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Ross Kemp with our troops in warzone


EXCLUSIVE Three young lads were brought to camp. One had lost a leg and arm, another had lost most of his backside, their mate had been blinded in both eyes. I just couldn't hack it. I sat down and cried


By Bob Graham And Lara Gould 06/01/2008



It was the sheer matter of-fact courage of three young soldiers that finally reduced TV hardman Ross Kemp to tears.

Embedded with the British Army in Afghanistan's Helmand Province, he had already seen sights to curdle the blood and had his own bravery put to the test under fire.

But he was overcome as he came face-to-face with three squaddies just after they had been horribly injured.

It wasn't the injuries that unnerved him so much - it was the fact the lads put aside their own suffering to tell him how they felt what they and their comrades endured was not appreciated back home.

Ross, now star of SAS drama Ultimate Force and Ross Kemp On Gangs, says: "Three young lads came into the camp. Their patrol had been hit by a mine.

"One of them had lost his leg and arm, the other had lost most of his backside and his leg and another had been blinded in both eyes.

"They were high on morphine.

But they said they wanted to see me. I was like, 'Why would you want to see me, some idiot off the TV?'

"But amazingly they were able to speak rationally. They talked about the stuff in the Army that pi**es them off, about the ridiculous way they are not appreciated.

"They were fine. But there was me, a 43-year-old grown-up, so emotional I couldn't hack it.

I sat down and had a cigarette with the sergeant, a man who is my age and who understood what the rest of their lives would be like.

"These lads were just happy to be alive, after spending an hour seriously injured and trying to scramble out of a black hole.

"But the sergeant and I knew what the rest of their lives were going to be like - and just sat there and bawled our eyes out. The entire situation made me wonder, because I knew I couldn't handle it the way they had.

"I'm so proud of all the boys out there. It gets me emotional just talking about them. This is a generation that gets knocked all the time - yet those boys are doing a fantastic job."

The incident was the most gruelling moment he endured as cameras followed the ex-EastEnder on two stints in the war-torn country for a Sky One documentary series.

Ross was first embedded with the Royal Anglians - known as the Vikings - last January. He followed the battalion's young recruits for eight weeks of intensive training at Pirbright barracks, Surrey, before flying out to join them in Helmand Province for five weeks.

On only his second day in Afghanistan the Anglians came under fire from Taliban fighters.

"Conditions in Afghanistan are intolerable," he says.

"The heat is stifling and there's the constant threat of snipers, rocket-propelled grenade attacks and land mines.

"During one engagement we were pinned down by enemy fire in open ground with Taliban AK47 bullets so close overhead I could feel the rush of the wind as they whistled by. Bullets fizzed by inches from our heads, hitting the ground on either side of us. It was the most frightening experience of my life. I've never hugged the ground as tightly as I did when that happened.

It's definitely the closest I have ever come to dying. I was so scared.

"What do you do when you're as flat as you can get, face buried in the dirt and sand, wishing you could get lower still and you know that if you move you're going to get fu**ing killed?"

Since British troops began operations in Afghanistan in 2001, 86 soldiers have lost their lives. While Ross was with the Royal Anglians, the battalion suffered nine fatalities including Corporal Darren Bonner, killed by an explosion just metres behind Kemp, and 19-year-old Private Chris Gray - whose death he witnessed.

On his return to the UK Kemp visited the families of some of the fallen squaddies to pay his respects. "I looked at Private Gray on the stretcher as he bled to death, and then into the eyes of his mum as she cried her eyes out," he says, "That is the sort of things that really brings home the effect of war.

"Here was an 18-year-old boy, his bedroom still made up the same as when he left to go to Afghanistan, his pictures still on the wall, his PlayStation still waiting there. But the hardest thing I had to do was to visit the family of Corporal Bonner who died at the end of May. I met his family and saw his dad. This was a strong man, a powerful man, cut to the bone by the loss of his son. Looking into the eyes and into the faces of those people in such terrible pain is what people need to understand.

"People back in Britain should appreciate the young men and women who are out there, fighting on the frontline."

Ross, whose own father saw active service as part of the Anglians in the 1950s, returned to southern Afghanistan for a second tour in late August. During his three weeks there, the battalion suffered further losses as Privates Robert Foster, Aaron McClure and John Thrumble were killed in a friendly-fire incident.

Ross says: "I'd felt for some time the British Tommy, the ordinary soldier, didn't have a voice. I have friends in the Army, mates I'd played rugby with, who were ordinary infantry line soldiers and these were men who didn't have a voice. I wanted to go and find out what an 18-year-old boy feels about being in a war zone in the 21st Century. I was from the same area as a lot of these lads, from Essex and East Anglia. I knew the places these kids had gone to school, I'd queued to get into the same nightclubs. That's why I was in Afghanistan. I wanted to let the people understand what our soldiers are doing for us.

"Were these young kids fighting for Queen and country? Were they fighting for Blair or Brown? Did they understand the political situation in Afghanistan? What did they feel about Muslims?

"I believe every citizen in Britain should be aware of what's going on out there. We are fortunate to live in a country where people can practise whatever religion they wish, travel without being questioned and where women can put on lipstick without running the risk of having their head cut off. We have many freedoms that have been fought for and we should be very thankful we now have people willing to stand up for such rights in Afghanistan.

"These young men are experiencing more enemy fire in six months than most soldiers have faced in 25 years.

"The main thing I took away after speaking to many soldiers is they believe it is possible to defeat the Taliban. And if they think that, then I'm all for it. Let's not get to the stage where we get another humiliating withdrawal as we have in Basra in Iraq" On his return, Ross met Defence Secretary Des Browne, highlighting the appalling conditions squaddies are forced to endure back in the UK, which he described as worse than life in a tough South African jail. He says: "When I approached the MoD about the series I wanted to tell the whole story about these guys. How bad the conditions are. What their houses are like, what their wives feel about them going away, what their children feel. What's it like to be injured?

"When I got back I told Des Browne that while some things are better, living conditions are not good for a single soldier. In Pirbright barracks they are not much different to sleeping conditions in Pollsmoor Prison in South Africa where I spent time filming for my series on gangs.

"It angers me to think there are prisoners in this country sleeping in better beds than some 18 year-oldboy who has just returned from Afghanistan. How can that be right?"

Ross Kemp in Afghanistan begins at 9pm on January 21 on Sky One.

'Bullets fizzed by.. I've never been so scared'

'People at home need to know how brave they are'