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Five years ago today - Katie Melua performs for British troops in Afghanistan [Full concert]
Recording of the singer performing an intimate acoustic concert for British troops serving at a remote base in Afghanistan. Melua played for soldiers from 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment based at Forward Operating Base Shawqat in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand Province. The night-time concert was held in an engineering tent at the camp's vehicle park on 21 February 2013.
Fijian soldiers serving in #Afghanistan perform a traditional song in tribute to their battalion, The Scots Guards. The troops were deployed to Forward Operating Base ‘Ouellette’ in the Upper Gereshk Valley of #Helmand Province in 2013 as part of 4th Mechanized Brigade – and the re-worked English version of the Fijian song includes lyrics praising ‘The Scots Guards Battalion fighting by your side’.
(Recorded 13 February 2013 at FOB Ouellette in the Upper Gereshk Valley of Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Picture credit: Sergeant (then Corporal) Mike O’Neill RLC.)
The Sussex town stood still to remember Private Sidney Godley (4th Royal Fusiliers, 3rd Division), the first soldier to receive a Victoria Cross during the First World War. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles joined members of Private Godley's extended family at the unveiling of the commemorative paving stone in front of the town's war memorial, exactly 100 years to the day that the soldier took part in the Battle of Mons in Belgium. (Recording made 23 August 2014)
Musician Emma Sanders of the Royal Artillery sounds The Last Post during a special 'Lights Out' vigil held at the Memorial Church of St George in Bulford Camp, Wiltshire. Around 200 troops from the British Army's 3rd (UK) Division filled the Garrison church for the service to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. The event had added poignancy as 3rd Division deployed to France in August 1914 as part of the British Expeditionary Force, just ten days after the declaration of war with Germany. The Wiltshire-based formation fought at the first engagement between British and German troops at the Battle of Mons in Belgium on 23 August, a battle in which two soldiers from the Division were awarded the first Victoria Crosses of the Great War. (Recorded 4 August 2014 at Bulford Camp.)
Interview with Lance Corporal Ashley Williams of 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh ahead of his appearance at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The Wiltshire-based soldier has been selected as captain of the Welsh boxing team and will be representing his country in the 49kg light flyweight category. Photo: LCpl Ashley Williams in the military gymnasium at his battalion’s base in Tidworth, Wiltshire (Credit: MOD)
Interview with British Forces radio presenter Hal Stewart at the end of his 'Black Rat Tour' visiting troops from 4th Mechanized Brigade serving in Afghanistan in 2013.
Hal Stewart won a silver award at the New York Festival Radio Awards for his series of one-hour programmes recorded in Helmand Province with personnel from the Catterick-based brigade, nicknamed 'The Black Rats'.
Before returning to his studio in Camp Bastion, he spoke about how the week visiting the more remote British bases in Afghanistan had changed him as a forces broadcaster.
(Interview recorded at Main Operating Base 'Price', near Gereshk on 15 February 2013)
The Band of the Royal Yeomanry perform 'We'll Meet Again' at the village of Périers-sur-le-Dan in Normandy at the end of a parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. (Recorded 7 June 2014)
Recording of the singer Katie Melua performing an intimate acoustic concert for British troops serving at a remote base in Afghanistan. Melua played for soldiers from 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment based at Forward Operating Base Shawqat in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand Province. The night-time concert was held in an engineering tent at the camp's vehicle park on 21 February 2013.
Interview with Corporal Mike O’Neill, a British Army photographer serving in Afghanistan with 4th Mechanized Brigade “The Black Rats”.
This week's 'Task Force Helmand Update' comes from Patrol Base 2, home to Delhi Company 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, where we hear from the Officer Commanding, Major Dave Pack. (Photo credit: Richard Pohle/The Times)
The theme tune to “Karhana Ow Bazgar” (Crops and The Farmer), a Pashtu-language radio soap opera set in rural Helmand Province. The programme is broadcast twice a week on Radio Tamadoon (Radio ‘Civilisation’), a local community radio station available across central Helmand in southern Afghanistan. The show has been compared to the long-running BBC Radio programme “The Archers” and the theme tune is a recognisably ‘Pashtun-ised’ version of the British original. A full Audioboo report on the radio programme can be listened to here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1201787-the-afghan-archers-win-over-helmand-s-farmers?playlist_direction=forward#t=2m59s
A new Afghan radio show produced by British servicemen with agricultural backgrounds is helping Helmand’s farmers to get the best out of their crops. The Pashtu-language soap opera called “Karhana Ow Bazgar” (Crops and The Farmer) is set in rural Helmand Province and has been compared to the long-running BBC Radio programme “The Archers”. The “Afghan Archers” even has a theme tune loosely based on the UK version, recorded with lyrics by a local band in Lashkar Gah. Lieutenant Jo Nicholson, a Royal Navy Reservist and farmer from Buckinghamshire, is serving with Task Force Helmand and describes how the show found its theme.
Troops serving with the Royal Dragoon Guards have spent the past four months working alongside members of the Afghan Police as they help mentor Helmand Province’s growing police force. The majority of the Catterick-based soldiers operate from the Police Mentoring and Advisory Group Headquarters inside Main Operating Base Lashkar Gah. Just a few hundred metres away, the busy Afghan Provincial Police Headquarters is home to a much smaller contingent of Royal Dragoon Guards responsible for mentoring senior police officers and supervising the training at the Helmand’s police academy. The Officer Commanding of the District Advisory Team, Captain Lloyd Walton-Reese, and police mentor Corporal Scott Woodhouse explain their roles.
We speak to Task Force Helmand’s meteorologist and ask him about the chances of snow for the troops serving in southern Afghanistan on Christmas Day. Squadron Leader Stu Cunliffe is our man with the weather charts.
The Black Rats Choir was formed about a fortnight ago by personnel serving in Lashkar Gah to sing at tomorrow evening’s carol concert at the Main Operating Base. The choir meets in the base chapel tent and its members include medics, signallers and staff officers serving in HQ Task Force Helmand fitting in rehearsals between their duties and other operational commitments. ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ is dedicated to our friends and families at our home base in Catterick, North Yorkshire.
BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James spoke to us at the end of his first day visiting The Black Rats at Main Operating Base Lashkar Gah - and explained why he had brought his Drivetime show to Helmand Province.
We’re at the official handover of Checkpoint ‘Tapa Dagian’, a new Afghan National Army (ANA) security post on Highway 1, just outside the town of Gereshk. The mud-built structure is one of the first in a series of “Orthodox Build Earthworks” - designed to be durable while blending in with the local environment. Captain Cath Carter, the ‘Stabilisation and Plans’ officer for HQ Task Force Helmand, explains over a cup of chai.
Military clerks serving with The Black Rats at Main Operating Base Lashkar Gah take a break from work with an informal Beach Volleyball tournament. Major Gordon Fraser from the Adjutant General’s Corps explains. ¡Olé!
A civilian serving in Helmand Province with 4th Mechanized Brigade is following in her father’s footsteps – having deployed to Afghanistan with the same unit that he served with at the Battle of El Alamein exactly 70 years ago. Fee Cameron is a Ministry of Defence civil servant working as an advisor to the Commander of 4th Mechanized Brigade, known as ‘The Black Rats’; her father was a sergeant in the Royal Engineers who fought alongside the Brigade at El Alamein in 1942.
Captain John Elms of 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment (1 Mercian) gives a walking tour around Forward Operating Base Shawqat as the Battalion settles in at the start of their latest tour of Afghanistan. 1 Mercian have taken over Transition Support Unit Nad-e Ali, with responsibility for overseeing the transfer of security duties to the Afghan Army and police in the southern district of Helmand Province. The Battalion was last in Helmand Province in 2010. This time they are based in a camp built within the crumbling walls of an old fort first occupied by British troops during the The Second Anglo-Afghan War. For further updates from 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment in Forward Operating Base Shawqat visit their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/1Mercian
A British Army officer serving in Afghanistan has completed the Liverpool Marathon ‘remotely’ this morning (Sunday 14 October) in support of an injured friend.
Captain Greg Hill of 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment – part of 4th Mechanized Brigade, known as ‘The Black Rats’ – completed the marathon distance in 4 hours 34 minutes on a treadmill in the gymnasium at Main Operating Base Lashkar Gah.
Greg, who deployed to Helmand Province last month as a night watchkeeper within HQ Task Force Helmand, ran the marathon in aid of two charities – ‘theReMarkableSwift’ trust raising money for Mark Swift, a friend who was critically injured in a mountain bike accident in Cumbria last May, and the Great North Air Ambulance Service who came to his rescue.
For more information on ‘theReMarkableSwift’ trust visit the website: https://sites.google.com/a/bakstad.co.uk/theremarkableswift
The Helmand Police band performs at a function in Main Operating Base Lashkar Gah on Tuesday night to mark the departure of 12th Mechanized Brigade at the end of Operation Herrick 16.
Interview with Brigadier Bob Bruce, Commander of 4th Mechanized Brigade (The Black Rats), recorded in Lashkar Gah this morning as his troops take over as Task Force Helmand.
Interview with Private Graham Mottram & Lance Corporal Michael Griffiths of 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment, speaking from Camp Bastion at the start of their 6 month tour in Helmand Province.
Morning Call to Prayer as heard from sangar post at Main Operating Base Lashkar Gah - 0445hrs Thursday 27 September 2012