Andy McNab: Last Night-Another Soldier…

It was going to be another long night. The Taliban weren't giving up those poppy fields as easily as we had first thought. We were now eight years on from when the British Army first rolled into Afghanistan, and we were still aggressive camping, that's what we call fighting, on both sides of the Helmand River. The whole area was known as the 'Green Zone'. Basically, hundreds of miles of green fields where the local lads grew maize and poppies.

Sergeant MacKenzie told us that Afghanistan supplied ninety per cent of the world's heroin and made the Taliban shedloads of money. He said it was up to us to stop it. Clear. Hold and Build was what the Americans wanted us to do. Kick the Taliban out of the area, take control, and then maybe the farmers wouldn't have to grow poppies for the Taliban no more. Good plan, but the thing is MacKenzie forgot to tell the Taliban. They just kept on coming out of the maize, shooting at us like they never wanted to stop.

That night was my first ever fire fight, and we'd already been hard at it for over four hours. Up until then, I'd only ever practised being a soldier back in the Army Training Centre in Catterick. I'd never actually done it for real.

I was eighteen and had only been in Afghanistan for three weeks. And there I was, stuck behind a mud wall for cover, in a major contact with the Taliban. Not that I'd actually seen the enemy yet. It was so dark out there in the fields, and the maize was so thick, that all I could see was the flash of their weapons pointing towards me when they shot at us. What made it worse was that the flashes seemed to be getting brighter and brighter, which could only mean the Tali were getting closer and closer.

Out of nowhere, a lightning flash from one of their rocket-propelled grenades streaked across the sky. It headed straight towards us. Some of the lads yelled out, 'RPG!' but none of us needed the warning; we were already taking cover. After a rocket flash, there was always a couple of seconds of nothing, then boom… you never knew where it was going to hit. Or whether, that time around, it was going to be you.

I got lucky. The rocket hit some rocks about ten metres away from where I was crouched down. I waited a couple of seconds, then got the weapon back onto my shoulder, ready to fire again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Toki do the same. Even though he was only a couple of metres away, he needed to yell above the sound of the Apache attack helicopters overhead.

'Briggsy, they're closing in on the left. They're nearly on top of us. Move up on the parapet. Go!'

I did what I was told. Toki was my corporal, and when he told you to do something, you did it. He was a big giant of a man from Fiji. Cool, calm, with the world's flattest nose and hands like shovels. He'd joined the army to make his fortune, he told us. That was a laugh. He'd be hard-pushed on what they paid us. But I was glad he was my boss. I liked him. Even though he was in charge of our patrol, it still felt like he was one of us.

I ran up to the top of the parapet to join Si and Flash. I could hear the Taliban hollering and shouting at us from the other side of the mud wall. They were obviously closing in, but I still couldn't see a thing out there.

Si gobbed in the mud before he spoke, 'Mate, where are they? I can't see a thing!'

I caught a glimpse of three dark shapes moving left to right across the open ground. 'There. Look! Half left.' I started to fire, then Si and Flash joined in. The Tali were getting a bit too close for comfort, but I still wasn't scared. I had a big, fat SA80 rifle in my hands, plus I had new mates.

Si was one of them. He had white blond hair and a face full of zits that he couldn't stop squeezing. His crew-cut made him look harder than he actually was. He was only a year older than me and was already married to some Polish bird. He came from Liverpool or somewhere like that. He must have done as he sounded just like the curly-haired scouse geezer in Hollyoaks.

'Mate, you're right. They're heading for our bit of wall by the looks of it.' His voice rose higher as he realized quite how close they'd got.

Flash reloaded his weapon with a fresh thirty-round mag without looking down. We all needed to stay focused on the darkness for any sign of movement. 'Keep switched on, Briggsy. They're trying to take one of us alive. They've been trying for weeks now… let's make sure we don't let them.'

There was a muzzle flash about twenty metres in front of us. We all gave it a five-round burst. The Taliban didn't fire back. All the same, all three of us kept on firing into the darkness to make sure they never would.

Flash was another mate in my patrol. He was called Flash only because he wasn't. He was much older than the rest of us, even older than my mum, I think, but he was sound. His hair was totally grey and he had a chin big enough to balance a mug of tea on. All he needed was a dance partner and he'd be Bruce Forsyth's longlost twin brother.

Flash was in the Territorial Army, so of course all the patrol gave him a hard time for being a part-time soldier. Even I, the new boy, was allowed to join in. He came from way up north, near some big car factory. They'd made him redundant and then he'd lost his house. So with a wife and two boys older than me, he was out here aggressive camping with us lot just to pay the bills.

Flash glanced down at the mags in his chest harness and jerked his head round to the right. 'They're getting closer. Toki, we need more ammo. More ammo!'

Toki's voice boomed over to us above the sound of gunfire, 'Stand your ground! John's coming with the ammo. He's coming!'

I looked over my shoulder and could just make out John's massive body as he staggered through the mud, his boots sinking deeper with every step. He was trying to run but was almost doubled over with the weight of the ammo boxes. John was a good laugh. He was from Peckham like me, only from a different estate.

More muzzle flashes kicked off in the darkness as the Talis tried to shoot at us. I raised my rifle back over the wall, aimed at the burst of light and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

'Stoppage!'

I needed to let everyone know I couldn't fire before I took cover and sorted out what had happened. I landed on my arse, cocked the weapon and tried to get my finger in to free up whatever was stuck in there. The hot metal of the working parts burnt my fingers, but I kept on digging. Rounds were slamming into the other side of our wall as the Talis kicked off again.

There was a piercing scream and a dull thud as a body fell into the mud behind me. I already knew who'd been hit before I spun round.

'Man down, man down,' I yelled into the air. It was John.

He screamed out in the darkness, his arms and legs jerking about in the mud as he fought the pain. Toki's voice came over as calm as ever, taking control of the situation. 'Get that weapon going, Briggsy! Cover us. Flash, with me. Get John.'

Flash broke into a run, bending down low for cover as more rounds slammed into the wall, while Si returned fire from just above me. My fingers kept fumbling with the empty case that was blocking the weapon. I told myself to slow down and stay calm, but it wasn't working. All I could hear or think about was the sound of John screaming. I knew the screaming was good. So long as he was screaming, he was breathing, and that meant he was still winning!

Toki was on the radio, calling in MERT, the Medical Emergency Response Team. I willed the Chinook to come quickly, lift John out and get him to hospital in Camp Bastion.

The screaming started to die down a bit. Flash must have pumped some morphine into John after plugging up any holes and getting more fluids in to replace lost blood. I could hear Toki clearly as he gave MERT a sit rep (situation report).