s chest. He was saved by his body armour but fell back, the live grenade escaping his grasp.
Lying dazed and immobile, Ashworth had no chance of escaping the blast and his colleagues were too far away to help.
The grenade inflicted serious blast wounds. As the report notes, Ashworth’s position meant ‘no one could get to him to provide first aid as it would have put them directly in front of the insurgent’.
Two other soldiers were badly wounded before the insurgent was finally shot dead. The report reads: ‘The Combat Medical Technician moved to Ashworth’s position; however, no first aid was afforded as it was obvious his injuries were incompatible with life.’
He was declared dead at 7.40pm at Camp Bastion. That evening Cpt Dobbin and other commanders met to write up their battle reports. These formed the basis of the Grenadiers’ application for Ashworth to receive the Victoria Cross.
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