“I was a gunner on a ‘combat vehicle reconnaissance tracked’ (CVRt) Scimitar vehicle during Herrick 6 Helmand province.

Up to this point in my career I hadn’t been in a live contact, so being in Helmand I knew my time would come.

It came.

During an operation called Op Silicon my half of the platoon had been held in reserve during a battle group clearance of an area of the green zone north of Gereshk. This was 2007 so Terrys SOP was still small arms fire and RPG’s.

We was called Forward to overwatch a patch of open ground in the green zone between areas of dense vegetation. One of our rifle companies was advancing with heavy fighting and pushing the enemy towards this open area… our 4 vehicles were set in overwatch.

We was there for approx 40 mins before they started appearing…. In ones and twos at first. Little figures running right to left in the open. We could not miss. The Rarden 30mm cannon we operated was lethal, with a x20 zoom and HE loaded 30mm rounds. It was a case of put the mark on the Muj, targets will fall when hit.

In 20 mins I went from no confirmed kills to eight in x20 magnification, 30mm high definition goodness.

Best job I ever had.”
-Anonymous LCpl. British Army. 1st Battalion. The Royal Anglian Regiment. ‘The Vikings’. Afghanistan 2007
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This interview was conducted by Battles and Beers. The British Soldier who sent us this story requested to remain anonymous. Every soldier has a story, and every story deserves to be told.