'Bullets Were Winging Everywhere'

The Taliban fire had been relentless on A Company, the Mercian Regiment, during a fierce night-time battle last September: rocket-propelled grenades, bullets, mortars and even fireworks that whizzed round like catherine wheels. The soldiers had been ambushed, blindsided and in the darkness and confusion lost at least three of their men - it was unclear whether they were dead or alive, whether the Taliban had them or whether they were stranded in no man's land, the area known to the military as the killing zone.

Lieutenant Simon Cupples, 25, told the Guardian: "Suddenly we were in the enemy's killing area. They don't call it a killing area for nothing. You immediately try to extract out ... the enemy was on a corner and firing in two directions, interlocking, firing a machine gun. The bullets were absolutely winging everywhere.

"I just didn't know how many casualties we had. [Private Luke] Cole I could tell [was a casualty] because of his voice. There was one lying face down and I could hear him breathing and gurgling. Cole thinks the Taliban tried to grab Private Johan Botha. He said he could see bodies moving around. I think the Taliban started to move Botha. He is a very big bloke and it would be a lot of effort to try to drag somebody of his size. You need to get these casualties out as quickly as you can because you are looking at things like blood loss."

For hours, Cupples and his men tried to retrieve Botha but couldn't locate him. Sergeant Craig Brelsford - known as Brels - had not been caught up in the original firefight and was asked to take his platoon to find the private's body. His friend, Sgt Michael Lockett [who is also to receive the MC] remembered: "I said to him, 'Brelsy, mate, Botha is up there, can you bring the big man back for me?' He's like, 'Don't worry, we'll get him.'"

Three or four minutes later - in the midst of heavy fire - the shout went out, "Man down, man down", over the radio. Brelsford had been shot in the neck.

Brelsford was evacuated from the battlefield. Lockett remembers being devastated when hearing he was dead but "for him to die the way he did, doing what he loved, is good. "But it seems that it was me that ushered him forward and told him where to go. It rips you apart. It's a feeling I can't describe."

Brelsford was posthumously awarded the MC.