Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

James Glancy is “of the 9/11 era. There is a big difference in the experience of Serving in the Royal Marines or the military in the 90s to the post 2001 era…I was in Afghanistan within two months of passing out…I did three Troop Commands on combat operations on the ground. It was an amazing 10 years.” When he left “I missed the intensity of operations so much, it’s without doubt one of the best t...

Sir Laurie Bristow was central to the military withdrawal in 2021, there’s nobody better placed to give us the inside story than the last British ambassador in Afghanistan. He takes us through the days and hours counting down, “15th August we started the day with President Ghani behind his desk broadcasting to the nation…roughly 2.30pm” He’s “left the country…a few hours later you’ve got the Talib...

Oliver Lee resigned over the Marine A controversy and epitomises moral courage. He took over command of 45 Commando in 2009 as it came back from Afghanistan. Knowing they’d return in 2011 and to fulfil his vision of “Less violence, more engagement with people and culture… It’s about Afghans before anybody else” he ensured that the entire unit “all played a part in the production of the plan…What I...

Cayle Royce was severely injured in action. His difficult yet inspirational story is told from his mother, Bronwyn’s perspective. Cayle lost both legs above the knee and part of his hand as well as further blast injuries after stepping on an IED. “It is a very challenging story, but lots of positives to be taken…From where we were…To where we are now. The hospital, to adventures across the world....

Frank Ledwidge is angry. His hard-hitting, bleak and perhaps controversial perspective is born out of his work in Afghanistan and  personal investigation, “I wanted to know what the human cost was…The image we had of ourselves was, we are here to help” but “We were seen as…invaders…That came as something of a shock to me.” Frank’s background was as a lawyer and a Reservist, “I joined one of the mo...

James Malone remembers leaving Lympstone, “In every fibre of being, I felt like I could do anything…You just wanna get stuck in.” His tour was “Something that definitely changed the course of my life. War does that…to everyone who experiences combat…the first major casualty…was sobering…we had fairly regular contact, gunfights, rocket attacks, IED strikes…I was a Point Man, barma-ing, trying to st...

Tom Corrigan wanted to be an Apache pilot... “I thought, ‘Yeah Apache, that looks pretty awesome, up for a bit of that’. It’s something I’d wanted to do since I was a pretty young lad, I just thought, ‘that looks pretty epic.’” Tom’s first tour was in 2009, “You were just chomping at the bit to get out there really…We all thought it was going to be fairly quiet…we’re here as a peace-keeping force…...

Nick Denning gives us an insight into his life and responsibilities as a very new Platoon Commander in Helmand Province. “It was all a very rapid, flash-to-bang experience getting there…You want to feel worn-in and seasoned and up-to-speed as quickly as you can…You wait for your first patrol, your first contact with the enemy, your first engagement with the local nationals…There was just this huge...

Liz McConaghy “amassed 10 Op Herricks”, deployed three months at a time as part of the Chinook Force... “We were there at the beginning of Op Herrick…when Camp Bastion didn’t even exist… and we were there, pretty much at the end, when we turned the lights off and walked away. Because of that, we saw the whole campaign grow and develop. Lots of mixed emotions throughout the entire journey.” Liz joi...

Ken Benbow Served in the 7th Escort Group in the Atlantic convoys. With no torpedoes, just guns and depth charges to protect Allied merchant ships from U-Boats, they sailed back and forth through ‘No Man’s Land’, 1,500 miles of ocean with no air cover, being “attacked every hour by the Germans”. Age 17, Ken went from working on a farm to Serving in the Royal Navy and his story is at the very heart...

Catapult-Armed Merchant “CAM” ship pilots flew highly secretive one-way missions. David Wright was one of only a handful and their stories are little known. Using rockets and catapults mounted on merchant ships, Hurricane fighter planes were launched to shoot down German planes. With no flight deck to land on, pilots had to bail out seconds before the planes sank into the Atlantic.  We’ll hear two...

Atlantic and Arctic Convoy Veteran, Ron Syson, gives us a gritty account of life as a Merchant Seaman. Very early on, he sailed to Iceland, Greenland and New York, and was alongside when the Normandy caught fire and capsized. He was only 15.  As well as transporting vital supplies across the Atlantic to Britain, Ron braved the Arctic seas in what Churchill described as, “the worst journey in the w...

Winston Churchill once wrote, “... the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-Boat peril”. If The Allies had lost, Britain would have been starved into surrender.  99-year-old John Roberts gives us a fantastic insight into The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest running campaign of WWII. John left the Royal Navy as a Rear Admiral, having joined-up aged 17 in 1938. When...

Paula’s story is about the loss of her husband, Paul Harding, who Served in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets. He joined-up at 18 and was killed in action aged 47, in Basra 2007. We hear about being under attack, fatality and bereavement. If you feel that you might be sensitive to this, you may prefer not to listen. This emotional, difficult story “shows the tenacity and bravery of my t...

Tip Cullen , former Royal Marines Commando tells us about losing 8 of his friends in the very first operation of Op Telic 1. He’s telling this story “...to keep their memory alive” and “...for the families that had to deal with the consequences…” also for “...people to empathise with their sacrifice, or their will to protect what we call freedom…Those people were legends…” “We deployed as a Brigad...

Kirk Bowett Served in The Cheshire Regiment and his deployment to the Middle East began during Op Telic 4, 2004. We hear about his personal experiences of the realities of war, which includes details of injury and loss of limb. If you feel that you might find this challenging, you may prefer not to listen. “I was part of the recce element…in Basra City…the infrastructure had failed, no sanitation…...

Piers Stacey , aged 17, joined The Corps, “…six days after the Twin Towers were hit…” Joining 42 Commando late 2002, “...we all went into pre-deployment training for the build-up..it was pretty intense, pretty rapid for a fresh faced 18 year old…” In Kuwait, “...we landed in the desert…nothing there…over time, defences went up, sandbag walls…” and acclimatisation training, “...we kept our phys up...

Neville Johnson left South Africa and joined the British Army in 2003. After basic training, he joined the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers on a cease-fire tour in Belfast, “Those first couple of weeks were a big eye opener for me, definitely paved the way for future operations…” Neville deployed to Basra in 2005 and 2006, duties including night and daytime patrols, working with special...

We meet Sarah Davis , Army Air Corps Ground Crew, one of the pioneering women deployed to the frontline during Op Telic 1. Having joined-up in 1999, a time when the Armed Forces was going through changes - evolving in terms of equality and a time that would mark the start of several years of military campaigns. We hear about getting ready to go, “I was kind of craving…doing my bit for Queen and Co...

This is Pat Patterson’s story. A Royal Marine Aircrewman with 845 Naval Air Squadron flying Sea King helicopters aka ‘Junglies’, and his wife also served during the war. Having looked back through his helicopter logbook, he shares with us his experiences of Op Telic 1, as well as his subsequent tours. We hear about the scale of the operation as well as operational complexities specific to helicopt...

We hear from Andy Merry, 40 Commando, who Served during Op Telic and whose mum marched in the anti-war protests. Andy was first in to the Al-Faw Peninsula with the US Navy SEALs to capture strategic targets.  This is his personal account of his experiences and he talks about the realities of war, which includes details of injury and death.  If you feel that you might find this challenging, you may...

“They…took my husband through our house at gunpoint searching for 'the enemy', as they called them.” Falkland Islander, Carol Phillips, had 3 small children in 1982, “My first thought was…'Are they going to…machine gun us all down?’” The task force had 8,000 miles to sail, “Perhaps we would all be dead by the time they got here?…My Dad…kept saying, 'Don't let them see you&...

“'I'm not going to lose my life…here'…I could just see a picture of my wife and my two boys in my mind thinking, 'No, I'm gonna get out.' That was my motivation.”  Chris Howe was deep down inside HMS Coventry, D118, “…a dull thud…followed by extreme heat…a flash and a fireball whipping around the Operations Room…we'd been hit…next thing I knew…I'm coming rou...

“I would happily go to sea with them all over again, cracking bunch of guys, led by a cracking man.” We hear from Mick Dilucia, of HMS Coventry Flight, Coventry’s helicopter team. “The mood was fairly relaxed heading south… none of us believed it was ever going to happen…then Sandy Woodward briefed us… 'Look around amongst us because we might not all go home together…'”  Mick was on the...

What was a submarine doing in a war to retake The Falkland Islands? “...the ability to land and recover Special Forces…SAS and SBS, was key.” We hear the fascinating and poignant story of HMS Onyx, the only diesel-electric boat that Served during the war. Submariner, Steve Hussey, was there and shares his unique insight, from beneath the waves, “None of this is done in daylight…surveillance takes...