Warrior vehicles upgraded after blast ‘unlawfully killed’ soldiers

Five members of the Yorkshire Regiment 3rd Battalion, Corporal Jake Hartley, 20, and Privates Anthony Frampton, 20, Daniel Wade, 20, Christopher Kershaw, 19, and Daniel Wilford, 21, died alongside Sergeant Nigel Coupe, 33, of 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, when an improvised explosive device detonated under their Warrior in Helmand Province on March 6 2012.

The armoured vehicle was patrolling with another Warrior when it was blown up about 25 miles north of the capital of Helmand, Lashkar Gah, in the biggest single loss of life for British forces in Afghanistan since an RAF Nimrod crash killed 14 people in 2006.

The force flipped it over and “flicked off” its turret and caused a fire which ignited ammunition.

The men inside are thought to have been either killed or knocked unconscious by the initial blast.

An inquest at Oxford Coroner’s Court heard no other vehicle of its type was designed to withstand such an explosion but improvements had been made, which included better armour, burst resistant fuel tanks, better emergency exits and improved fire detection and protection systems.

The court was told eight new fuel tanks have been fitted so far to the vehicles being used in Afghanistan, with 21 more due for an upgrade.

The coroner said “significant steps” had been completed and there was no need for a formal report under his powers because he was satisfied the areas of concern had been addressed.

Giving a narrative verdict, Oxfordshire coroner Darren Salter said: “This of course is a tragic loss of these six soldiers and these young lives. At least it is very clear from the evidence of the two pathologists and the evidence of those who witnessed the strike that they did not suffer.

“It also follows that there was nothing that their comrades could have done to rescue or save them.”

The soldiers all died of blast injuries. Father-of-two Sgt Coupe, from Lytham St Annes, Lancashire; Pte Wade, from Warrington, Cheshire, who was about to become a father; Cpl Hartley, from Dewsbury, Pte Frampton and Pte Wilford, both from Huddersfield, and Pte Kershaw, from Bradford, had all been in Afghanistan for only a few weeks when they were killed.

Earlier in the hearing the inquest had heard Pte Kershaw, the youngest, had volunteered to take the place of another soldier on the patrol at the last minute.

His mother Monica Kershaw said after the hearing: “This process has been one which a mother never wishes to have to undertake. I feel like I have been involved in a nightmare, from which I can never awake, leaving me emotionally drained.

“From the information we have heard at the inquest, it was a pure quirk of fate that Chris should have been kitted up and got into a patrol for which he was not intended.

“I am still struggling with this – but how like him to be ready to do his duty for his fellow soldiers. How proud I am of his call to duty.”

Cpl Hartley’s mother, Natalie Taylor, spoke of her pride in her son but hit out at politicians. “To lose your child is as painful as losing your own life.

“Our servicemen and women will continue to die as long as politicians who rule our lives value money more than the lives of our sons and daughters.”

Pte Wade’s fiancée, Emma Hickman, said the inquest had been a difficult process but was an important step in finding out what happened on March last year.