Teenage soldier paid ultimate price for selfless Afghan act

Christopher Kershaw, a private in the Yorkshire Regiment 3rd Battalion, had volunteered to take the place of another soldier as the driver of a Warrior armoured vehicle which was blown up just minutes after it left their base on patrol in Helmand Province in March last year.

The youngest of the soldiers to be killed, the 19-year-old from Bradford died alongside Huddersfield soldiers Corporal Jake Hartley, 20, and Privates Anthony Frampton, 20, and Daniel Wilford, 21, and colleagues Sergeant Nigel Coupe, 33, Daniel Wade, 20, from Lancashire and Cheshire.

An inquest into their deaths at Oxford Coroner’s Court yesterday heard the five Yorkshire Regiment soldiers and Sgt Coupe, a member of 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, were killed or knocked unconscious by the huge blast, and unaware of what happened afterwards.

The Warrior, known by the call sign K12, was patrolling with another vehicle when it was hit by an improvised explosive device about 25 miles north of the capital of Helmand, Lashkar Gah.

The force of the explosion under the right side of the vehicle flipped it upside down and blew off its gun turret.

Soldiers in the vehicle travelling behind described seeing an enormous fireball and flames so fierce it was impossible to put them out, as ammunition on board ignited and went off in the heat.

The bombing, the deadliest single enemy attack on UK forces in Afghanistan since 2001, was claimed by the Taliban at the time.

The inquest yesterday heard that the patrol was meant to leave base earlier in the day but was delayed because of a sandstorm.

It eventually left just after 6.30pm, and was blown up just minutes later.

In a statement read to the court, Private Luke Stones, of 3 YORKS, described how Pte Kershaw volunteered to take the place of another soldier who was supposed to be the driver of the Warrior.

He said when it became apparent the other soldier would not return from the shower in time Pte Kershaw offered to take his place. No-one objected to his offer because Pte Kershaw was an experienced driver.

From his position in the vehicle behind, but without a view outside, Pte Stones said the Warrior had not long gone off-road when he felt his vehicle shake due to the explosion.

He got out of the vehicle and saw a “fireball which had flames 100 feet high”.

He said: “I stood staring at the fireball, not really understanding what I was looking at.”

The soldier said his colleagues then returned to his vehicle, and that “had they got closer to the (damaged) vehicle I do not know what they would have done because the fire was so fierce”.

Pte Stones told the hearing: “I know nothing could have been done for the other vehicle and I believe everyone else did too.”

His view was shared by Warrant Officer Second Class Eric Whitehouse, who described hearing a series of explosions inside the Warrior as he tried in vain to put out the blaze using fire extinguishers.

He said: “It was apparent that anyone involved in the explosion could not have survived the blast.”

The inquest heard that an intelligence briefing was given to troops due to go on the patrol earlier that day, which had included Pte Kershaw despite his late addition to the patrol.

Intelligence officer Staff Sergeant Scot Cooper told the inquest the IED threat at that time in the area was low.

The tragedy was, and remains, the biggest single loss of life for British forces in Afghanistan since an RAF Nimrod crash killed 14 people in September 2006.

The two-day inquest, which is due to conclude today, comes in the same week that the Ministry of Defence announced the death of the 445th UK service member to have lost his life since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001.

Officer defends patrol: Page 5.