WORCESTER News reporter Lucy Tatchell was caught up in a terrifying Taliban ambush as she joined local soldiers on the front line in Afghanistan. Here is her account of the 45-minute fire fight.

AS enemy fire whizzed over the top of the armoured Vector we were in and pinged off the door just centimetres from my head, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters) and the Afghan National Army sprung into action.

Shouts from Worcestershire soldier Neil Cresswell of “has anyone seen the enemy?” echoed around the field where we had been ambushed.

The firing point was quickly identified 150metres away and over 45 minutes the Mercians fired 256 grenades, 400 rounds from their machine guns, two rocket-propelled grenades and called in air support.

Within minutes of finishing the fight and defeating the enemy we pushed forward under a screen of protective smoke only to find ourselves under attack once more.

This time from four Taliban in a car who opened fire on the lead convoy vehicle, an unarmoured Afghan army Ford Ranger, piercing the body work with numerous bullets from their AK47 guns.

The Afghan army soldiers immediately returned fire and were lucky to escape such close contact unharmed.

It’s believed these terrorists were speeding ahead to lay a home-made bomb in our tracks and open fire once it had been detonated.

The day started at 6.30am as call sign Amber 93, a small team of Mercians headed by patrol commander Captain Tom Kennedy, from Blackwatch 3rd Scots, left Camp Price in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.

Our objective was a reconnaissance trip into land unknown to foreign forces – the last time it was patrolled was by the Danish army a year ago.

As we weaved through recently harvested poppy fields children waved at us and the threat of attack seemed relatively slim.

But as we got further towards the ‘green zone’ (a lush area of vegetation boarding the Helmand River) the atmosphere changed.

Locals no longer waved at the convoy. Instead, they scooped up their children and rushed inside. Farmers moved their goats away from the direction we were heading and compounds appeared empty.

It soon became clear the Taliban were in the area, confirmed by a local man who risked his life to tell the Afghan army commander the insurgents were in a nearby compound.

The mood inside the Vector became one of intense concentration as the Mercian top gunners scanned the area for suspicious activity.

At 9.45am the Taliban fired their first shots at our convoy. We ran for cover and two Taliban firing positions were identified 150metres away.

The Mercians and Afghan army returned fire. From our Vector, Capt Cresswell, aged 42, of Stoke Bliss, near Tenbury Wells, and Private Chris Roberts unleashed a barrage of machine gun fire on the Taliban.

Through the windscreen I could see an Afghan soldier preparing to fire a rocket propelled grenade.

“There is quite a bit of fire coming in,” shouted Capt Cresswell. “They are firing from the green zone so it is difficult to see, we can pick up the muzzle flash from the enemy but we cannot identify the individuals.”

Eventually a Harrier jet flew low and fast over the area, called a Show of Strength, and the Taliban stopped firing.

We moved away from our position under a cloud of smoke and the atmosphere in our Vector became jovial.

Unfortunately, this quickly changed when we were ambushed a second time. This was more a ‘Scoot and Shoot’ but acted as a stark reminder of how suddenly the situation can change.

The next day Mercian troops were on a similar patrol in a different area and tragically an Afghan soldier was killed when the convoy drove over an explosive device.