Taliban had us trapped

IT WAS the most explosive and terrifying few seconds in Captain Doug Beattie's long army service.

A rocket-propelled grenade had just whined inches over his head in a Taliban ambush.

And a chill gripped his spine as he swung round and met the fearless ice cold eyes of the fighter who had fired it.

As all hell broke loose, and at the age of 40, Doug was facing a kill-or-be-killed moment for the FIRST TIME in his career.

And he was about to heroically win a MILITARY CROSS just when his wife back home believed he was settling into a quiet army DESK JOB in the twilight of his army days.

"I didn't hesitate," Doug says recalling that face-to-face moment. "I raised my machine gun and squeezed the trigger. It was almost an innocent act, like being on the firing range. My aim was spot on-but any scrap of romanticism I'd had about war instantly evaporated."

There was no time for Doug to think about what he'd done. He recalls: "Enemy fire raked the ground. BANG. A grenade exploded. BANG.

"It's hard to believe I wasn't hit. It was like being out in the rain without getting wet."

Doug's head was in a spin.

Because of a troop shortage, the veteran sent to Afghanistan in a training role had ended up being ordered to TAKE AND HOLD a town in battle-torn Helmand with a tiny assortment of British soldiers and rookie Afghan forces-and to wait for reinforcements to arrive.

And seconds before he made his first kill in 22 years of soldiering, he experienced a moment that would have been funny had it not been deadly serious.

As his Land Rover patrol came under rocket attack at the beginning of what was to be a 12-DAY battle, the suddenness of it all took his breath away.

Paralysed by fear, he waited for someone to bark orders for what to do next.

"Then I realised that it was ME who was in charge," he says.

Doug recounts his heroics in gripping detail in his book An Ordinary Soldier. He was training Afghan National Police (ANP) in September 2006 when he was told the town of Garmsir had fallen to enemy forces.

Troops from 3 Para who would normally have been sent in were tied up in north Helmand. But quick action was needed-and so Royal Irish Captain Doug was tasked to help retake the stronghold.

The only support would come from air strikes if he needed it.

BLISS: Doug and Margaret tie the knot

His task was to lead his men in Land Rovers along a river into the town-but the vegetation by the water provided ample cover for waiting Taliban fighters. They came under frequent enemy fire and had to keep diving for cover. "I saw one policeman fall backwards. He was grabbed by a colleague but he was dead," says Doug.

"There were plenty of close calls. Our vehicles were getting peppered. Mine was hit repeatedly, one bullet even severing the cable connecting the radio to the handset as a colleague was trying to request more air cover. He sat there with a quizzical look, trying to figure out why he'd lost contact."

Day by day, Captain Beattie and his men slowly advanced, making sure houses were clear of insurgents.

But it was a terrifying process even though they got occasional support from Harriers and Apache helicopters.

At one point Doug responded to a rocket attack by hurling a grenade at the building where the missile came from.

He says: "I chucked it at the opening, heard the detonation and sprinted in. Engulfed by dust and smoke,

"I opened fire all around the room. My heart was thumping. In a corner, I saw the body of a Taliban fighter.

"He seemed beyond help, but I had to make sure. I thrust my bayonet towards this body and twisted it then I pulled hard and the weapon slipped out. Just like we'd been shown in training."

After days of intense fighting, Doug and his men had a foothold in the town. But as he led a patrol to reinforce police checkpoints his Land Rover was ambushed by the Taliban.

"My vehicle shook violently as the first volley of bullets struck the near-side wing," says Doug.

"One by one the Taliban fighters revealed themselves and started to advance on us. We had to get out of the killing zone."

As if things couldn't get worse, the second vehicle in Doug's patrol got bogged down in mud. But as grenades and bullets flew around them, brave Doug and his team drove past the stricken Land Rover, hitched it to theirs and pulled it out.

Once clear, but still under fire, Doug-with facial wounds caused by flying shrapnel-plotted the grid reference of the Taliban position and radioed it to base.

PROUD: Doug receives Military Cross

With the enemy only 60 metres away, in came the air strike bang on target.

Doug says: "I felt the shock wave as it washed out over us; debris started to rain down, human remains almost certainly among it. The firing had stopped the moment the bomb impacted."

A second airstrike gave the brave fighters the chance to secure their position, and now it was the Afghans' turn to drive the Taliban out of Garmsir. On January 13, 2007, Doug completed his final mission in Afghanistan. Four days later he was home with wife Margaret and family.

He was awarded the Military Cross, the third highest honour our Armed Forces can bestow.

His citation stated: "Captain Beattie's conduct throughout this operation was above and beyond the call of duty. His role was to pass information, not to fight.

"His outstanding courage, leadership and selfless action under constant enemy fire turned the tide of events in Garmsir."

At his investiture at Buckingham Palace, in March 2007, Doug was stunned when the Queen asked him: "Just what did your wife think when she found out you weren't sitting behind a desk in Kandahar."

Doug thought for a moment as the memories of his heroics came back to him.

Then he smiled and replied: "Good question, Ma'am. Bloody good question."

COPYRIGHT © 2008 by Doug Beattie and Philip Gomm. Extracted by from An Ordinary Soldier by Doug Beattie MC, to be published by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd. on October 6 at £17.99. News of the World readers can buy it for £16.99 (with free P&P). Call 08700 707717 or visit notwbookshop.co.uk.

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