Task Force Helmand

In 2006 Doug Beattie was awarded the Military Cross for his part in recapturing the southern Afghan town of Garmsir from the Taliban. He was due to retire from the British Army in 2007, before his CO made a desperate plea: stay on for one more tour. Torn between his love for his wife and children and an overwhelming sense of duty towards his other family, the Royal Irish Regiment, Doug chose the military and in March 2008 he returned to Afghanistan. The story of what he endured there makes for gripping reading. Within days of being back in Helmand Province, the 42-year-old captain wondered what he had let himself in for. If 2006 had been hellish, then 2008 was off the scale. For six months Beattie led British and Afghan troops into repeated, exhausting battles with the Taliban. He took part in 50 major contacts, and innumerable smaller skirmishes, and he describes in detail the action-packed reality of combat on the front line.