Willing sacrifice

IN the early morning light on a dusty desert plain south of the Southern Iraqi city of Basra, 200 British soldiers gather to remember those who died a long way away fighting a war few at home knew about or understood.

But those young men standing to attention in Az Zubayr are not remembering their own colleagues, but men of the same age from the same home towns who fell here 90 years ago.

The names of over 11,000 British men are etched in the marble of a mausoleum that has endured for 90 years and was even moved and restored by Saddam Hussein.

They defended Basra from 1914 to 1921, long after the Great War was supposed to be over. Their bones still lie somewhere beneath the dust and rubbish that surrounds this lonely spot.

British soldiers have been fighting and dying in Iraq for a century.

Most of the young soldiers paying tribute here will be home in a few weeks. It is the first tour that has not seen the names of THEIR comrades etched on plaques on their own memorial. This war is coming to a close, but many have friends, brothers and sisters fighting in Afghanistan and after their home leave they know they too will start the long job of training to fight that war.

Bloodier

Afghanistan may hog the headlines, but Iraq is still the bloodier conflict.

In five years, 176 British soldiers have died in Iraq and hundreds of the soldiers here today have escaped death and then been ordered to come back for more.

It is a war that has changed dramatically.

But the soldiers here remember every day the courage and sacrifice of those 176 men and women who never made it home.

Returning again and again, they face a struggle to adapt to a city that once welcomed them with open arms, then tried to wipe them out and now wants to be friends again.

Sgt Ian Walker from the 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers took part in the hand to hand fighting during the Battle of Basra in 2003, returned in 2005 and is now back on his third tour of duty.

He remembers: "I was in Basra for four months and it was a proper war-fighting tour. I was in the main battle group that was the first into Iraq. We then carried out close target reconnaissance and then we were involved in fighting patrols.

"In 2005 I came back and was stationed in our base at the Old State Building. Things had changed dramatically. We were getting hit on a daily basis by IEDs (improvised explosive devices / roadside bombs). Coming back from Telic One (the invasion), where there were no militia it was a big shock and we had to learn how to deal with them while we were taking hits all the time.

"We had all been doing a lot of training before we came out but you had to adapt and learn pretty quickly."

But while they were learning from scratch how to deal with a counter-insurgency many times worse than Belfast at the height of the Troubles.

Deaths

Some of the squaddies had just turned 18, and suddenly they were being forced to cope with the deaths of their closest mates.

Sgt Walker revealed: "I lost a close friend, Sgt John Jones. He was hit by an IED while out on patrol, when we were under fire on a daily basis.

"It was a young platoon and they had to grow up pretty quickly.

"It was a shock but you have a job to do and it is about getting through it day by day. "You have to go out there again and again but all the time you are thinking about his family, what they are thinking and how they are coping. He had a young family and the hardest part was not the fact that he had gone but how they were

"You try to stay focussed on the job but you are constantly thinking about their families and how they are. You also know you have to go back into it again."

For decades, tens of thousands of British troops have joined up thinking they would fight in one war during their career.

Now they know they will be in a war fighting scenario every 18 months.

That is the hardest thing to deal with.

Sgt Walker explains: "When we were told we were coming out for a third time it was a shock. I thought we were done here and wouldn't be coming out again so it was devastating.

"We didn't know what our role was going to be. We thought we would be stuck in the rear echelon, based at the COB (British base).

"Now the emphasis has been on training and we have only done one strike during our tour because the Iraqi army has done a lot for themselves."

Trained

To be honest, that is probably the hardest thing for the troops to adjust to. Trained to win a war, but told to keep the peace they know they must suppress every instinct to shoot on sight.

Sgt Walker: "After that it's very hard to look at the Iraqis. The militia are cowards who don't fight face-to-face.

"It hard but again we had to stay focussed because we were relying on each other to keep casualties to a bare minimum."

Now as he gets ready to leave he knows the Brits ARE winning here: "From the three tours I have noticed a real difference in the Iraqi people. On my first tour the Iraqi army was the real enemy and we were seen as people's friends. The second time the Iraqi army was not developed and we had become very much the enemy.

"This time we have seen the Iraqi army has evolved and are now fending for themselves and are working things out for themselves.

"It has been a long process but I think they are there now."

The biggest stress is often not the fighting, and the deaths, but the frustration that people at home don't know, or worse don't care about, what they are doing.

Sgt Walker: "I don't think the British public realises what the troops are doing on operations and how busy we are.

"We are all young people but three tours does take its toll on people's lives, their families and their friends. Even when we go home people don't really understand and it's a long way to go and then it's hard to talk to people who simply don't get it."

Troops

Corporal Andrew Anderson, from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, says the first time British troops went into Iraq things were much simpler.

"It was good. You were doing what you had been trained to do and we were involved in most of the war fighting in Basra. At times it was quite tense but we were winning, and that is a great feeling.

"But when I came back in 2005 I was based at Al Amarah and it was hard work. We were out patrolling every day, including 10 day patrols on the Iranian border.

"The invasion was about war fighting, it was about them and us. By the time we came back we had to get into the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and it was different mind state altogether.

"It is hard not to respond in the same way as we did during the invasion. We were taking small arms fire and mortar attacks every day for six months.

"They would be coming in waves and then you would suddenly be in an area that welcomed the multi-national forces so you had to change your mindset all the time.

This time we feel we are doing a good job and there is a massive difference. The majority of the people are pro-British Army again.

"One of our officers was also killed by an IED, 2nd Lieutenant Richard Palmer. He was killed by someone he could not see, who did not have the guts to stand up and fight him."

Again, one of the hardest challenges the troops here face is from the British public.

An unpopular and divisive war turned into an even more controversial peace.

There were no weapons of mass destruction, and constant media stories claiming the British Army was out to harm the Iraqi people.

Corporal Anderson added: "From the invasion there was a big impression that we shouldn't be there and we felt we weren't getting any support from the British people.

"Can you imagine how it effects young soldiers when they feel they can't wear their uniform on the streets because of what people are going to say. They are only doing their job and they have seen their mates killed. We have a job to do.

Today both men were on parade remembering their own colleagues and men from the same units who died decades ago.

Remember

But Major Mark Christian, Padre for 7 Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, believes this year the people we need to remember are those still freshest in the public's minds:

"I knew three of the soldiers who died here very well including one young man called Karl Shearer who died in my arms."

"There is not a single person on this base who will not know someone who has died in Iraq.

"When I was young, Remembrance Day services about a distant memory of people from previous generations who had died in wars long ago.

"Now that has changed. We are surrounded by memories of people who have paid the ultimate sacrifice over the past few years and it is our duty to remember them and to offer what comfort we can to their families."

At the memorial outside the British HQ at Basra Airbase the wreaths are still fresh, untouched by the fine desert dust that coats the base.

International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander paid the British government's official tribute.

And he summed up the reason why so many British troops have fought and died here.

Mr Alexander said: "I want News of the World readers to understand quite what has been achieved by British Armed Forces in Basra in recent years.

"On a personal level and on behalf of the government I want to pay tribute to the service they have given, to the work they have done and to the sacrifices they have made.

This is a city that has been transformed over recent months and a big part of the credit for that transformation lies with people who are quite simply the best of British. Those are OUR Armed Forces and we should be hugely proud of what they have done here in Southern Iraq. It is on the basis of their service and their sacrifice that the Basrawis I met today are so excited about the future."

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