final chapter

No ordinary men: Soldiers conduct operations against Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan. Capt Doug Beattie has now completed two Op Herrick tours
Picture: Sgt Will Craig, RLC

Interview: Cliff Caswell

IT was a mission that was supposed to take no longer than 48 hours. Exactly five years to the day after the 9/11 attacks against the USA forced the international community to strike back at the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, British troops were moving to wrestle a key town back from a resurgent enemy.

But for veteran soldier Capt Doug Beattie, of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment, September 11, 2006 would live with him forever. Far from the two-day battle commanders had predicted, the mission to snatch back Garmsir would turn into a fortnight-long struggle for survival.

“A small British force was embedded with the Afghan National Army, and we were fighting pretty much toe-to-toe with the enemy,” the 43-year-old officer recalled. “Obviously I’m no spring chicken – by then I’d been in the Army for 25 years – but I had never seen anything like those 14 days.

“When I think about it now, I remember the men standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me, many from the Territorial Army. They were superb soldiers to fight alongside. I would go through it all over again with them.”

The engagement at Garmsir was brutal and cost the lives of more than ten Afghan troops. Employed as a liaison officer, Capt Beattie was not meant to be in the thick of battle but was forced to lead the attack himself when his inexperienced counterparts proved reluctant to fight.

Awarded the coveted Military Cross for his bravery in combat, the officer’s citation paid tribute to his actions and highlighted his key role in the operation’s eventual success. And he has now put pen to paper about his three decades of military experience in his autobiography, An Ordinary Soldier.

But in an interview at Forward Operating Base Hero – where Capt Beattie has been based on his latest and final tour of Helmand – he admitted he had reluctantly signed up for the Army at the age of 16 to follow in the footsteps of his father and two brothers. His career began with a spell guarding notorious Nazi war criminal Rudolph Hess at Spandau Prison before taking him to Africa, the Balkans and Iraq.

A former RSM to CO-turned-author Col Tim Collins, he started writing his book in anticipation that the 2006 Herrick tour would be his last. But he was persuaded to deploy to Afghanistan for a final time as it was about to be printed.

“I had returned from Helmand province in January 2007 and I had been due to leave the Army six months later,” he recalled. “Back then I was having great difficulty in explaining to people what I had been doing, and thought that a good way to tell them would be to write about it.

“In addition, I thought it would be interesting for others to read about what is asked of the Army. The public often hear the senior officers’ perspective but they don’t necessarily get the view of the British soldier.”

Capt Beattie’s account certainly does not pull any punches about the realities of life and death on the front lines of Helmand, where he has been continuing to mentor the Afghan National Army.

Having experienced the heady mixture of unease, fear and exhilaration during daily battles with the Taliban as a veteran soldier, he is full of admiration for young comrades willing to put their lives on the line.

“Your nerves are on edge the whole time, and you notice the effects of combat on those around you. You have feelings of trepidation and fear too but the moment the engagement with the enemy starts, they leave completely.

“You immediately go into your professional mode, and I wanted to show others what it is like to be a soldier and to bring the experience to life.”

Despite encountering ferocious combat in the near-daily battles he fought with the Taliban, Capt Beattie said he would remember Afghanistan fondly and was convinced that the Nato operation there remains entirely justified.

He was also full of praise for the Afghan people, who had endured near-perpetual war for decades but remained both generous and hospitable.

Capt Beattie added: “The landscapes in Afghanistan are incredible too – I’ve patrolled in cornfields where the crops are 12 feet high, in open desert where the sand is like moon dust and around mountains that spring up from nowhere. The soldiers who are out in that environment are doing an incredible job in bringing peace and prosperity. Helmand is a far better place than when I was there in 2006 and the lives lost have not been lost in vain.”

As for the future, Capt Beattie admitted he would miss the Army, but accepted that the time had now come to leave his old life behind.

“The Royal Irish Regiment has always had such identity, and I have a huge loyalty to it, which is why I agreed to go back to Afghanistan,” added Capt Beattie. “But I’m serving with a young ranger whose father I knew 23 years ago.

“I joined as a basic soldier at the age of 16 and wouldn’t have believed what I would be doing, especially as I should be sitting at a desk now. It’s been hard work in Afghanistan, but everyone has been absolutely fantastic.”