Scott
09-21-2009, 09:38 AM
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Tragic ... Corporal Tom Gaden, Lance Corporal Paul Upton and Rifleman Jamie Gunn
THREE heroes died on one of Afghanistan's bloodiest days after a massive makeshift bomb left a crater so big it dwarfed a 6ft soldier.
Lance Corporal Paul Upton, 31, Corporal Tom Gaden, 24, and Rifleman Jamie Gunn, 21, of 1st Battalion The Rifles, were in a WMIK Land Rover when the home-made device — one of the most powerful seen in the conflict — detonated.
All the men died of their severe wounds on February 25 when the improvised explosive (IED) "blew the road up through the vehicle", a coroner was told.
The three members of the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) were on escort patrol in Helmand's Gereshk district when a watching Taliban fighter triggered the device from a wire some 475 metres away.
Insurgents had packed explosives into a culvert pipe beneath the new metal road — intended to stop it becoming flooded — causing the largest blast any of the witnesses had seen.
Unlawful
No vehicle would have withstood the force of the device, experts said.
Wiltshire and Swindon coroner David Ridley recorded verdicts of unlawful killing on L/Cpl Upton, from West Looe, Cornwall, Cpl Gaden, from Taunton, Somerset, and Rifleman Gunn, from Monmouth, South Wales.
Mr Ridley told the hearing in Trowbridge Town Hall that the insurgent would be charged with murder if caught.
Capt Richard Camp said the convoy was just four kilometres from Forward Operating Base (FOB) Price — where he and Cpt Thomas Rose were due at a commander's conference — when the device detonated.
He said: "It was the largest explosion I've heard. We stopped. I asked Cpl (Lee) Southwick what it was - it could have been anything.
"He told me it was our vehicle. He sent a contact report. I asked the driver to turn around so I could survey the scene.
"There was a rock off to the side with spray paint on it. In my Iraq days that was a good indicator it didn't sit right.
"I ensured that was clear. Then I went forward with Cpl Southwick to assess the casualties.
"The vehicle was obliterated. Nearest to me the engine block was upturned.
"Forward of that was the main body upside down. Then forward of that was the gun turret upturned. Three big bits and a number of small bits."
The crater was bigger than the width of the road, the coroner pointed out.
Capt Camp, who is 6ft 1in, added: "When I stood in the crater it was deeper than I am tall."
The crater officially measured 58ft wide, 16ft in breadth, and 4ft deep. But that figure did not take into account the piled-up debris on the sides, which would have effectively made the crater taller than Capt Camp.
The main charge consisted of 551lb of home-made explosive, whereas the average bomb was just 44 to 55lb.
he coroner said: "To put that in context - that's by far that largest amount of home-made explosive I've come across.
"That explains the devastation. It's clearly my view that they didn't stand a chance."
The men, who were thrown from the vehicle, all died of multiple injuries.
In his closing remarks the coroner said the use of the long-distance wire was a "cold, callous and arguably cowardly way" to take lives.
He said he had no doubt that unlawful killing was the right verdict.
On the same day Royal Marine Michael Laski, 21, from 45 Commando, died in hospital in Britain from wounds sustained fighting the Taliban two days earlier.
Source - TheSun.co.uk
Tragic ... Corporal Tom Gaden, Lance Corporal Paul Upton and Rifleman Jamie Gunn
THREE heroes died on one of Afghanistan's bloodiest days after a massive makeshift bomb left a crater so big it dwarfed a 6ft soldier.
Lance Corporal Paul Upton, 31, Corporal Tom Gaden, 24, and Rifleman Jamie Gunn, 21, of 1st Battalion The Rifles, were in a WMIK Land Rover when the home-made device — one of the most powerful seen in the conflict — detonated.
All the men died of their severe wounds on February 25 when the improvised explosive (IED) "blew the road up through the vehicle", a coroner was told.
The three members of the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) were on escort patrol in Helmand's Gereshk district when a watching Taliban fighter triggered the device from a wire some 475 metres away.
Insurgents had packed explosives into a culvert pipe beneath the new metal road — intended to stop it becoming flooded — causing the largest blast any of the witnesses had seen.
Unlawful
No vehicle would have withstood the force of the device, experts said.
Wiltshire and Swindon coroner David Ridley recorded verdicts of unlawful killing on L/Cpl Upton, from West Looe, Cornwall, Cpl Gaden, from Taunton, Somerset, and Rifleman Gunn, from Monmouth, South Wales.
Mr Ridley told the hearing in Trowbridge Town Hall that the insurgent would be charged with murder if caught.
Capt Richard Camp said the convoy was just four kilometres from Forward Operating Base (FOB) Price — where he and Cpt Thomas Rose were due at a commander's conference — when the device detonated.
He said: "It was the largest explosion I've heard. We stopped. I asked Cpl (Lee) Southwick what it was - it could have been anything.
"He told me it was our vehicle. He sent a contact report. I asked the driver to turn around so I could survey the scene.
"There was a rock off to the side with spray paint on it. In my Iraq days that was a good indicator it didn't sit right.
"I ensured that was clear. Then I went forward with Cpl Southwick to assess the casualties.
"The vehicle was obliterated. Nearest to me the engine block was upturned.
"Forward of that was the main body upside down. Then forward of that was the gun turret upturned. Three big bits and a number of small bits."
The crater was bigger than the width of the road, the coroner pointed out.
Capt Camp, who is 6ft 1in, added: "When I stood in the crater it was deeper than I am tall."
The crater officially measured 58ft wide, 16ft in breadth, and 4ft deep. But that figure did not take into account the piled-up debris on the sides, which would have effectively made the crater taller than Capt Camp.
The main charge consisted of 551lb of home-made explosive, whereas the average bomb was just 44 to 55lb.
he coroner said: "To put that in context - that's by far that largest amount of home-made explosive I've come across.
"That explains the devastation. It's clearly my view that they didn't stand a chance."
The men, who were thrown from the vehicle, all died of multiple injuries.
In his closing remarks the coroner said the use of the long-distance wire was a "cold, callous and arguably cowardly way" to take lives.
He said he had no doubt that unlawful killing was the right verdict.
On the same day Royal Marine Michael Laski, 21, from 45 Commando, died in hospital in Britain from wounds sustained fighting the Taliban two days earlier.
Source - TheSun.co.uk